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1. Legal/policy framework for the functioning and development of youth organisations

2. Public financial support

3. Initiatives to increase the diversity of participants

Legal/policy framework for the functioning and development of youth organisations

Legally youth organisations work like any other NGOs according to the (new) Civil Code (No. 89/2012 Sb.). There are no specific legal forms for youth organisations.

Until recently, their work was supported by the Youth Strategy for years 2014-2020 (Koncepce podpory mládeže na období 2014-2020, Governmental Decree no. 342 of 12 May 2014) approved by the Government (more information in Chapters 1.3 and 1.1).

Public financial support

At the national level, youth organisations receive financial support mainly through the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports. In specific cases, they are supported by other ministries and public bodies. 

Funding framework 2017-2020 for work with Children and Youth was provided by the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports. In the recent years funding is guided by general principles approved by the government and specific calls follow the logic of previous funding framework.

The support focuses on regular and long-term activities determined by the widest range of children and young people and promotes actions and activities which contribute to the improvement, expansion and development activities of various youth organisations and organisations working with children and youth.

For details about the state funding programmes for the youth organisations see Chapter 1.7. 

Also the Erasmus+ Programme provides several activities to fund the youth participatory activities, especially within the KA3 action. 

Funds development in Youth sector 2007-2014 - Project SAFE analysis

An analysis of voluntary work in the Czech Republic by children and youth associations in free time was made by a collective of authors under the guidance of the Czech Council of Children and Youth. It shows in detailed numbers that 'development of public support for leisure activities of children and youth lags much behind the development of macroeconomic data.' The Analysis covers the period from 2007-2014.

The most visible lag is in the development of support from the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports (MEYS, state budget). The support from the MEYS and other ministries has been very unstable in the years after the economic crisis and has had a tendency to decrease, both in current and real prices. Regional and local budgets do not compensate fully for the decrease. Regional budgets also show considerable instability according to the political and economic situation in those Regions.   

EU Action programmes:

The Czech Republic is fully involved in the European programme Erasmus+ and its Youth Chapter. In the Financial period 2007-2013 this was similarly the case with Youth in Action Programme. 

EU Structural Funds:

No special category recognising Youth projects within the Structural Funds of EU has been created thus no data on EU funded Youth projects are collected.

However, there could be applications from issue-oriented projects with youth as a target group, e.g. on youth employment, education matters etc.

Initiatives to increase the diversity of participants

There are no specific national or large-scale initiatives aiming to increase the diversity of young people participating in youth organisations. However, the inclusion of various subgroups such as Young Roma or Young people with a foreign or migrant background is politically promoted. However, the use of state subsidies is only possible within the existing schemes.