ESC: Ljubljana Pride Festival co-creators

Pride Parade Association was founded in 2009 by the members of Slovenian LGBTIQ+ NGOs, as a result of the increasing scope of the Pride Parade in Ljubljana. Since its founding, the Association has organized 10 annual Pride Parades and accompanying cultural and political festivals. The purpose of the Association is to contribute to creating a non-discriminatory and inclusive society, open to all individuals, regardless of their sexual orientation, gender or sexual identity or any other personal circumstance. The Association is established for the implementation of human rights and interests of lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, intersex and queer (LGBTIQ+) people. The organisation is operating as a Youth Organisation, meaning that the majority of its membership and leadership structure needs to be under 29 years of age and we are particularly interested in researching and representing the needs of LGBTIQ+ youth. In December 2017 we were awarded the formal status of “Organisation in public interest in the field of Youth” from the Office for Youth (Ministry of Education). In the last years we built numerous alliances and partnerships in local community as well as on international level, among other with the Municipality of Ljubljana, sister LGBTIQ+ organisations, European Youth Foundation and National Network of Youth Centers – Network MAMA, as well as some (high) schools and school dormitories throughout Slovenia. Since 2014 we are building up a strong Youth Programme with non-formal education based activities, capacity building trainings and workshops for youth and youth workers and other people working with youth, such as teachers. We host EVS volunteers from abroad and we organise the most visible and biggest LGBTIQ+ culturalpolitical festival in Slovenia. The organisation is part of a consortium of volunteerism organisations and we have developed an extensive mentorship programme for support of volunteers, on yearly basis we work with over 100 different volunteers every year. Within the last 2 years we have also built up 2 major projects that define our engagement in the youth sector significantly. “Culture of Humiliation” is a project for the prevention of bullying and cyberbullying among high school kids and young people in youth settings. We implement regularly workshops for youngsters in schools and youth centers and raise awareness about the negative consequences of bullying all over Slovenia. The second project, called “Outside In”, is dedicated to training teachers and youth workers about recognising managing and transforming hate speech among youth groups they work with. We have built up a competent team of trainers trained in non-formal education approaches, Human Rights Education, Anti-Racist education and Intercultural Learning. Our primary target groups are: -LGBTIQ+ youth - LGBTIQ+ community at large - LGBTIQ+ people who live intersectional identities and face intersectional discrimination - youth workers, youth activists, teachers and other relevant stakeholders working with young people - potential allies of LGBTIQ+ people Our institutional and other target groups are: - public sector institutions in filed of youth policy and education policies - NGO's working with marginalised and discriminated social groups - Youth organisations at large - decision makers in all relevant levels and fields that have the potential to influence the everyday lives of LGBTIQ+ (young) people - the media We have an office that is open during the day 9AM-5PM and then transforms into an event space for our members after 5 PM. But we also organise activities in other LGBTIQ+ safe spaces around Ljubljana. On a daily basis we have an office staff/volunteers of 6 people who work more that 20h/week, additional 2 long-term EVS volunteers and another 2-3 people who are present between 10-20h/week on a regular basis.