The main goal of the 16-month international project is to establish the minority partnership consortium in order to develop innovative approaches in the field of creative minority tourism and cultural heritage with the active involvement of young minority members from participating countries in Slovenia, Croatia and Serbia. Organisations, which develop programmes for young minority members, are facing low interest and lack of motivation of young for different types of non-formal education, with which they could improve their knowledge, competencies and skills, self-empowerment and professional development. The problem is related to weak institutional capacities of minority organisations, lack of a proactive teaching staff, inflexible learning approaches and lack of appropriate and innovative programmes for young minorities. Problems for minority organizations are also lacking cross-sectoral cooperation with public and private youth organizations and young people in local and national level. In addition, young minorities are faced with individual and social obstacles, which are not enabling their successful engagement in educational programmes. The obstacles refer to the lack of information and financing, linguistic, social and cultural obstacles and difficulties in recognising learning outcomes. In the wider context, the problem is related to different regulations of participating countries, which creates lack of recognition of their needs, inadequate communication between minority and majority and inability to create effective policy for resolving the minority status of young people. This negatively effects nurturing cultural heritage of minorities and understanding of ethnic identity in developing minority culture, offering members a variety of cultural, economic and learning possibilities for their further personal and professional development. In the project we will establish a minority partnership of non-governmental organizations in Slovenia, Croatia and Serbia. For this project we explored the needs of the target groups carefully and we connected them with the field of work of participating organisations, namely minority art, cultural heritage and cultural tourism. A special contribution in developing intellectual outputs will be a transfer of good practice from Serbian partner organisation. In this project we will organise two international project meetings, organise three multiplier event and actively engage 30 young minority participants from the participating countries, who will improve their level of knowledge and competencies, increase sense of initiative, self esteem and entrepreneurship. The main results of the project are focused on designing 3 intellectual outputs, - MINORITY VIDEOTHEQUE: Online education in the field of creative minority tourism and cultural heritage, which will include innovative video lectures on flexible and modern approaches for the promotion of minority culture, marketing of minority culture, creative cultural tourism, intercultural and business communication and project management, - GUIDE ON MINORITY SIGHTS IN LOCAL COMMUNITIES ‘’Our culture in our city’’, which represents a tourist map with a brochure about different minority sights in the local communities, focusing on the influence of minority culture on the majority culture and majority on minority, - MINORITY COMPASS publication, which will include theoretical and strategic guidelines for greater social inclusion of young minority members in the case of creative minority tourism and cultural heritage, which will contribute to more active participation of young people in non – formal programmes and trainings will improve social inclusion of young people in society. Intellectual outputs will motivate young minority members in searching for innovative approaches of expressing, promoting and developing minority culture. In addition, the project will contribute in creating modern and flexible methods, with which will enable young members to promote their cultural products and benefits of knowing the different cultures in the language.
The main goal of the Minority Youthotheque project was to establish effective minority-youth partnership cooperation and to create innovative approaches and tools in the field of minority tourism and cultural heritage. By carrying out project activities, we have made a big step towards changing practices and guidelines for greater social inclusion of young minority members of the former Yugoslavia in Slovenia, Serbia and Croatia. The great emphasis of the project was on active participation and connecting young people with fewer opportunities, namely members of ethnic minorities, members of rural areas, members with social obsticles and other young people from all partner's organizations. Organizations that implement programs for young minority members face insufficient interest and motivation for non-formal education to improve their knowledge, skills and abilities and consequently enhance social inclusion and professional development. The issue is related to the management and organizational skills of minority organizations, which also face a lack of skilled and proactive teaching staff and a lack of appropriate and innovative education programs. Particular problems for minority organizations are opening up cooperation, cross-sectoral networking and creating synergies with public and private youth organizations, centres and offices at the local and national level, and for young members connecting and socializing with young people from the majority population. In addition, there are individual and systemic barriers to engaging in educational activities. These are related to access to information and funding, linguistic and socio-cultural barriers and difficulties in applying the acquired knowledge. Poor interest affects the intergenerational transmission of language, culture and customs, and the lack of understanding of ethnic identity and the preservation and development of minority culture, which offers members various cultural, economic and educational opportunities in the labour market and everyday life. In a broader sense, this is related to the different normative solutions and practices of the participating countries in minorities. In the project, we designed three intellectual results and conducted two international project meetings (Rimske Toplice and Nova Gradiška). For the promotion and dissemination of project results, we organized three multiplicative events (Nova Gradiška, Tavankut and Laško), which we managed to carry out live despite the restrictions due to the COVID pandemic. We have involved more than 50 young people from participating countries, more than 10 youth workers and more than 40 representatives of various stakeholders. Through their active participation, they contributed to the successful implementation of project activities, improved knowledge of cultural heritage, improved intercultural and digital skills, self-initiative, self-confidence and entrepreneurship. Around 150 different people took part in all project activities, and about 40 organizations, mainly youth and minorities, came into direct contact with the project results. Around 1,500 people came into indirect contact with the project results. We can measure awareness of the project activities in tens of thousands as several national frequencies (RTV Slovenia, HRT, TV Vojvodina) and many regional and local portals promoted them. Participants obtained their Youthpass certificate. To achieve project results and goals, quality promotion and dissemination, we included renowned experts and artists in the project. Among them, a writer Goran Vojnović, illustrator Izar Lunaček, stand up comedian Admir Baltić, director Branko Ištvančić, photographer Voranc Vogel, director of the Croatian Tourist Board Metko Bradetić, director of the Celje Youth Center Sonja Majcen and many others. We have focused our project activities on the creation of three bilingual intellectual results: - MINORITY VIDEOTHEQUE: Online education with video lectures in the field of creative minority tourism and cultural heritage, promotion of minority culture, intercultural and digital communication and project management in culture, - OUR CULTURE IN OUR CITY: The brochure is a guide to the various minority attractions in the local communities of the participating organizations with a focus on the impact of minority culture on the majority and vice versa, - MINORITY COMPASS: A publication that includes theoretical and strategic guidelines for greater social inclusion of young minority members in the case of creative minority tourism and cultural heritage, as well as examples of various good practices of the participants. The intellectual results encouraged young minority members to seek innovative approaches to expression, preserve and promote minority cultural heritage, and create flexible methods to promote and market their cultural products and reap the benefits of knowing different cultures and languages.