ESC: My creative and caring community 2025

PRONI Center for Social Education is a non-profit organization founded in 1998 as a legal entity in the Republic of Croatia aiming at working on the development of civil society through youth and community work. Target groups are young people and other target groups that have an impact on raising the quality of life of young people. The main areas of activity are: Education for work with young people in the community; Supporting and setting up youth clubs and setting up and implementing youth information and counseling activities through youth info centers; Support to other organizations; Coaching activities based on non-formal education and working methods; Developing youth policies and strategies; Development of voluntarism, etc. PRONI Center has 9 employees, 47 volunteers and 40 members. The staff is highly educated, with university education for Youth and Community Leadership at the University of Jonkoping, Sweden, and most have many years of coaching experience (preparation and implementation of training, workshops, focus groups, round tables, presentations, etc.) in the field of youth work and work with youth workers. PRONI Center has 4 offices and is active in Osijek-Baranja, Vukovar-Srijem, Sisak-Moslavina and Šibenik-Knin counties in Croatia as well as abroad. During 21 years of working with young people and relevant stakeholders involved in youth, PRONI Center has successfully implemented more than 100 projects and programs at various levels. Over the years of active work, PRONI Center has implemented projects in collaboration with various local and international stakeholders, promoting cross-sectoral collaboration. It is a member of several national and international networks: Regional Forum of Slavonia and Baranja Associations, Croatian Youth Network, Citizens Pact for South East Europe, YouthNet, Association of Youth Information Centers in Croatia and European Youth Information and Counseling Agency and other working bodies, such as Local Partnerships for Employment of the Osijek-Baranja and Vukovar-Srijem counties, the Council for the Prevention of the City of Vukovar, etc. As an organization, we have actively participated in the preparation (curriculum development) and implementation of education for Community youth leaders and education in the field of youth work in general. After establishing and empowering youth clubs to operate independently, PRONI focused our youth information and counselling work through the establishment of Youth Information Centers in Osijek (2007), Vukovar and Sisak (2009). Also, we were very active in the process of launching the Association of Youth Information Centers in Croatia. Focused on improving the quality of life of young people by providing them with the acquisition of knowledge and skills, PRONI is actively engaged in raising the knowledge, skills and competences of young people in order to facilitate their integration into the labor market through development of volunteerism, in particular through the establishment of the Volunteer Center Vukovar (2014) and participation in creating youth policies and strategies. Additionally, this work is supported by participating or implementing projects based on structured dialogue between young people and decision-makers, such as the "Worth for Two". Within this project, through joint work of young people and decision-makers The Recommendations Important for enhancing the recognition of volunteerism where created and as such integrated into Action plan of the Human Resources Development Strategy of the Vukovar-Srijem County for the period 2016-2020.