Youth NGO KULT has been active since its foundation in the year 2002. After several local projects and activities in Sarajevo our field of work was expanded on three more cities in Bosnia and Herzegovina: Besides Ilidža we have offices in Tuzla, Brčko-district and Gradačac. Our cooperation with the authorities there has been highly productive and is based on partner relations. KULT is trying to carry out the activities necessary for target groups in these locations on the spot. In order to define main focuses of our work, we organize planning workshops every year. Our aim is good cooperation with municipal authorities and with various B&H and international organizations, so that we could prevent repeating or overlapping of projects. KULT often receives funds from municipal authorities for carrying out the activities on that level. Bigger projects, those that exceed the framework of the municipalities in which we have offices, have so far been funded by international organizations.

KULT doesn’t want to only carry out projects, but also to actively participate in commissions that make decisions concerning the children and the young. So we have our representatives in the following commissions: Ilidža Youth Council, Youth commission in Tuzla canton, Advisory youth board in the Mayor’s Cabinet in Ilidža Municipality, Advisory youth board in Gradačac, Commission for coordination of youth issues in Council of Ministers of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and in several working groups that deal with civil society as a whole. In all these commissions we argue for the improvement of life standard of young people, as well as for long-term and strategic plans for solving their problems and satisfying their needs that are defined in planning workshops and surveys.
All our activities have so far been tightly related to the development of civil society in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Our work is based on cooperation with the authorities (and the possibility for active participation), citizens (primarily young people), and with other influential and active associations, individuals and institutions (for example, centres for social care, employment boards, etc.).

Our overall aim is to develop an open society, starting with municipal level which will include its citizens in all the processes of decision making in public life. This is the reason why KULT is training citizens, primarily young people, about different possibilities that enable their participation, as well as about the ways of creating partnership with authorities for the purpose of finding common solutions in their communities.  

Through various informal trainings, councelling, envigilation, teaching manners, courses, seminar planning games, solving problem workshops, round tables, publications, working materials, etc. we are helping young people, associations, informal groups, and other subjects  interested in becoming recognized members of society and willing to take over the responsability and advocate the improvement of life standard.

KULT is a member of Youth network in Bosnia and Herzegovina and is responsible for informal education.

KULT has been working from its very beginning on educating the young about politics through knowledge and skills that would help them  become active citizens.
Our last project that resulted from our long-standing experience in KULT as well as from some other things, is called „Study, think and act“ (UMID) and has lasted since November 2005.
Through UMID project we offer a one-year training for the young (high-school students) situated in the municipalities of Ilidža and Hadžići, along  with the activities for turning theoretical knowledge into practice. Thirty of them keep participating in interactive workshops and after that all the thirty have to carry out their activities individually. Apart from this, they are expected to volunteer in an association, institution or a household of a person who requires care. All activities (trainings, activities, and volunteering) are then noted in the Volunteer’s journal.
Volunteer’s journal was created by NGO KULT and has been recognized by municipal bodies. This means that all UMID participants are given a certificate after they had successfully fulfilled all the assignments  scheduled in their Volunteer’s journal. The certificate is signed by the municipal mayor. The journal has many advantages for the young in their future professional life. The themes that have been treated in workshops are adapted to the age and target group, and some of the themes are: volunteering, civil society and civil participation, tolerance, development of political work with the public, youth work, working with girls, team work, project management, public youth work, organization sustainability, lobbying, working on specific subjects (trafficking in human beings, corruption, integration, addiction prevention, prostitution, environment protection, economy, European Union, etc.). Participants have the possibility to choose a number of subjects by themselves and prepare them for one of our workshops.

Two years ago we successfully ended our long-standing project called “The Young and Local Authorities” (MLV) , in partnership with four other associations from Youth Network in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The aim of the project was to establish cooperation among young people, youth associations and institutions, and local authorities. The project included the whole country, and KULT was responsible for the area of the Middle Bosnia which contains over twenty municipalities. The project activities were: educational seminars, street campaigns, round tables with mayors, conferences, creative workshops, etc.

KULT managed to persuade eight mayors to make a budget plan for the young, in five municipalities we got a space for gathering or work, and in majority of the municipalities the relation between the young and the authorities was improved.

In the year 2005. we won the second place with our small business plan called “Agency for intercession of the working force for the young” in Tuzla and Gradačac. We got funds for carrying out this plan from German Technical Cooperation (GTZ). The project has so far been going on very well and has brought income to Tuzla and Gradačac through which the youth work in those municipalities is funded. With this project we tend to develop financial independence of our organization and to introduce the young into the business world. We have also been organizing courses for young people who had just finished high school where we teach them how to write a CV, a job application, as well as courses of business talks when looking for a job.

In the year 2005. we organized Balkan youth camp in Bulgary together with the FAR association from Burgas (Bulgary), and there we gathered youth representatives from all over Bosnia and Herzegovina. The working language was German. KULT was responsible for making the camp journal after the camp was finished. 

During the year 2005. we held many round tables in whole Bosnia and Herzegovina, and the main subjects were: recognition of informal education, the possibilities of youth participation, introduction of local programs and offers adapted to the young, etc. Apart from that we held approximately twenty trainings on the following subjects: volunteering, engagement of citizens, tolerance, public relations, democracy, European Union, etc.

Our street campaign on the subject of partnership between young people and municipal authorities (mayor) is also worth mentioning. It is presented in the shape of a silent performance and has been performed many times not only in Sarajevo but also in other cities. The performance is now the standard part of KULT program, and with every year it is getting better and is better suited to the current events.
In cooperation with the Studies Institute for politics and current events from Munich we have adapted a planning game called „The future of Europe“ to the needs of Bosnia and Herzegovina. This planning game about foreign and security politics of the Europen Union, and about the  integration of other countries into the EU is one of the things KULT offers.

Our short-term project goals are:

We are trying to fulfill the following long-term project goals:

Explanation

From the empirically gained data (1) in Ilidža Municipality, it is obvious that the young people who live here are very passive and do not have connection with social life. On the other hand, polled children and young people think that they themselves are able to satisfy their own needs through shared work, trainings and their own activities.
Unfortunately, there are is no space where the young could fullfil their expectations.
It is clear from the gained data that the young people who live in Ilidža municipality are extremely passive and do not take part in social events. On the other hand, they think that their problems can be most easily solved by joining themselves together and sharing work.

The children and the young should take the responsability for social processes and invest in them their professional knowledge, skills and experiences. Only in this way do they become an important and recognized link in the chain of making decisions on municipal level.
Public work of children and young people offers an open and voluntary frame so that children and young people can learn about  democratic processes. This first happens in small processes in which they paricipate in making decisions in our renovated institution. They are later offerred the possibilities for advocating their interests in political commissions by themselves with aimed transfer of responsabilities.

Public youth work has to create enviroment which allows and makes enough space for experimenting, and at the same time establishes transparency for the existing structures. Creation of educational processes also requires courage and motivation for one's own engagement, intercession in political relations, frustration tolerance training, negotiations among different generations about one's own interests and participation in creating life enviroment – eventually, taking over the responsability for one's own rights.

A great number of volunteers need to be involved in the project in order to promote volunteering as a positive form of social engagement.