Ongoing projects

Learning by Doing Good: Supporting Learning through Youth-led Community Projects

The main objective of the project is to advance the organisations’ practices of supporting young people in implementing youth-led community engagement actions, as a tool that contributes both to participatory learning of young people and to community development.

Project aims at strengthening youth workers’ competencies to support young people’s learning processes through the design and implementation of youth-led community engagement actions, as well as supporting young people in self-directed learning from and through the same actions. By analysing existing (organisational) approaches, methodologies and practices, and by providing space for youth workers to deeper explore the possibilities to make learning process even more participatory, the organisations aim to synthesise and build on the existing knowledge and experience, focusing on the participatory planning of learning objectives and processes, as a starting point of young people’s participation in the development and implementation of the activities in the community.

Youth workers have the opportunity to improve their competencies in the fields of participatory planning of learning objectives and processes, and facilitating and supporting young people’s learning process incorporated in youth-led community actions.

Young participants have the possibility to critically assess their needs and interests, plan personal learning objectives and further participate by developing and implementing community actions which contribute to the achievement of the pre-planned learning objectives, while being continuously supported by youth workers. By providing young people with the responsibility for their own learning, and both the opportunity and responsibility to engage in their local community, the youth involved develop their social and civic competencies, often seen as a precondition of active participation in democratic life.

The project activities include partners meetings, international training of youth workers, design of the training for youth participants, two national trainings for young participants, process of design and implementation of youth-led community engagement actions in 2 communities (Pula and Ljubljana), international evaluation and study visit.

The project Learning by Doing Good: Supporting Learning through Youth-led Community Actions is implemented by Volunteer Centre Istra, in partnership with Zavod Bob, in the period from 1 February 2022 until 31 May 2023. The project is funded by the European Union, within the Erasmus+ programme: Key activity 2 Small-scale partnership in the field of youth (60.000,00 EUR).

Youth Learning (through) the Community

The project Youth Learning (through) the Community provides space for young people to co-create the content and the type of volunteering and other community actions and initiatives, in cooperation with volunteer organisers, and based on the recognized community needs. During the project 4 to 6 community actions/initiatives will be implemented, aiming at providing services and activities that meet the needs of specific groups, organisations and communities. In addition, the implementation of project activities is based on the experiential learning approach and continuous reflection and monitoring of the learning process and outcomes, contributes to the development of key lifelong learning competences of young participants, as well as to the strengthening of the capacities of other key stakeholders. That way, the project further builds recognizability of youth work, puts an emphasis on the creation of “new” spaces for participation that enable active involvement of young people in decision making processes in the context of volunteering/community engagement, and strengthens experts and other key stakeholders for quality local-level youth work.

The model that will be developed and piloted in two local communities is based on several complementary and inter-related activities, including the following: participatory action research on active youth participation and community needs, that later directs the content and form of other activities; systematic parallel empowerment of both youth and local community

stakeholders (representatives of the municipalities, educational institutions, volunteer organisers) for the processes of participatory design, planning, preparation, implementation and evaluation of actions/initiatives oriented to meeting the community needs; dialogue of youth and other stakeholders, and collaborative creation of recommendations for encouraging

active participation of youth in the activities of community development. The whole process leads particularly to the creation of recommendations, that will propose appropriate institutional and financial preconditions for the sustainability of different forms and mechanisms of active youth participation in the local community, in the area and context of work of different local stakeholders, including municipalities, educational institutions and volunteer organisers.

The process of piloting of the model includes also the design of educational tools and materials, like the programme and methodology of community-based participatory action research, the process of participatory design and implementation of community actions/initiatives, and the process of creating the recommendations. The said model will design the mechanisms that contribute to the establishing and further development of school-based volunteer programmes, as well as to the establishing of sustainable cooperative relationships and to ensuring the achieving of young persons’ learning objectives and outcomes through complementary formal and non-formal learning methods.

The participation of young people in the decision-making process regarding their volunteer/community engagement, with the goal of encouraging and enabling active community participation of (all) other youth, contributes to the development of key segments of local youth policies, considering that the proposals and recommendations of project participants will contribute to the process of creating or implementing local youth policies in two local communities.

