VoluntARTThe multilateral youth exchange will be hosted by the Youth Centre Brežice, Slovenia, and will last 10 days. During the exchange, 36 young people from 6 European countries (Italy, Lithuania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain and Poland) shall acquire valuable experiences of cooperation, intercultural dialogue and unbound creativity.

The youth exchange is going to provide a safe environment which will allow exploration and challenging of topics related to volunteering, cultural diversity, intercultural awareness, non-formal education and will make a great effort to foster creativity and strengthen participants’ self-esteem.

Alongside the group building activities, country presentations, excursions, meeting local volunteers, and more, each participant will get an opportunity to explore the common topic intensively through one of the following creative arts: Theatre, Video, Photography, Graffiti/Street Art and Music.

VoluntART exchange will take place in Youth center Brežice from August 2nd till August 11th 2011, within the YOUTH IN ACTION program.

During the planned 10 days of exchange, the participants will work in one of the 5 different multinational groups, according to their interest, with trainers in the fields of photography, video, theatre, graffiti/street art and music. The major emphasis will be on a joint final production, which will be open for the local community and invited guests.

This will be a true experience of “learning by doing”. Participants shall gain new knowledge on the topic of volunteering and acquire or improve their skills on the topic of video production, photography techniques, theatre (stage technique and movement), graffiti/street art and music production. Throughout the duration of the project young people will participate in creative workshops, group building activities, country presentations, an excursion, group discussions, meeting local volunteers.

Through non-formal education methods, young people will discuss and share their opinions about volunteering, express their views on the issue, share information about the situation in different countries, discover possible ways to promote volunteering in their local communities and Europe, present their own culture and learn about 5 other countries.

Highly qualified workshop facilitators and group leaders will share their skills with the young people in an informal, non-authoritative way. Finally, various outcomes of the working groups will be presented in a public performance and will be also compiled into a DVD which will be disseminated in all participating countries.

Cooperating partners:

Asociacion Juvenil “INTERCAMBIA” (Spain), Land of Harmony Foundation (Slovakia), Associazione culturale Binario Uno (Italy), Kujawsko-Pomorska Wojewódzka Komenda Ochotniczych Hufców Pracy (Poland), Zarasų jaunimo centras (Lithuania), Mladinski center Brežice (Slovenia).

Workshop leaders:

Jernej Agrež, video (Slovenia), Marjan Priveršek, photo (Slovenia), Matteo Barbiero, music (Italy), Jean-Marie Perinetti, teatre (France), Julij Lozič, grafitti (Slovenia).

Some workshops will be conducted in cooperation with:
Slovenska filantropija (Združenje za promocijo prostovoljstva) and KD IZAR.