Youth Centre of Dravinja Valley is a membership organization for young people between 15 and 29. The Youth Centre has four full-time youth workers with many years of experience in working with young people and for young people. The youth centre also has about 50 local volunteers who help to realize programs and projects of the youth centre.

Youth Centre of Dravinja Valley is a place where young people can spend their free time actively, socialize, develop new ideas together and also make them come true. In youth centre young people develop their skills and meet new friends.

Youth centre organises a lot of activities during the year.  Youth centre has a concert hall for cultural events like concerts, theatre, literary events, and music events. Concert hall is also a place for art exhibitions. The stage in a concert hall welcomes all young creative artists who would like to share their work with the audience. The first floor is intended for informal education like foreign language courses, seminars, helping young people with learning difficulties, sharing travel experiences. It is also a place where young people can get the information they need.  The youth centre’s cyber café has 5 computers connected to the Internet that young people can use for free. A youth worker in the information office helps them to search for information they need. Youth centre also has a place for playing games such as chess, cards, table soccer, pool…

Creative workshops take place during the whole year. Participants are making different practical things using different materials and they are allowed to take everything they make home. The theme of creative workshops is open for participant’s new ideas. In a basement of the youth centre there is a music studio where local yet unknown groups can practise for free. Youth centre offers a place, infrastructure and professional help to other local youth organizations and groups with organizing traditional activities: photo competition, first year student’s party, Culture Week, Students’ Collection of Poems, carnival, rap concert, Labour Day camp, sport competition Wind in hair and Street ball Tournament, roller hockey tournament….

Youth Centre of Dravinja Valley also organizes outdoor concerts, trips, excursions to other parts of Slovenia. It is open for visitors every day (except on Sundays) from 07:00 a.m. to 16.00 p.m. (on Saturdays from 3 p.m. to 10 p.m).

Slovenske Konjice is situated between the Konjiška gora (mountain) and the hills of viniferous Škalce. Slovenske Konjice is the administration, economy and cultural centre of whole Konjiška region with 14.000 inhabitants. The Slovenske Konjice town has 5.600 inhabitants. The town has three primary schools and a secondary school.  Near Slovenske Konjice there is a highway connection to big cities like the capital Ljubljana, Maribor and Austrian Graz. Slovenske Konjice has a sport park just above the youth centre where people can enjoy different sport activities (tennis, basketball, volleyball, skating). There are many possibilities how to spend free time. Slovenske Konjice also has a golf course, facilities for cycling, horseback riding, swimming, fishing, tennis, bowling, aeronautics, skiing, and a spa centre in a town 10 minutes from Slovenske Konjice. In the centre of Slovenske Konjice and in its surroundings there are numerous museums and galleries. On the Konjiška gora mountain there is also a castle. The unemployment rate is lower than in other parts of Slovenia. However it is difficult for young people to find a suitable job and they have to migrate to bigger cities in search of a job.

Youth Centre of Dravinja Valley would like to host a volunteer in order to refresh and enlarge regular activities of the youth centre. Above all, the youth centre would like to motivate the local youngsters to develop some new ideas with the volunteer and to make them happen together. The volunteer tasks will depend on the volunteer skills and ideas and they will fit into the youth centre’s program.

The youth centre can offer the volunteer all the infrastructure it has (place, technical support, computer, telephone, fax, copier, camera), a professional help and a mentor for individual support.

By helping to prepare centre’s and own projects, the volunteer will gain the knowledge from different areas. The volunteer will also get some new skills by working with young people and for young people.   

His/her tasks will depend on individual skills he/she has to offer and ideas the volunteer might have. The volunteer can choose to work on the areas he/she prefers (culture, creative workshops, working with computer and publishing e-newspaper, sport competitions and events…)

Timetable for the volunteer will be like this:

Working in the information office: working with young people – helping with computer, social games, copying, socializing with youngsters, filling data on organization’s webpage about the activities in English, monitoring the centre – 35%

Organizing and leading creative workshops and other activities: contacting participants, collecting and taking care of the material, workshop preparation, and preparing for the exhibition of the workshop products. The theme of the workshops is very open and flexible: creativity, art, photography, movies, computers,…-35%

The volunteers activities are not necessary the regular youth centre’s activities. The volunteer will get all the support with his/her own activities that are his/her idea or wish.

The volunteer will get new knowledge, skills and experiences that will help him/her with the career selection or just working in his / her profession. The volunteer will certainly bring intercultural dimension into the organization and the local community.

Working hours will be flexible, depending on the activities the volunteer will run.

Youth centre of Dravinja Valley welcomes young people between 18 and 30 years. Gender, race or religion is not important. Youth centre would like to host a volunteer with at least some basic English, a communicative person with ambition to work with and for young people.