In January 2017 Brave Phone started with the implementation of the two year project Alternative Ways to Address Youth (AWAY), funded by the European Union. Main project activities include the youth who actively participate as members of the Child Advisory Board (CAB). In Croatia, the CAB consists of seven girls, led by Dajana Jurincic, mag. soc. paed. and Anamarija Vuic, mag. psych. Our first CAB meeting was held on October 29, 2017 at the Institution for Education of Children and Juveniles – Dugave. What was happening at the meeting and how did it go, you can read in the rest of the text, written by our CAB members.

Before starting with the meetings, we had individual interviews during which Dajana and Anamarija introduced us to the project and its goals. We were all excited about participating in the project and Child Advisory Board meetings. During our first meeting, we used coloring markers and glitter to personalize materials they gave us. One of the first topics during the first meeting was setting the rules so we came up with our own rules and agreed upon following those rules through all the meetings. We also came up with our group name – there were different suggestions, but in the end we agreed on calling our group “Šefice / The Female Bosses”. We also came up with our group greeting.

We were also talking about ideas on how the meetings would look like – that every time we would have something to eat and also that we would visit different institutions. During the first meeting we also played some games – to become closer to one another, bond, have fun and hang out. We also laughed a lot! We all felt very comfortable during the meeting, we accepted one another just the way we are and we like how we can be honest to each other.

Child Advisory Board is one of the activites of the project Alternative Ways to Address Youth (AWAY). Here you can read the latest news about the project.