Young Folks LV

Young Folks LV is the youth organization with the main branch based in Riga, Latvia. The organization was established in 2012; Young Folks LV started as an informal youth group, but since July, 2014, Young Folks has become an official NGO. The main target audience of the organisation are young people aged between 13 and 25 years, but organization also works with children age 4 to 12. The organisation has 20 leaders and 180 participants from 13 to 30 years old, as well as children from 2 to 12 years old, parents and friends; the total number of participants of the youth organisation exceeds 1000 persons. Nowadays, Young Folks has their branches not only in Riga, but also in such cities as Liepaja and Daugavpils. The mission of the organization is to assist the youth in finding their way in life in order to be happy. Leaders from various groups (photographers, artists, volunteers, linguistic enthusiasts, architects, parents, runners, teachers, project group etc.) form the structure of Young Folks. The main methods used in the work with the youth are as follows: children teaching children, travelling around the world, lifelong learning, connecting generations, carrying out projects, organizing events, gaining real life experience. The main activities of youth organization are youth club organization (English, French, Psychology, Literature and others), Young Folks School ( activities for children), social entrepreneurship (Young Folks Business Club, creation of rings "Say It Ring"), art studio "Karton", online magazine "Voice", youth musician platform "Sound of Youth", sport department "Sporta Draugi", media department and working on Erasmus+ (ESC, Youth Exchanges, strategic partnerships), "Jauniešu Plūsma" (Latvian programme) and Riga International Community (English programme), "Urban Folks", "Green Folks". The main idea of Young Folks is that leaders and workers at the youth organization are youngsters themselves, they organize all events, create initiatives and the organization supports them. Thus, all events, projects, platforms, clubs are created by youngsters for youngsters. In such a way youngsters learn self-independence, initiative, support, creative skills, organizational skills, social skills, citizenship skills, volunteering importance, their passion/hobby and in a result become more happy. The structure of Young Folks LV is horizontal hierarchy. The organization management is based on transparent philosophy system, which means every youngster starting from age 15 can become a leader of youth interest club, project, department, if there is an interest, will and need by the youngster. In such a way our structure consists of: - core team (club and department leaders); - clubs (English, French, Psychology, Literature, Business ,Runners club); - departments (Young Folks School, art studio "Karton", sport department " Sporta Draugi", magazine "Voice", Erasmus+ and ESC department, media, "Jauniešu Plūsma (Latvian programme) and Riga International Community (English programme), "Urban Folks" "Green Folks", ring creation "Say It Ring", music department "Sound of Youth" ; - Finance and administration team (accounting and supervision). To this application all our departments are relevant because some of them were created by volunteers themselves and they function up to this day and led by the teams of local youngsters. Newcomers (i.e. volunteers) join a team and start helping with the development of the chosen department or club.