The Youth Centre provides a place for young people, youth associations, with the idea of developing active participation in society and creative expression.
City of Varaždin recognised the need to form successful collective that will gather all youth organisations in one place. Forms of cooperation between organizations within the City and the Youth Centre are: use of space, organizing joint festivals, collaboration on projects and help with project preparation.
The Youth Centre has a steady increase in program participant each year, with an even larger increase seen in occasional public events indicating a growing community interest in cultural programs. Communication tools between the Youth Center and the community are social networks, face-to-face communication and regular fieldwork. The Youth Centre regularly respects the needs of potential users when planning activities through feedback such as surveys, questionnaires, and verbal communication. The Youth Centre cooperates with the business sector, mostly with creative agencies and IT companies. The motives for establishing cooperation with the business sector are the ability to provide better customer service, the possibility of financing, the exchange of knowledge, the upgrading of ideas. The business sector assists the Youth Centre regarding financial issues and promotion. The Youth Centre promotes all partners in the business sector, engages them in education and strategy development.
Youth Centre cooperates with: Varaždin Tourist Board, North University, Youth Council of the City of Varaždin, Open University, Varaždin City Museum, Regional Energy Agency North Varaždin.
Resources needed
City of Varaždin is financing the Youth Centre. At the beginning the amounts were ca 7.000,00 € per year. With increased number of users and costs of maintenance, the planned amount for this year sprang to 60.000,00 €. Main human resources come from within the associations using the shared space.
Evidence of success
Increasing and continuous number of satisfied users during last several years and cooperation with different stakeholders in the city and cross-sector cooperation makes Youth Center place for encouragement of positive social change in all kinds of fields; culture, social inclusion, citizen participation, informal form of education, entrepreneurship. Without Youth Center there would be fewer possibilities for young people to express their creativity and gain new knowledge.
Potential for learning or transfer
This was a great example how unused space with minor investments can be brought to use and contribute development of NGO’s and collectives. Opening of Youth Centres gave new opportunities for young people to participate in various actions all across the city freely without barriers and creating unnecessary costs. There are lot of activities going on, it provides many advantages for users and develops all set of skills for the users. It is of great importance that this practise helps connect youth with the community, it encourages volunteerism and makes young people aware that they can make the difference. In this few years of existence, there were many programs and projects successfully implemented, fostering and promoting civic engagement while many young individuals were introduced to many of local actors to which they may otherwise not have access. There was great opportunity to share and gain knowledge and it was used adequately for all parties involved.
