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Frankly Speaking TODAY.

Frankly Speaking specializes in youth policy and intercultural non-formal political education, and has been working at the intersection of policy, educational practice and research since 2005.

Frankly Speaking’s key competence lies in distilling what can be learned from educational practice, grassroots youth work and activism as a basis for making policies and programmes work better for the young people at which they are aimed. Frankly Speaking enjoys the trust of European and international institutions, international foundations, NGOs and development organisations, universities, as well as youth and youth supporting organisations. Each new project and client relationship developed brings with it challenges, from which lessons about how to work on and for human rights, peace, intercultural relations, democracy, change, education can be learned. Frankly Speaking’s profile is a constant work in progress.

AJSA HADZIBEGOVIC

Ajsa has been Frankly Speaking’s lead since 2019. Prior to joining Frankly Speaking, Ajsa was Director for Development Civic Alliance in Montenegro and Executive director of 35mm and Forum MNE – during which time she was responsible for the conceptualization, implementation and supervision of programs in support of Human Rights, Media and Youth Work in those civil society organizations. She was constantly engaged in building the capacities of staff and partners in youth work competencies, project management and human rights-based approach. Ajsa has a background in Youth Work and Applied Conflict Transformation studied at detached programs of Jonkoping University, Sweden and Nansen Academy, Norway in cooperation with Novi Sad University. She speaks South Slavic languages and English. She was born in the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, in the province of Kosovo, to cosmopolitan parents who raised her in different parts of Yugoslavia, although they originally hail from Montenegro, where she now lives with her family.

Frankly Speaking PREVIOUSLY.

YAEL OHANA

Yael founded Frankly Speaking in 2005 after her time as an educational advisor at the Council of Europe’s European Youth Centres in Strasbourg and Budapest and developed it in the position of principal project officer until 2019. As an educational advisor, she had responsibility for the development and implementation of the educational programme and youth policy development agenda of the then Council of Europe’s Directorate of Youth and Sport. She gained experience in European cooperation in the field of youth and became familiar with the civic sectors in many countries across Europe, especially those of Central, Eastern and South-Eastern Europe. Much of her work during this time focused on youth facing specific challenges including racism, disadvantage and discrimination, especially those coming from a variety of minority backgrounds, and Frankly Speaking was created to further those agendas. Yael further broadened the scope of Frankly Speaking’s work to include evaluation, research, policy development and the facilitation of the strategic processes in the youth and civic sectors in Europe and globally over her tenure. In 2019, Yael she took on an exciting new position at Open Society Foundations at its where she worked as chief of staff to both its Europe Director and the Director of the Berlin Office. Yael’s educational background includes Political Science, European Studies, Human Resources Development and Modern Languages. She studied at Central European University in Budapest, the College of Europe at Bruges and Trinity College in Dublin. She has lived all over, including Israel (where she was born), Ireland (where she grew up), Belgium, France, Hungary, Slovakia and Ukraine (where she studied and worked) and Germany (where she worked and lived with her family). In 2024, Yael returned to the Youth Department of the Council of Europe, where she took up the position of Programme Manager in the Education, Training and Cooperation Division. In this position, she coordinates work of the Cooperation Team, and works closely with the Head of Division on the implementation and further development of the Education and Training programme of the Youth Department of the Council of Europe.