“RESTART GYUMRI” CIVIL-YOUTH CENTRE NGO
“Restart Gyumri” Civil-Youth Centre NGO was founded by 10 students from Gyumri, initiated by Gevorg Ghukasyan, a student of Shirak State University, on June 7, 2019, as a student-civic initiative. In February 2020, it obtained legal status by registering as a NGO.
The goals of the structure are:
The spread of democratic values among the youth of RA regional communities,regional
increasing the level of civic activity of young people, as well as decision-making and
promoting youth participation in policy-making processes.
The tasks of the organization are:
Increase the civic self-awareness and activity level of community youth, to make
educational, scientific, student, artistic, civic and cultural discussions and events, giving
each beneficiary equal opportunities for self-knowledge and development, and thus to
raise young people’s involvement in decision-making and civic processes in
communities and the country.
The organization’s activities are focused on four main areas:
1․ Advocacy for democratic reforms in the Republic of Armenia, the protection of democracy, and the promotion of the direct involvement of young people in these processes.
2․ Advocacy for reforms in the educational system of the Republic of Armenia, with an emphasis on encouraging youth participation in the implementation of these reforms.
3․ Increasing the level of civic awareness and civic engagement of young people in communities through non-formal education and various educational initiatives, while promoting their involvement in decision-making processes at both the community and national levels.
4․ Contributing to the European integration of the Republic of Armenia by making young people direct participants and active stakeholders in this process.
Over the past six years, the organization has worked with approximately 15,000 young people from the regions, implementing around 20 youth, educational, and other programs.
The services of our organization are exclusively free.
During the 6 years of the organization’s activity, it was implemented (and
we are currently implementing:
- Student, educational, scientific, civic and other 500+ events during these 6 years involving around 4,000 young people from the regions
- 40 free clubs of different foreign languages in our office, which during these 6 years about 1100 young people from the region participated
- 6 youth debate clubs
- 4 large camps uniting the youth of the three Northern regions of RA
- 5 long-term Democracy schools on the topics of democracy, human rights and civil activism
- Campaigns for young people of Gyumri, Artik and Amasia communities
- A series of 150+ informative meetings and webinars on international education
- 200+ discussions of fiction and non-fiction books and movies
- Advocacy for positive changes in the RA law on higher education
- Advocacy of reforms in RA higher education, general education and science sectors
- 6 major studies on the problems of RA higher education and their possible solutions
- Research on the evaluation of the effectiveness of distance education
- 20 article contests for students living in RA regions
- A series of 20 free advanced courses in media literacy and critical thinking
- Observation mission within the framework of the “Independent Observer” public alliance
- Consultative and practical support for the work of the Student Council of ShSU
- Advisory and practical support to students of the Board of Trustees of ShSU representatives
- Consultative and practical support for apprentices and students of Shirak region of RA
on education and other issues
-etc.
Since 2019, the organization has implemented about 20 international projects with
the financial support of local partners.
The “Restart Gyumri” Youth and Civic Center has conducted six studies focused on assessing the effectiveness of higher education and the needs of students from the regions.
Our organization is a member of the following networks and platforms:
- Eastern Partnership Civil Society Forum – Armenia National Platform (EaP CSF ANP) – member organization,
- “Independent Observer” Public Alliance – member organization,
- “Restart” Network of Organizations – member organization,
- Gyumri Youth Union – founding member organization.
Our main local partners are:
RA Government
The Ministry of Education, Science, Culture and Sports of the Republic of Armenia
Shirak Province Administration
Gyumri Municipality
“M. Nalbandyan State University” Foundation of Shirak
Ijevan branch of YSU
“Restart” Scientific and Educational Foundation Yerevan, RA
“Restart Ijevan” NGO RA, Ijevan city
“Restart Vanadzor” NGO RA, Vanadzor city
US Embassy in Armenia
Embassy of the EU in Armenia
Gyumri State Drama Theater
KASA Foundation:
Gyumri Youth Palace
Birthright Armenia (Depi Hayk)
Journalists Club Asparez
The A. D. Sakharov Armenian Human Rights Protection Centre
Eurasia Partnership Foundation – Armenia
Armenian Progressive Youth NGO
People in Need Armenia
Gyumri Infotun
Union of Informed Citizens
Independent observer public alliance
Helsinki Citizens’ Assembly Vanadzor
Erasmus+ National Office in Armenia
With the support of our NGO, “Restart Vanadzor” youth initiative was established in
Vanadzor by the participants of our “Restart Armenia – 2” camp , as well as “Lernadaran” youth library was established in the community hall of Lernanck village by the initiative of participants of “Restart Armenia – 3” camp in Lori region.
