ESC: Photography and Video Editing - Slovenia - EU.motion 2.0(S)

Youth centre Kotlovnica (MCK) has been a space whose programme orientation is dictated by young people since 2007. Right now these are culture, digitality, sustainability, entertainment, non-formal education and volunteering. Throughout the year we accept initiatives and wishes of youngsters and include them in the process of creating and implementing activities in order to make sure they become proactive participants and as active citizens as possible. The same applies to the international volunteers we`ve continuously hosted throughout many years. The regular activities of the youth center include cultural events such as improvisational theater, varieté, cabaret, poetry evenings, stand up ... – the program of all these events is co-organized and mostly performed by young people themselves – and concerts where we give priority to young music groups. In recent years, we have also focused on digital content: video and audio production, photography, podcasts and radio… and on sustainable content: clothing exchange and seed exchange. We organize social evenings, exhibitions, workshops (creative, theater, music and video, workshops for training technicians – especially sound and light) ... MCK has a number of its own "special" spaces for activities – production spaces. These include a photo studio, an art room with a stove for making clay sculptures, a multimedia room with audio and video recording equipment, and a rehearsal space for young local musicians. The main hall with stage, bar and technical space can accommodate up to 135 visitors. Our premises are available to autonomous groups of young users and are as well at the disposal of our international volunteers. Our organization is the producer of the youth festival Pozdrav iz Kotla (festival at the end of the programme season, which is intended for socializing of all young people who actively use the youth centre), events Ognjena Veronika (winter festival of fire and light) and the Festival of Free Video Production. We are co-producing the summer festival Kamfest (festival of music and open culture) and the youth festival City of Youth. For many years, within the Erasmus+ program, we have been providing the youth of Kamnik with a range of experience and development of competencies acquired through participation in various international youth exchanges, and in the case of older active volunteers also through participation in various international trainings. Every year we also host participants from the European Solidarity Corps (ESC) or the previous European Voluntary Service (EVS) program, whose contributions further enrich our program, help raise the quality and visibility of the activities of the youth centre to an even higher level. In recent times, the atmosphere of Kamnik's youth has been continuously introduced by the much-needed international spirit and sense of EU connection and mutual solidarity. During the epidemic spring months of 2020, we strengthened our online presence during the period of urgent physical closure and with the help of online events (poetry evenings, reading evenings, distance workshops, etc.). We received confirmation that even in unfavorable conditions of quarantine our youth centre succeeds in fulfilling its mission of connecting and activating the youth of Kamnik. At the same time, it has been shown that ESC volunteers have an important place to arouse additional interest in participating in such events. //// Since 2017, we have been cooperating with more than ten organizations in the More Citizenship Network (MCN), where we meet annually for consultative meetings in Portugal, and during the year we participate in many joint projects (Erasmus+, ESC) within all network partners). We are members of the MaMa Youth Network, which unites and represents organizations that perform the activities of youth centres in Slovenia. We cooperate with local organizations and institutions – primary and secondary school (GSŠRM), Centre for Education, Rehabilitation and Training Kamnik (CIRIUS), Intermunicipal Museum Kamnik, Municipality of Kamnik, cultural NGOs, coworking space KIKštarter, Student club, Youth council, Cultural centre, the organization of the street theater KD Priden Možic ... We help young people to establish their own organizations and give advice to existing ones on how to better manage them. In the municipality of Kamnik, we are the coordinator of UNICEF safe points, the Local Action Group for the Prevention of Youth Addiction, and in the past also the Multigenerational Centre Ljubljana (project of the Cene Štupar Public Institution – Ljubljana Education Center). MC Kotlovnica is a key player in the field of advocacy and incentives for the development of new spaces for the development of culture and creativity in Kamnik, with its vision and work on the development of "Creative District Barutana" recently part of the program "Ljubljana, European Capital of Culture 2025".