Study Visit in Ljubjliana, Slovenia 17^th – 19^th January 2023

In the context of the Erasmus + project “Building Bridges for youth empowerment”, coordinated by Asociata AIDE organization, this week part our team has visited the youth organization NO EXCUSE from Ljubljana, Slovenia.

This project aims to “build bridges” between youth organizations in order to improve the work with young people and to increase the impact on the community of youth centers. Through promoting the exchange of good practices of the 5 partners involved in the project and visiting the headquarters of them, each of the youth organizations will be able to realize about the current youth situation in each of the countries. Moreover, by attending and understanding the different sessions, the partners will dive into the functioning of the youth sector and the ways to improve it.

In this Study Visit from 17 to 19 February 2023, the organization NO EXCUSE has organized a set of activities in order to show and let us know how they have grown and how they are working on the youth field.

To begin with, during the first day, we all introduced ourselves and talked about why we all work in youth work and how we contribute to it. After this first activity, where we met each of the participants from different partner organizations (Youth Network No Excuse Slovenia, AIDE Association, Jaunuoliu Dienos Centras and MDK2 Stowarzyszenie Aktywnosci Przeroznych), we could see and realise that all participants are fully involved in the youth field. They all work with young people and disadvantaged youth groups to empower, guide and support them. Furthermore, all participants talked about how much they like to listen to young people and to know what they think, want and need regarding the current situation or different topics.

Also, following the planned planning, we were able to hear and see how the local Slovenian organization works. No Excuse is a non-profit, non-governmental and non-partisan organization which works respecting the critical think, the quality work, the integration and transparency, the common good, the justice and the honesty and respect among others.

The Slovenian organization is working hard to improve the sustainable development, the public health and the youth work as well by conducting researches and projects. This independent organization was created in order to have a voice and to work on the issues that really matter to them. They work and collaborate with various entities in order to achieve a “world where every young person thinks critically, suggests changes and makes the change”.

Afterwards, we were able to visit and learn about the place where they work, the Impact Hub. The space is fully adapted and designed to ensure a good social and working environment. In addition, the Impact Hub offers different membership options, both for organizations and individual workers.

Subsequently, and after doing a dynamic activity in digital format on sustainability, we were able to talk and learn about what sustainable NGOs should be like. Misha and Maria, two Ukrainian volunteers in the No Excuse organization, had presented us some good practices and recommendations in order to better understand how the sustainability works in the NGO field. Even so, the same recommendations that they showed us are also useful for the business, social and private sectors. We were able to discuss and share examples of good practices in different fields, such as: the energetic, social, food, transportation, waste or digitalization sectors.

• Go digital and use less paper
• Use public transport
• Bring your own bottle
• Don’t buying junk food
• Plan journeys and consider different sustainable possibilities
• Don’t waste unnecessary electricity
• Have sufficient bins for recycling

On the second day, we had the pleasure to attend and listen to the presentation of Eva Kotkik and Florijan Kocbek, the president and one board members of the National Youth Council of Slovenia. They had explained us that the National Youth Council of Slovenia is an umbrella organization which is linking several national youth organizations irrespective of their various interests, ideological or political orientations. The key purpose of MSS (National Youth Council of Slovenia) is to defend the interests of young people and to promote their participation in policy making process in the fields which have a significant impact on their lives and work.

Eva and Florijan also explained us which are legal backgrounds of the youth sector in Slovenia and how they work. We discovered that they work with fully formed and professional trainers who facilitate workshops and support the young people through non-formal education practices. We also saw that their working areas are the following ones: Youth participation, youth non-formal education, youth volunteering, youth housing, youth association, youth mental health, youth information, youth employment and youth mobility.

Then, after talking about the functioning of the council of the area, one of the young activists of the Youth Network No Excuse came to explain us which kind of activities they develop. The activists are very active in working with schools and youth groups to inform, teach and share knowledge with them. They have participated and developed several meetings, camps, activities or even conferences in order to raise the awareness of young people about the environment, the needs of society and health and wellbeing among others. This is a great opportunity for the No Excuse organization, as it can organize sessions or trainings involving external people and expand the knowledge and working methodologies.

One of the current projects they are working on is the advocacy against smoking, so they try to promote good habits health habits among youngsters in order to prevent the consumption of tobacco and other similar substances.

Finally, and following the previous session, all the participants had a discussion and shared their views on the need to change educational methodologies and structures.

The sessions of the last day were dedicated to visit the Consulting center Istra and the Youth center mladih Koper, as well as visiting the coast of Slovenia in order to get familiar and enjoy what the country has to offer.

These kind of youth centres are working and researching the current situation of young people and look for and/or create opportunities for them. Also, they have fully equipped spaces, for instance the Mladih Koper youth centre has surprising and unusual spaces that can motivate young people.

In the youth centre Mladih Koper, we were able to discover and learn about some of the projects they have worked with and developed themselves. They consider themselves an open-minded and tolerant centre, focused on young people. However, anyone interested in developing their skills and knowledge in a fun way can go to the centre as well.

To sum up, the YouthProAktiv team had the opportunity to enrich and learn a lot during this visit in Ljubljana, Slovenia. Thanks to the sessions organized by No Excuse, we were able to learn, share, discuss and propose working methodologies to improve the current youth situation. In addition, through talking and presenting the situation of the different countries in the youth field, youth work, sustainability and inclusiveness among others, we were aware of the context in which each country is and their needs. Thus, we gave our opinions and exchanged good practices in order to collaborate or generate good ideas.

Check the instagram video: https://www.instagram.com/reel/Cnmx93jDwG2/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=