The project Youth Learning (thorough) the Community is implemented by Volunteer Centre Istra, in partnership with Association ZUM and Centre for Civic Initiatives Poreč, in the period from 1 March 2023 until 31 May 2024. The project is co-funded by the European Union, within the Erasmus+ programme: Key activity 1 in the field of youth (KA 154) Youth participation activities (30.132,00 EUR).

Youth in the (local) programme of the City of Pula-Pola

The project provides support in the process of creation of the Local Programme for Youth of the City of Pula-Pola for the period from 2024 to 2027, supporting parallel empowerment of both youth and local community stakeholders (representatives of the municipalities, educational institutions, non-governmental organisations) for high-quality and collaborative participation in the process of creating public policies for young people at the local level, and to create additional spaces and opportunities for their mutual connection and the establishment and development of trusting relationships, whereby the implementation of basic activities at a high level of youth participation in all phases, enables young people’s feeling of “ownership” over the process as well as over the document itself. In addition to regular partner meetings aimed at monitoring and achieving the results of the implementation of project activities and informing the general public, a total of 19 activities – events with young people, systematised within 9 sets of activities, will be carried out.

The activities are aimed at empowering young people for participatory design and implementation of action research exploring the needs of young people, creating a youth-friendly campaign and brochure intended to inform young people about the importance, role and areas of action of the strategic document, empowering young people who face obstacles to participation, with an emphasis on young people with intellectual disabilities, and empowering young people and decision makers to participate in dialogues with the aim to define goals, measures and activities in key areas. By creating opportunities for the active involvement of young people in decision-making processes, it is possible to co-create content, activities and services for young people, which will be unified in the Local Programme for Youth of the City of Pula-Pola for the period from 2024 to 2027, whereby a greater involvement of youth in the mentioned activities/services of interest is expected.

The project Youth in the (local) programme of the City of Pula-Pola is implemented by the City of Pula-Pola, in partnership with Volunteer Centre Istria, Association ZUM, Foundation for Partnership and Civil Society Development, in the period from 1 January to 31 December 2023. The project is co-funded by the European Union, within the Erasmus+ programme: Key activity 1 in the field of youth (KA 154) Youth participation activities.

Watch Out the Youth 2: Making the Local Youth Program of the City of Pazin

The goal of the project is to strengthen and support young people in the local community and create a stimulating environment for their inclusion in social life and decision-making processes in the city, improving the competencies of young people, youth workers and decision makers, for the purpose of enactment of Local Youth Program of the City of Pazin 2023-2027.

Within the project different activities will be implemented: including activities aimed at strengthening competencies of youth workers and young people, dialogue of decision makers and young people (working groups in different thematic areas), design and adoption of the Local Youth Program of the City of Pazin, supporting youth-led activities aimed at implementation of the Local program (using the methodology of “Akcija za 5!”).

The project “Watch Out the Youth 2: Making the Local Youth program of the City of Pazin” is implemented by the City of Pazin, in partnership with Volunteer Centre Istria, Association Delta, Centre for youth “Alarm” Pazin, Society “Our Children” Pazin, in the period from 1 January 2022 to 1 July 2023. The project is co-funded by the European Union, within the Erasmus+ programme: Key activity 1 in the field of youth (KA 154) Youth participation activities.

POKaZ in colours

The project aims at providing young people in 4 local communities with the opportunity to intervene in public space where they will be able to express their interests and views in their own way and through motives of their choice, while also providing opportunities to strengthen their advocacy capacity (via dialogue with decision-makers and the professional public) and directly contribute to solving problems they have identified in their community. Within the project the youth events and youth mobility will be implemented, including activities of participatory action research, dialogue of young people and decision-makers, preparation workshops, interventions (painting) in the communities, dissemination of the project results.

The project POKaZ in colours is implemented by the DrONe – association for social development and non-formal education, in partnership with Volunteer Centre Istria, DKolektiv – organisation for social development, Association Prizma, in the period from 1 November 2022 to 1 July 2024. The project is co-funded by the European Union, within the Erasmus+ programme: Key activity 1 in the field of youth (KA 154) Youth participation activities.