New cooperation deal to promote youth reintegration  

The State Probation Service of Armenia's Ministry of Justice has signed a memorandum of understanding with the Federation of Youth Clubs to promote the reintegration of young people and minors who served time in penitentiaries.

The deal, concluded by and between Gevorg Petrosyan, the head of the Service, and Atom Mkhitaryan, the Federation’s president, is aimed also at preventing juvenile crimes and boosting cultural, sporting and educational programs to promote a disciplined behavior.

“This is the first memorandum of understanding being signed with an active youth organization in Armenia as part of our activities towards boosting cooperation. We have great expectations from the Federation of Youth Clubs which we know is really an expanded institution with a rich history,” Simonyan said, adding that they are also planning meetings with psychologists and social workers, and active members of the Federation to unfold a more practical discussion over the services for the potential target groups.

The Federation’s president, for his part, hailed the cooperation with the Service, praising particularly the large-scale educational, cultural, environmental and cognitive programs.

“Our desire is to attract an active youth engagement in the decision-making. Their role in our society is big and extremely important. Through methods of non-formal education, we have offered dozens and hundreds of young people an opportunity of self-education to develop the necessary capacities in everyday life. This kind of cooperation will be certainly be a novelty for us. We find that we have the corrsponding team to enable beneficiaries of the Probation Service to really demonstrate a disciplined behavior, developing their legal consciousness,” he said.

Both sides agreed that the cooperation will promote also public relations and a dialogue, assisting at the same time in the efforts towards preventing more crimes among the young people . The Federation proposed creating a joint working group to facilitate the exchange of beneficiary data and to address the routine tasks. 

As part of the cooperation deal, the Fedation will also promote the young beneficiaries’ engagement in its youth programs and campaigns, environmental and other acitivities, and volunteering projects (organized both locally and internationally), as well as language club and youth courses.