Our work is structured around the importance of self-initiation, partnering, Learning, cost efficiency, sustainability and innovating in delivery.

Self-initiation:

We help young people come to new understandings of themselves and their relationships. We expect more, putting youth in the driver’s seat and respecting their voice and contribution. In this way, they come to recognize their talents and develop confidence and new skills for future success
We believe that everyone, whatever their starting point in life, can make progress through learning – it is just about providing the right support.
In practical terms that means:

• Inspiring motivation; building confidence and self-esteem
• Discovering their ability to succeed
• Re-engagement with education, training or employment

Working in partnership

We are not alone, we cannot be all things to all people, but by collaborating and working with partnership organizations we can extend our effectiveness. In this way, and without duplicating existing programmes, we have greater flexibility to meet the needs of young people, at different points in their lives. It also means we can better address those needs specific to locality.
Our wide-ranging partners include the Government and local authorities, International and regional youth organizations, grassroots organizations, Private sector institutions, youth movements, groups and unions. Our programmes areas are consistent with the aims of the national strategies, international development agendas and above all; the Youth identified needs.

Innovating

With this in mind, we strive to avoid a 'one size fits all’ approach to the development and engagement of young people. Instead, we engage with them to develop tailored services that are carefully adapted to individual and local needs, thus ensuring that they are more user-focused and effective.

We Learn

We passionately believe that young people have a lot to offer. Yes! WE LEARN FORM THEM! Their ideas will make our work better, and we thus create tools and platforms to enable them to contribute to our work design and delivery. By involving them from the beginning, we can ensure that the support that we provide them successfully addresses their changing needs in an ever-improving process.

We spend less, and get higher returns

We spend less for more results, our admin expenses are at the minimum, we don’t like fancy offices, a normal PC is fine, a simple desk is perfect, and our volunteers are doing a great job; the only luxury we have is our great working environment and team. We rather invest our money directly in youth interventions… Less money and higher returns, that simple!

Sustainability

We don’t look only at the surface. Since we are making the effort; we make sure that we address the root problems, if it means a bottom-up approach; we go for grassroots and work from there. If it means an up-down approach, we don’t hesitate to annoy decision makers; we are pretty good in that!
Taking youth issues seriously, responsibly and deeply means looking for sustainable actions, and only sustainable actions.PUY AREAS OF INTERVENTION

- Media and Advocacy
PYU is not only a service provider, it also plays an important role to influence, mainstream, and advocate youth interests among the official decision making centers, and the public. PYU with its strong volunteers’ base, and partners’ network, has executed advocacy campaigns on education and labor market issues, civil freedoms and human rights, political and public participation of youth and women, and many other issues concerning the youth and women inclusiveness. For this purpose PYU established in 2007 the first community radio in Palestine (Shabab FM), lead and managed by the youth themselves. PYU is a member and board member of many local and regional networks and institutions, noticeably the new formed supreme council for youth and sport, board member of PNGO (the Palestinian NGOs network), Euro-Med network, the Anna-Lindh network for youth, and the Arab Federation for Youth and Environment (an arm of The League of Arab States).

- Youth Engagement and Capacity building
While PYU is working toward an enabling environment for youth to participate, it works in parallel to develop the capabilities of youth to play their expected role in the society and public life. Over 20 years of PYU investing in youth development, thousands of youth and young women have benefited (from) and participated in the capacity building programs on Democracy & Human Rights, political participation, career development, business development and entrepreneurship, life skills and many other areas.
Noticeable partners and donors in this field are Olof Palme International Center, COSPE-Italy, UNDP, EU, Ministry of culture, Ministry of Education, Ministry of Environment, and many others.

- Economic empowerment and poverty alleviation
PYU believes that youth should be the most productive element of the society, therefore; PYU has invested in developing youth capabilities and opportunities in the Palestinian labor market by providing the knowledge, skills and developing the attitudes toward better participation in the labor market, this includes the self-employment as a career option through promoting and educating entrepreneurship. Over the last 4 years, PYU helped to create around 600 job opportunities for young men and women from poor families, around 200 small enterprises were created, and thousands hours of training in career skills have been conducted. PYU will continue to work on empowering youth with tools and resources that enable them to fulfill their ambitions and the ambitions of their families, by providing necessary income resources to accomplish the desired level of livelihood.

- Community service and volunteering
PYU utilized the concept of voluntary work and community service to enrich the experiences of the youth and promote the social responsibility among them. The hundreds of summer camps and community service campaigns are examples of this work.

- Culture, art, and heritage
“A nation without history is a nation without future” PYU believes that it is the responsibility of everyone to save and promote the authentic values of the Palestinian society and the humanity as whole. Therefore, PYU have supported youth groups to establish Music bands, Theater bands, and dance groups and provided them with training and uniforms, helped in organizing concerts for those underscored talents. On the same time, PYU implemented several programs for renovating archaeological sites and promoting alternative tourism in the Palestinian areas. Publications and information dissemination is also a part of the efforts PYU is making in this area.