Application until 20th of February 2022
We are looking for one more ESC volunteer to work with us and two other international volunteers on youth and cultural projects, activities will take place in Maribor between Aprlil 1st 2022 and January 31st 2023.
Pekarna Magdalenske mreže is a non-governmental, non-profit institution, founded in 1997. Our organization is one of the leading cultural producers in the complex of Cultural centre Pekarna, as well as in the city of Maribor, with focus on independent, 'alternative', under-represented forms of art, culture and youth programmes.
Programme-wise our organisation works in three main areas: independent culture, youth/volunteer work and civil engagement.
Our cultural programme includes organisation, co-organisation, promotion and realization of non-profit cultural events, mainly from the fields of visual arts, films, photography, theatre, which find it harder to gain recognition within the established environment and are actually shaping the distinct programme image of the Cultural Centre Pekarna, paying special attention to the idea and message behind them. We are also the home of Aunt Rosa Library - named after Rosa Luxemburg, library with radical and critically engaged literature.
Youth programmes of Pekarna Magdalenske mreže focus on providing free information, counselling and non-formal education programmes for the young, aged between 15 and 29 (children, students, employed and unemployed young people) and for all, who live and work with them and to the interested public (teachers, parents, counsellors, youth-workers, etc.), with the focus on volunteer and community work. An important part of our programme are also Critical Literacy workshops for high school students and youth workers. Critical literacy being a concept that provides literacy with ethical and political dimensions.
In the field of volunteer work, INFOPEKA is a local coordinator of a network “Volunteer Work in Maribor”, a network of 74 organisations from Maribor, which provide organized volunteer programmes. We have been organizing volunteer programmes for young volunteers for seventeen years now. The programmes, which our volunteers are working on, are providing free instructions for pupils, weekly educational and creative workshops with children with fewer opportunities, climate change activities etc.
We have been an ESC hosting and sending organisation from 2004 onward and have since hosted 41 and sent abroad 34 volunteers.
The main aim of our ESC projects is to develop high quality activities for young people in the fields of art, youth and civic engagement with the help of informal and nonformal learning. Encouraging critical thinking towards the existing power relations in the world, understanding contemporary political and social struggles, developing own ideas, and being able to plan and execute your ideas , are key components of our projects. The long term ESC project offers volunteers the possibility to participate in the formation of cultural, youth and social activities of Pekarna Magdalenske mreže.
We try to include ESC volunteers in all organisation’s activities that interest them and we actively encourage them to create their own projects. Volunteers actively participate in creating cultural, art, youth, informative, social and civic activities, and through their work also promote ESC among young people in our environment. Through their activities and living they gain the feeling of belonging to organisation as well as belonging to community and local environment, they grow personally, spread and develop their fields of interest, and also continually learn during the process.
Among other things, volunteers learn the strategies and techniques of self-organising and planning cultural, youth and other events, and gain the required abilities to work in a group of people with different cultural and social backgrounds. During that process they learn about the projects and workings of non-government, non-profit organisation and perform publicly renowned projects in the fields of culture, art, music and activism. Each ESC volunteer is precious to a hosting organisation, because they bring difference, novelty, fresh perspective, experience and knowledge to work, relationships and projects.
Our organization regards youth work as a set of activities with the aim to encourage active participation of youth, acquisition of new skills and competencies, and to promote social change and solidarity.
Production in the field of culture is a set of activities our organization offers with the aim to encourage active participation of youth, acquisition of new skills and competencies, and promote social change and solidarity.
Maribor is the second biggest city in Slovenia with around 100.000 inhabitants. It is a university city with the second oldest University in the country, preserved medieval form in parts of the city center, and the most beautiful city park in Slovenia. In socialist Yugoslavia, Maribor was one of the most powerful industrial centers with successful textile and car industries and a strong workers movement. After the dismantling of Yugoslavia and the rise of capitalism and privatization in the early 1990s Maribor industry disintegrated and huge unemployment arose. In 2012 Maribor was the starting point of protests wave in Slovenia between 2012 and 2013 which among others resulted in the establishment of a platform of self-organizing city quarter assemblies, moderated by Iniciativa Mestni Zbor whose main goal is the process of empowerment of citizens and initiative/campaign for participatory management of the municipal budget. In 2012 Maribor was the European capital of culture, however, planned sustainable development projects resulted primarily in the perpetuation of differences between public institutions and independent cultural producers. In the context of the ECOC 2012 in Maribor also the Centre for alternative and autonomous production (CAAP) was established – a platform for integration, research, and practice of new economies (co-working, cooperatives, etc.). Maribor is famous for its independent cultural production and alternative social practices, lush green scenery with surrounding hills and river Drava, and heaven (so we are told) for sports fanatics. Non-governmental cultural/art organizations in Maribor GT22, KIBLA, Radio MARŠ, Moment, Kolektiv ZIZ, Fotogalerija Stolp, Plesna izba Maribor, Center plesa, Bukvarna Ciproš, IndiJanez, AGD Gustaf, etc. Public cultural institutions in Maribor: Narodni dom Maribor, Vetrinj Mansion, UGM / Maribor Art Gallery, MKC Maribor, Puppet Theatre Maribor, Museum of National Liberation Maribor, Regional Museum Maribor, University Library of Maribor, Slovene National Theatre Maribor, etc.
We strongly recommend that volunteers get vaccinated before starting the project. According to ordinances of the Government of Republic of Slovenia public events and spaces may be only attended by persons meeting the recovered-vaccinated-tested requirements. Face masks are required upon entering closed spaces.
Send us a motivation letter with an updated CV and information on your sending/ supporting organization (title, address, OID number) to info@pekarnamm.org with subject: Application for European Solidarity Corps until 15th of February 2022.
Pekarna Magdalenske mreže successfully applied to the Slovenian National Agency MOVIT on 5th of October 2021 European Solidarity Corps deadline.
You will begin your activities in Maribor on April 1st 2022.