ESC in Circus Bosko

Don Bosko center is an institution in Podgorica, engaged in pedagogical, educational and preventive work. Youth center was founded in 1998 in Podgorica and registered as NGO in 2011. It is very well known for its preventive way of work and it is open to all children and young people, regardless of their ethnic or religious affiliation. Most of our participants come from socially vulnerable families and we give them a chance to acquire knowledge and skills through non-formal education in their free time. Here they can learn, make new friendships, develop healthy habits and grow into mature and responsible people, who will become active citizens in the local community. The center is also active on international field, through various programs of youth exchange. Its main goal is suppression of socially unacceptable behavior of children and young people, by organizing activities for them with purpose of spending quality and effective free time. We are characterized by distinctive way of work, which is primarily preventive. All activities are carried out through games and fun, and they are performed by animators - volunteers. This kind of activities enables spontaneous acquisition of knowledge and skills. We strive to better integration of young people in the community through education. Another goal is promotion of voluntarism which allows youngsters to meet different cultures and customs, adjusting to different environment and maintaining friendly relations regardless of race or ethnic affiliation. Target group are all children and young adults aged 6 – 25 from the local community. Most of the children participating in our programs come from socio-economically vulnerable families, single-parent families, children without parent’s care, socially excluded and Roma children. Among youngsters who participate in Erasmus + and other youth programs there are students but also youngsters with fewer opportunities, facing various obstacles. Our center has many activities organized throughout entire year, there are daily and summer/winter programs. Daily program is held every day from 15 to 22h in Don Bosco hall, which is equipped with sports fields, socializing area, birthday room, table and other games, music room, room for creative workshop etc. It includes music, carpenter and cooking workshop, creative workshop, ice hockey, big games, football tournaments, sports activities, socializing in the play-room area. During school break we organize summer and winter oratory, which last between one and three weeks and consist of educational and creative workshops (discussing different topics, sharing opinions, making crafts), sports activities (to stimulate physical growth, to develop healthy habits), activities in nature (camping, excursions). Every evening there is space for young people to gather and spend time together. Our center has great human capacities and there is a group of around 30 animators/volunteers who are actually leading the activities and working with children. Among them there are high-school and college students. They are mostly young people who used to attend regularly the activities of the Youth center and participated in similar workshops. During time, they have developed necessary skills and competences to be able to work with children. They are organizing and leading the activities for years. We always try to enrich our programs and our offer, so we often participate in volunteer exchanges where our animators can get new information about youth work, participate in different trainings and exchange experiences with their colleagues/peers from abroad. Lately we are very active on European level, thanks to the exchanges organized through Youth in action and Erasmus plus program. There are also volunteers who are employed but are still coming to our center when they have free time to participate. Apart from this, there are some specific projects organized occasionally, such as video workshop, making movies for children, school tutoring, juggling performances, environmental actions, visits to the city playgrounds. In the last three years we have hosted 3 volunteers through volunteering program financed by German Government, which allows young people to spend one year in another country. These volunteers are involved in the School of foreign languages Don Bosco in role of native speakers for German course. Our center is a full member of Don Bosco Youth net, network of 18 Don Bosco organizations from 16 European countries, which gives us the opportunity to participate in different projects that they organize with a big variety of topics. It is also a good opportunity to select partners which have similar aims and are involved in similar programs. Don Bosko center has recently become member of Youth network of Montenegro. It is an association of NGOs dealing with youth work in Montenegro, consisting of 29 organizations.