Rijeka’s efforts in cultivating a love for entrepreneurship, art and culture in children.
The purpose of the ECoC-SME project is to increase partners’ capacities in facilitating and strengthening SMEs and the culture sector through the ECoC title. In our partner city Rijeka, entrepreneurship and culture has been instilled in their citizens from a young age.
RInovatoRI: developing entrepreneurial competences in children
RInovatoRI is a good practice from Rijeka. It was launched in 2008 as a pilot project for encouraging the development of entrepreneurial competencies of children. RInovatoRI consists of three main program sections:
- Regular program: weekly workshops during school year with study visits, case studies, guest lecturers and field activities;
- Weekend School of Entrepreneurship: 3-days workshops with trainers and external experts/mentors on specific topic in castle Stara Sušica with an aim to develop an innovative product prototype;
- Summer RInnovation Lab: 3-week summer workshops and study visit around topical issue resulting with innovative ideas and solutions.
Photo credit: RInovatoRI
Thematic focus of RInovatoRI program varies from STEAM topics (use of Artificial Intelligence, smart and 3D technologies, creative industries) to business fields (SWOT analysis, business model canvas, social media, 4Ps). The program also addresses actual current issues, such as innovation in the times of pandemic, internet security, business ethics, sustainability and innovative tourism. The program beneficiaries are pupils of higher grades of Rijeka’s elementary schools, age 11-14.
For more information: RInovatoRI - encouraging entrepreneurial competences of children
Children’s House: a culture center for children
Last month, Rijeka held the opening ceremony for their most important ECoC legacy: the Children’s House. It is a culture center for children, located in the Benčić complex.
All programs, workshops and activities that will be carried out in the Children's House are jointly designed, organized and implemented by four cultural institutions: Art-cinema, Rijeka City Library, Rijeka City Puppet Theater and the Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art. The basic principle of the Rijeka Children's House is synergy and multidisciplinary, which means that all institutions are intertwined and connected not only in mutual cooperation, but also in program content. Because the culture in the Children's House is not just content that is watched, listened to or read, it is content that children design, create, share and receive.
Photo credit: Ivica Nikolac, Grad Rijeka
Rijeka Children's House already represents a huge creative potential that will, sooner or later, welcome its little tenants, and these are the children of city of Rijeka and its wider surroundings, but also the visitors from other cities, regions and countries. All of them will be able to attend puppet shows, film screenings for children, exhibitions and various creative workshops, thus not only absorbing and receiving culture, but also actively creating.
