Institution for sport, tourism and free time Sezana, Youth Centre Podlaga

Youth Center Podlaga is located in the community of Sezana, which is economic, transportal, educational, cultural and medical center of Slovene Karst. It is located near the border with Italy (10 km to Trieste), its surface is 217 km2. The area has 12,700 inhabitants, approximately 6,500 of them live in the town of Sezana. Youth Center Podlaga is a public institution, placed in the basement in the centre of Sežana town. We have been operating under the Institute of Sport, Tourism and free time Sežana for 16 years. We are smaller center with 3 employees. Our main purpose is to provide supportive structure for all young people aged between 15 and 29 years old. We are organizing events and running youth programs in the local area, with the goal of systematic development of mobility, creativity and active participation of young people. Our activities are: culture and art, informal education, volunteer work, health and sport, information and consulting, international projects and mobility of young people, intergenerational activities, participation and active citizenship. We are present at all major local events and every year we organize two weeks summer youth festival in a partnership with students and cultural center. There are around 650 young people who are actively involved in our activities during a year. There are 12 youth workers who are permanently helping organizing events and projects. Lots of projects are done in cooperation with other organizations (High school center Srečko Kosovel, student Club Sežana, Sežana Cultural Center, Scouts, Primary schools, Red Cross, NGO's for mental health and others smaller Cutural, sport and health organizations). We also pay attention to the young unemployed, lots of them here get their first working experience by organizing different actions in the local community. We are a coordinator for local preventive programs on the field of drug abuse, coordinatig 12 organization in our local community and we are Uniceff safety point for children and young people, giving them help and advice if they find themselves in troubles.