Following the launch of two fully equipped digital hubs in Armenia through the YMCA Europe Roots Artsakh Exodus Response, one more hub has quietly opened its doors: the GenNext Digital Hub. Unlike the earlier launches, this one didn’t come with a grand opening ceremony. Instead, it was built with a simple but powerful purpose: to give Generation Next scholarship recipients a shared space where they can study, collaborate, and grow together.
The hub offers students a base for group studies, brainstorming sessions, and peer-to-peer learning. It is designed to be flexible, serving both as a quiet place for academic work and as a collaborative zone for exchanging ideas and supporting one another’s projects.
The GenNext Digital Hub builds on the momentum of already active hubs. At YMCA Artsakh, the new permanent center has become a home for personal and professional development, while the Artsakh Artisans Center has integrated technology into its creative programs. The center hosts a group of 12 children aged 7 to 12 who learn programming through Scratch, guided by YMCA Generation Next Scholarship holders majoring in computer science who once began their own journeys with the same Scratch cat.
In just five sessions, the children have already mastered the basics of coding and animation. Their next challenge is to create their own cat game, an exciting milestone that lets them transform learning into creativity. For the students teaching them, it’s an opportunity to grow into leaders, building skills in mentorship, responsibility, and confidence.
Together, the three hubs are becoming more than study spaces. They are places where displaced youth and scholarship recipients can connect, teach, and lead, turning digital access into community resilience and future opportunity. As this model proves its value, it offers a blueprint for how educational spaces can serve not just individual advancement, but collective empowerment, with each hub strengthening the broader network of support for Armenia’s next generation of innovators.
