ESC: Solidarity invasion- Let's help each other

Institute for youth and sport Trbovlje (Zavod za mladino in šport Trbovlje - ZMŠT) is a public institution, which was founded in 2020 by the municipality of Trbovlje with the purpose of gathering and dissemination of information for young people, coordination and implementation of activities for youth, European cooperation in the field of youth, service activities for individuals and organizations, the implementation of activities of a broader importance and fundraising in the field of youth sector. In the field of sport it was established to care for the development of sports in the municipality and the management of sports facilities. ZMŠT is the legal successor of the Trbovlje Youth Center which has years of experiences in the field of youth work and was established in 2001.In the following text, we will focus on the experience and references gained by the Trbovlje Youth Center in the years since its establishment and which are now continuing within the ZMŠT institute. ZMŠT in one part of the institute’s purpose (important for the field of European volunteering and purpose of this accreditation) operates under the law of public interest in the youth sector and follows the statutory requirements of this Act in the field of youth. ZMŠT operates mainly at the local level, but connects and operates in the whole Zasavje region. At the local and regional level, we work with many public institutions, organizations and societies, as we are recognized as a reliable and effective partner. We also regularly participate in national projects and we perform a number of international activities. Since 2005 we carried out more than 70 different international projects within different national calls and calls of European and other programs (perform host and sending seminars, trainings, study visits, youth exchanges, European volunteering projects, local and trans-national initiatives etc.). The target group of ZMŠT in the field of youth are young people in the age between 13 and 30. In ZMŠT we run a youth centre where youth can spend their free time, using facilities such as music room, table football, board games, computer etc. The aim of our work with youth is to foster their activity inside of activities, which means that they are actively involved in planning, preparation and execution of activities for their peers. Activities for example are workshops, gathering evenings, lectures, sport events etc. Youth centre is open two times a week in the afternoon from 16.00 - 21.00. Other activities are organized during afternoons, including weekend’s evenings. Volunteers actively participate in all phases of activities, as they are preparing their own projects for youth, inside of their interests. ZMŠT also carries out the hotel and café business, and runs 4 sport facilities. ZMŠT has 12 full time employees and another 10 permanent employees who are daily present in the ZMŠT (students, employees under other types of working contracts). ZMŠT is located in a new building, it was built in response to the invitation of the European Regional Development Fund and is located in the heart of the city. ZMŠT is administratively and technically strong enough to carry out major projects. Its team consists of people from different disciplines (sociologists, political scientists, organizers of labour etc.), with experience in the planning, reporting, implementation and management of project content, managing finances, evaluation and reporting of major projects. ZMŠT has been active in the field of sending and hosting European volunteering projects for 14 years. In these years of experience, we have gained so much as an organization and a community. By sending volunteers abroad, we give local youngsters a chance of an international experience. Experience, gained through European volunteering (before EVS, now ESC), is priceless in our community and helps us as an organization and community to grow. Many of our volunteers that we sent abroad later become mentors to our hosting volunteering projects or work as voluntary youth leaders who lead interest groups and youth exchange projects. By hosting European volunteers, our organization gains diverse experiences and the local community, which is small, has become more accepting towards foreigners, thanks to these projects. ESC program is well known in our local community, in the future we will continue to work towards building better connectivity with the ESC and local community by hosting ESC volunteers in different organizations and helping the organizations to realize the value of ESC projects in their surroundings. The main attribute to our projects is that the volunteers have a diverse opportunity of working in different kinds of fields such as cultural, non-formal and other educational. Because of the many hosting organizations in our region, we can build projects together with the volunteers and implement their needs for experience through different organizations.