UDRUGA PANNONIAN

The Pannonian Association (The PA) is a non-profit youth organisation with the goal to promote urban sport and culture; sport as a regular form of everyday activity and a healthy lifestyle. The organisation cherishes democratic values and stands for human rights, dignity and active citizenship of people from Osijek-Baranja county.bThe PA has 300+ members. The target groups are young people 16-30 years old and the focus is on youth volunteering. The average age of volunteers is 23.3. The PA is led by youth for youth and its main activities are: - organisation of sport and culture events, - renovation of sport and culture facilities and - organisation of educational workshops. These events are carried out throughout the whole year. The activities stem from the need of the local community and the organisation provides opportunities to young people and volunteers to get more involved through a healthy lifestyle, urban culture and sport. ORGANISATION OF SPORT AND CULTURE EVENTS The flagship event of the organisation is the Pannonian Challenge (The PC). The PC is an international event for urban sport and culture which is organised in the City of Osijek. The event combines, on one hand, BMX, inline, skate and scooter competitions and on the other hand, photo exhibition, b-boying (breakdancing) and graffiti writing as well as music concerts and press conferences. The PA is ongoing for 20 years and it brought 3 800 international athletes (men and women of all below the age of 30), 1 000 volunteers and more than 320 000 spectators. The event collects points for attending the Olympic Games. For the purpose of this event, the staff organises all its phases and the preparation lasts the whole year. RENOVATION OF SPORT AND CULTURE FACILITIES The organisation built up the biggest skate park in this region of Europe. The City of Osijek is especially proud of it and young people take credit for its development. Every year the skate park gathers young people who voluntarily maintain the facility. ORGANISATION OF EDUCATIONAL WORKSHOPS The aim of workshops is to empower young people with specific tools needed for event management as well as for personal life. Every year many young people attend 1) digital and photo academy, 2) financial literacy and 3) volunteers workshop. 1) More and more IT and digital photo skills are needed in the labour market. The PA events lean on them and we want to educate young people how to use them. Digital and photo academy educates young people on how to use social media for promotional purposes; basics of marketing and photo shooting so that participants are prepared for new jobs and other professional challenges in life. 2) Financial literacy is a financial workshop for young people about the management of personal finances. It is organised in collaboration with our partner - Zagrebačka banka. During the workshops, experts share basic information on finances as well as tips and tricks on how to manage them. 3) Volunteers workshops educate young people about basic volunteering principles and purposes as well as about volunteering at international sport and cultural events. Using the non-formal learning approach, volunteers are led through 11 sectors of volunteering such as infrastructure, press sector and competition sector just to name a few. The workshops are available in Croatian and English which depends on the participants' preferences. From 2010 onward, more than 1 000 volunteers have participated in the work of the PA and they have invested over 35 000 volunteer working hours. The organisation is a member of the National Volunteering Development Council at the Ministry of Demography, Family, Youth and Social Policy. CONTRIBUTION TO SOCIETY The Pannonian Challenge plays a very important role in the City of Osijek and in the whole region. Firstly, it promotes the region as an attractive environment for investments by bringing the private and public sector through partnerships and sponsorships. Secondly, it pr