until 30. 7. 2023

European Solidarity Corps vacancies

We are looking for three ESC volunteers to work with us on youth and cultural projects between September 1st 2023 and June 30th 2024.

We are looking for people:

  • Aged 18-30
  • Citizens of one of the partner or programme countries (list of eligible countries
  • Keen to participate in climate change activities and/or cultural activities with focus on contemporary art and short film and/or in activities concerning contemporary social and political struggles
  • Friendly, engaged, enjoy meeting new people and keen to experience a different culture

The European Solidarity Corps programme will provide you:

  • Accommodation in a shared student apartment with your own room close to our office and the city centre
  • Coverage of all living costs such as electricity, water, gas, and internet
  • Reimbursement of the flight and other transport costs (bus, train, metro, visa) to/from Maribor, up to a certain limit as set by the ESC program
  • Monthly financial allowance
  • Free Slovenian language course
  • Henner health insurance
  • YouthPass
  • Pre-departure (provided by NA in the country of the sending/ supporting organisation), On-arrival (provided by NA in the country of the hosting organisation), Mid-term trainings (provided by NA in the country of the hosting organisation)
  • Working experience in an NGO

About us

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 we are 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 17 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 44 and sent abroad 37 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.

About ESC in our organisation

Activity 1: Youth work

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.

1. Voluntary program “Young people for young people”

ESC volunteers will help young volunteers from the local community in their weekly volunteering activities from providing free tutoring, socialising with children and young people with fewer opportunities, running workshops with and for immigrant children, to film education, theatre, urban walks and reflection on the city, and addressing the causes and consequences of the climate crisis.

  • Planning activities together with fellow ESC volunteers and young volunteers from the local community at meetings in person and over Discord;
  • preparation of the space intended for workshops;
  • taking photos;
  • executing the activities with local volunteers.
2. Volunteering Festival and Day for Change
  • In addition to implementing volunteering programmes and promoting volunteering among young people, our organisation has been working for many years to develop volunteering and to co-create the systemic conditions that would enable this development in the local community. Volunteering Festival and Day for Change are annual events through which the importance of volunteering is emphasized.
  • Planning activities together co-workers and with fellow ESC volunteers;
  • helping to carry out the activites;
  • promotion of events.
3. Critical literacy workshops

ESC volunteers will help with critical literacy workshops for highschool students and young participants of the NEET program on topics such as climate change, critical media literacy, labor rights etc. The aim of the program is to equip young people with the necessary knowledge, skills and tools for the critical analysis of the political and economic system in which we live, as well as to encourage them to be more socially engaged and foster solidarity.

  • Planning and preparing workshops and/or lectures in together with other ESC volunteers;
  • promotion of created content via social networks and printed materials;
  • preparation of the space;
  • photographing the events; 
  • evaluation of the workshops and lectures with the coordinator.
4. Rosa’s School of Workers Rights

Lectures and workshops for young people, aimed at stopping the aggressive march of capitalism and neoliberal ideology through the spaces where young people are educated and where they socialize.

  • Promotion of created content via social networks and printed materials;
  • planning and preparing workshops and/or lectures in together with other ESC volunteers;
  • preparation of the space;
  • photographing the events;
  • evaluation of the workshops and lectures with the coordinator.
5. ESC promotions

Presentation and promotion of the ESC program in secondary schools, universities, and youth centers such as Youth home Maribor and the NEET program. By advocating the ESC  program, we try to encourage youth, especially young people with fewer opportunities in Maribor to participate in European Solidarity Corps projects.

  • Preparation and implementation of presentations for highschool pupils, students, unemployed youth and NEET;
  • evaluations of the presentations with the coordinator; 
  • preparation of the promotional material;
  • promotion of the program via social networks and printed materials.
Activity 2: Production in field of culture

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.

1. OBRAT - space for art and participation

is a dislocated venue of Pekarna Magdalenske mreže. It presupposes presentations and small-format curated exhibition projects, in program terms it mostly focuses on experimental and/or participatory contemporary visual art. It is also a space for film lectures and screenings, discussions and occasional theatre workshop.

  • Help the curator with the organization and setup of the exhibitions and other events;
  • help with the maintenance of the gallery space; 
  •  invigilation of the exhibitions in the gallery; 
  • taking photos of the events;
  • implementation of the your-own project.
2. GuestRoomMaribor

is an international artist-in-residency program established in 2011. Main emphasis of the program is on contemporary visual art practices. The GuestRoomMaribor primarily supports socially engaged, hybrid, and experimental projects as well as projects related to the local social, cultural, historical, or political context. In its mode of operation, the program seeks to foster creative processes, open dialogue, establish direct contact with local communities, question conventional presentations of art, and encourages collaboration with local artists and producers.

https://www.guestroommaribor.si

  • Help the curator with the organization and setup of the exhibitions i.e. artistic events;
  • help with the promotion of the program;
  • help with hosting of the residents;
  • invigilation of the exhibitions made by residents;
  • help with the maintenance of the gallery space;
  • taking photos of the events.
3. Aunt Rosa Library

a library with a reading room with socially-engaged literature. “Aunt Rosa Library” offers high-quality literature, which is very difficult or impossible to obtain in other libraries in Maribor. The library is intended for those interested in radical social change and/or socially critical thinking for constructive transforming our society into one which is more socially just. 

  • Help with renting the books from library;
  • help with making library cards;
  • help with organization and organization of the lectures;
  • help with the promotion of the library.
4. StopTrik International Film Festival

International festival of stop motion animation StopTrik is the first and largest festival of stop motion animation in Europe established in 2011. A five-day feast of stop animation, screenings, talks, exhibitions and concerts.

www.stoptrik.com

  • Help with the festival promotion;
  • help with production of the promotional material; 
  • help with the guest reception;
  • helping the jury for the competition program of the festival.
5. Concerts and AV performances

Help with organizing concerts and AV performances as part of Volunteering Festival and Day for Change, Cultural Centre Pekarna Anniversary, StopTrik International Film Festival, and other occasional events.

  • Help with the promotion;
  • help with production of the promotional material; 
  • help with the guest reception;
  • help with preparation of the venue;
  • help with the technical setup; 
  • on-call duty during the events. 

About Maribor

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.

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: Cultural Center Pekarna, Radio MARŠ, Moment, Kolektiv ZIZ, Fotogalerija Stolp, Plesna izba Maribor, Center plesa, KUD CODA, GT22, KIBLA etc.

Public cultural institutions in Maribor:

Narodni dom Maribor, Vetrinj Mansion, UGM / Maribor Art Gallery, Puppet Theatre Maribor, Museum of National Liberation Maribor, Regional Museum Maribor, University Library of Maribor, Slovene National Theatre Maribor,  Youth and Cultural Centre Maribor etc.

HOW TO APPLY?

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 25th of July 2023. 

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Kontaktiraj nas:

info@pekarnamm.org
+386 2 300 68 50
+386 41 481 246

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