A new space dedicated for civil society organisations, informal citizen initiatives and others free of charge – the YIHR.hub at Đorđićeva 8a in Zagreb was officialy launched on November 28. The celebration was twofold: together with the hub opening, we celebrated the 11th birthday of the Youth Initiative for Human Rights. More than 100 CSOs, media, and college staff and students, as well as our associates and volunteers attended the event. The report from the event (in Croatian) in Novosti journal can be read here. The hub opening and the Social Innovators project was also covered on a radio show on Yammat (in Croatian – listen to it here).
The YIHR.hub opening started with the Social Innovators project presentation. The project, dedicated to addressing the unemployment of humanities and social science students, as well as increasing interest in working in the civil society organisations, is the main framework under which the YIHR.hub was launched. This is why we also discussed other project activities complementary to the hub such as the CSO Apprenticeship model and a new educational programme focused on the topic of social innovations, that is developed together with our partners from the National Management School (Bulgaria), PiNA (Slovenia), and Østfold University College (Norway).
After the Social Innovators project presentations, we hosted a panel “Deconstruction of Social Innovations – the return of the underrated!”, moderated by our Nikola Puharić. The panelists were Gabrijela Ivanov (K-zona, FierceWomen), Tena Šojer Keser (Netokracija), and Eugen Vuković (Zelena akcija, Biciklopopravljaona). The panelists shared their formative experiences in civil society organisations and IT sector, discussed the potential for social innovations, and shared their perspective on activities planned within the Social Innovators project.
The dinner was followed by the music programme performed by the Domaćigosti choir, which served as an opening for the Initiative’s birthday celebration. Main speakers were Mario Mažić (Founder), Nikola Puharić (President), and Morana Starčević (Executive Director). The message we sent out was unambiguous: regardless of all difficulties and obstacles, we will not give up the uncompromising struggle for human rights!
We thank all our associates, friends, supporters and volunteers, as well as all others who came to celebrate this important day for us.
