In the framework of the CB4leisureYwD project, partner organisations came together for a local training visit in Kosovo – a four-day exchange of knowledge, practice and perspectives that took the group from Pristina to Mitrovica, and into some of the most meaningful spaces of inclusive work in the country.

The visit was designed not as a study tour but as a genuine encounter – a chance for participants from different countries to engage directly with organisations, practitioners and individuals who are shaping inclusive practice in Kosovo, and to share their own experiences in return.

Pristina: conversations on accessibility and inclusion

In Pristina, the group met with Team Rijad and visited the Kosovo Disability Forum, where they had the opportunity to speak with Executive Director Bujar Kadriu. The discussions ranged across themes of accessibility, rights and the structural conditions that shape the daily lives of people with disabilities in Kosovo. The group also spent time at the Faculty of Philosophy – Department of Social Work, where conversations with students brought a fresh and forward-looking perspective to the exchange: the next generation of social work professionals engaging directly with the realities and possibilities of inclusive practice.

Mitrovica: learning in action

In Mitrovica, the visit took on a more hands-on character. At Down Syndrome Kosova and their café Bistro x21, the group learned about the organisation’s work and, in particular, about their approach to employment of people with Down syndrome – a powerful example of what genuine economic inclusion can look like in practice.

At the Së Bashku Center, discussions were complemented by something more active: a session of Baskin – adapted basketball designed for mixed groups of players with and without disabilities – facilitated by the Zanandrea team from Italy. Playing alongside the centre’s beneficiaries, participants experienced firsthand what inclusive sport can look and feel like when it is well-designed and well-run.

The group also met with representatives of the Kosovo Boccia Federation, who are actively working to expand access to boccia as both a competitive and recreational sport – promoting participation, accessibility and equal opportunities through a sport that is particularly well-suited to mixed-ability groups.

More than a visit

What made this training visit valuable was not any single meeting or activity, but the accumulation of encounters – with people, with organisations, with approaches to inclusion that are being developed and lived every day in Kosovo. The conversations that happened informally, between sessions and over meals, were as important as the formal programme.

These visits are one of the ways CB4leisureYwD turns its objectives into lived experience. Youth workers and educators do not only learn about inclusion from manuals and online courses – they learn it by being in rooms with people who are doing it, by asking questions, by trying things out, and by bringing what they have seen and felt back to their own communities and contexts.

The bridges built during these days in Kosovo will outlast the visit itself.