Omladinska organizacija Svitac

The Svitac NGO was founded in 1998. The original vision was to help increase tolerance, support local diversity and unify the three ethnic groups in post war Bosnia. The vision was deployed by a mission that included a process involving youth based, multi-ethnic programs and daily workshops. As those programs solidified the vision, mission and scope were expanded. Today Svitac works to engage individuals in improving their lives and communities, build international links between grass-roots & marginalized communities worldwide, and increase tolerance and support diversity in Bosnia. It does this through daily, long-term arts, music and informal educational activities at our centre in Brcko, Bosnia. Larger multi-cultural events such as summer camps, festivals, and workshop series by international volunteers are also encouraged and supported. We also support collaborative projects between young activists, artists and organizations worldwide. We have a strong focus on training and supporting local youth, staff and volunteers in developing the skills and confidence necessary to lead their own activities and to have a stronger voice in their communities. To date, we have hosted over 350 youth volunteers from the UK, USA and many European countries. These volunteers spend from 2 weeks to 2 years working, learning and leading. For example, summer camps, festivals, community involvement and long term arts projects are planned and deployed through volunteers. These projects are usually covered EVS, weltwärts or self-funded projects. For additional information and details, please see our website: www.svitac.org or Facebook page: www.facebook.com/omladinska.svitac Staff structure: Svitac is a locally run NGO. The structure includes a Management Board, Supervisor Board and Assembly. The Management board consists of 5 people, Supervisor Board 3 people and Assembly 9 people. Svitac is run by a Director, who is also the President of Management Board. Other staff include Project officer (including international partner collaboration), co-ordinator for Youth Centre (supervision of local & international volunteers included), and music project co-ordinator. 3 people are employed full time (40 hours per week) and 1 part-time (20 hours per week) with pension and health insurance paid every month. Svitac occasionally have staff members, local and international volunteers running daily workshops, dance and language lessons for short term periods (1-3 months) and helping with annual events. We usually have around 10 international volunteers over the summer months (for short term projects, summer camps and festival), as well as approximately 5 more over rest of the year for short term projects such as the Scottish workshop series. We have around 5 local youth volunteers throughout the year, usually young people who have participated in activities in the past and are now being encouraged to lead their own projects. Each ESC volunteer closely work with 4 permanent employed Svitac staff members and 3 local volunteers during one year period and at least 2 international volunteers. The role of Project Coordinator is managing ESC receiving projects and ESC supporting projects. The responsibilities also include collaboration with local communities, organisations and international institutions who have direct impact on youth development. The Project Coordinator also designs, plans and deploys seminars, training and other projects. The role of the mentor is to monitor and support volunteers during their work, living in the local community and pair local volunteer to work with ESC volunteer on workshops. Thanks to Firefly International’s fundraising the permanent Svitac youth centre was bought in August 2010 and since then all ESC and other international volunteers have opportunity to run their workshops in this centre as well. The new centre is pretty big, it has 59m2. It is open during weekdays, so ESC volunteers could have their workshops in the morning in B