Also, our organization actively supported the “Restart” scientific and educational foundation to establish “Restart Ijevan” NGO in the city of Ijevan, Tavush marz, involving the active young people of the Tavush region from our camp.
OVER SIX YEARS OF OUR ACTIVITIES WE HAVE WORKED WITH AROUND 14.000+ YOUNG PEOPLE IN SHIRAK, LORI AND TAVUSH REGIONS OF RA.
YOUTH UNION OF GYUMRIThe Youth Union of Gyumri was founded in 2022 by the “Restart Gyumri” Civil Youth Centre NGO with 20 state educational institutions and Student councils of Gyumri. The goal of YUG is the activation of youth in Gyumri and Shirak marz, civil
awareness raising and youth involvement in decision-making processes
promotion.
The mission of YUG is:
● To unite the Student Councils of Gyumri city
● Enable young people to develop their abilities and skills in various fields,
● Motivate young people to be competitive and enterprising
● To increase the cooperation between the youth of Gyumri and youth structures for positive change
● To create a youth-centered, cooperative and creative, innovative and warm environment.
The 4 main areas of activity of YUG are:
In June 2022, “Restart Gyumri” NGO and “YUG” implemented a new membership of the union – a three-day training course for volunteers, resulting in training courses
4 spheres of activity of the union were formed from the participants: environmental,
cultural, educational and entertainment.
Now the member-volunteers of the union, according to the relevant field, carry out training, research, recreational activities, and have active participation in youth initiatives on the whole scale of Shirak Marz, RA. Currently, YUG has around 450
member-volunteers.
The measures of the Union’s sectoral directions in numbers:
➢ Environmental group: About 50 general meetings, events, “Environmental protection and environmentalists” panel discussions, etc.
➢ Cultural group: Around 45 general meetings, events carried out in cooperation with the Department of Culture and Youth Affairs with 300 participants
➢ Entertainment group: About 40 general meetings, events, Mafia Championship,
intellectual games, etc.
➢ Educational group: About 50 general meetings-events, about 15 meetings about international educational programs, more than 10 “Success Story” meetings with successful and famous individuals.
New educational institutions, high schools and colleges join YUG.
Partnerships:
● Department of Culture and Youth Affairs of Gyumri Municipality
● Goodrick John Amateur Astronomy NGO
● Artik Climate Sustainable Development NGO
● Mher Mkrtchyan Museum
● Eastern Partnership
● FLEX and UWC
● ShSU Student Council
etc.
Declaration of the organization's establishment“Restart Gyumri” Civil Youth Centre NGO is a non-governmental organization that shares the values and principles defined by this declaration, and was founded for the purpose of solving the problems outlined below. We consider the following to be apparently true.
• Everyone has a constitutional right to quality education in decent conditions.
• Everyone has the right to form associations about the education process, its conditions and issues that directly or indirectly concern him and through them represent his interests in the best way.
• Universities are organizations providing services on a paid basis in the field of education, which are called to serve the beneficiaries using their services and the overriding interest of developing the intellectual potential of the public with all their property, scientific and technical capabilities, faculty members and administrative apparatus, as well as to provide appropriate conditions and environment for this purpose.
We consider key issues.
Underfunding of the education sector with its negative consequences (lack of grants, disproportionately high fees compared to the income of the population, low salaries of teaching staff, technical undersaturation, etc.).
The partisanship of the administrative apparatus and student councils of universities.
Students’ formal involvement in making decisions on issues that directly concern them, not having a decisive voice in decision-making.
Administrative pressures on students in case of free expression.
Legal arbitrariness.
Lack of equal educational opportunities for persons with disabilities.
University corruption.
The methodological non-modernity of the teaching staff, the inadequacy and unavailability of educational materials and, as a consequence, the low quality of education.
Lack of decent communal conditions.
In order to best realize the above-mentioned rights and solve problems, we form the “Restart Gyumri” student-citizen initiative and declare the following principles for our activity:
The public organization rejects any racial, religious, national, gender, social discrimination.
In a public organization, decisions are made according to democratic values and principles, under conditions of maximum participation and taking into account the opinion of each participant.
The distribution of work among the members of the public organization is done according to abilities, based on the principle of responsibility.
The public organization does not belong to any party, does not get involved in party activities.
Announcements on behalf of the public organization are published on information platforms officially announced by it (website, Facebook page, etc.).
The non-governmental organization is open for cooperation, support of any entity that shares the same values and does not contradict the declared principles.