Building Bridges Cultural Association was founded in 2008 to promote a spirit and community integration
and to foster European culture awareness among the youth. Building Bridges is presented at local level
as a tool to assist and support the implementation of non formal education courses and improving
knowledge of European labour system practices. We organise courses, visits and meetings, European
events for public agencies on policies concerning youth , mobility, sports , local economic development ,
culture and cooperation with developing countries. We believe that transnational experience could offer
young people the opportunity to grow within a European dimension through their personal and
professional skills , so that they could become main actors of the European future.

Our aims are:
-To build bridges and promote the social construction of Europe
-To build bridges and promote intercultural dialogue and favour understanding of foreign cultures.
-Plan bridges using European projects to promote participation.
-Step on bridges to support any cultural, educative and/or artistic expression based on the previous
values.

As an adult education institution, we have always been focused on the needs of adults in the context of current trends in the market. We support them by providing them with the best possible education which in return enables them to be more competitive and employable. Besides such formal programs, we also offer different activities for elderly people, from language and art workshops to IT workshops for beginners, which help prevent social exclusion and marginalization of the elderly. The skills they gain during these activities enable them to become active participants in their everyday lives, without the fear of social exclusion and marginalized living.

Temporarily, we are providing several courses for the elderly, financed mostly from the budget of the municipality of Lendava and one national project Basic skills and competences for older than 45 years (different courses, from ITC to languages).

Key persons in organization (providing projects from 2005 on):
1. Rahela Hojnik Kelenc is the managing director of Adult Education Center Lendava and has experience in project management, financing and coordinating different projects and educational programs for adults and other target groups, in particular with members of the Roma community. She is running the AEC Lendava since 2001. In that time gaining experience in managing the institution and coordinating the work in the field of adult education. She is not only the manager of AEC but also the teacher in many formal and non-formal programs. Until 2020 she coordinates or lead more than 25 national and international projects with different topics and also is in the organization always the key person for the delivery of intellectual outputs. She is also a consultant for quality of adult education on a national level and a member of the different associations for adult education in Slovenia (on a national level). She is dedicated to working with vulnerable groups, especially to Roma community.

2. Sonja Feher is a coordinator of adult education. She has wide experiences in project work and has so far coordinated various project co-financed by the ESF and IPA. She has been in charge of project management, organisation, preparation of reports and evaluation. She also possesses experience in working with different target groups, such as the Roma community, the unemployed, youth and the elderly. Her field od expertise includes implementing different workshops (job-finding skills, learning techniques).

3. Dragica Smej is the accounted in AEC Lendava and will perform administrative and financial tasks. She has several years of experience in the field mentioned. She has helped implement the following projects: preparation and recording of project implementation documentation (orders, accounts, travel orders, minutes, reports, contracts), organisation and coordination of meetings and events, collecting and arranging documentation for reports, recording tasks and results, filling forms etc.

4. Sven Sarjaš is expert in ITC and in organisation responsible for delivery of intellectual outputs in the field of ITC. Also he is gaining his experiences in work in different projects. Mainly he is responsible for coordination of work in different projects.
In 2012 we started to cooperate with the Roma academic club (RAC) and after that with Slovenian Roma Union. The aim of the RAC is to become a contemporary organisation which would provide a place and a chance for each academic, Roma or Non-Roma, to improve the situation of the Roma people in Slovenia.
The club specialises in the area of education and active participation of the Roma children in the educational system.

From this year on, we are working together on different projects, the last two where Romano čhon in 2015 and the counselling for adults in 2015. Last year we performed several workshops against discrimination of Roma ethnic minority on several secondary schools in region Pomurje and in summer we took 27 Roma children to Slovenian coast for 3 days (summer camp).
We are cooperate with different Roma organizations and Roma settlements in Pomurje region. Last 3 years we are providing the educational programmes in different Roma settlements (where we have possibilities), because on that way we can include in the various training programs more participants. Because of that, we also started to provide learning assistance for those Roma children, who are included in secondary education (vocational and tehnical). We are the co-authors of the informal education program named Special program for Roma ethnic minority and this program is mostly funded by the Institute for Employment. From 2016 we are providing several national and international project for Roma ethnic minority, also we were invited to spred the examples of developed good practice in the field of education in Croatia, we were hosted by National office for minority. We also cooperate with slovenian office for national minorities in the project SIFOR ROMA as external experts.

SuperCode is a young, agile and certified adult education institute for digital competences in Düsseldorf/NRW/Germany. 

To start their career as programmers and UX/UI designers, we train people for job-relevant coding and design skills in intensive courses (full-time/ part-time) and in career development for the IT sector. 

Our course participants are highly diverse and come from various backgrounds: young and older career changers, unemployed people or employees who want to keep up with the latest technologies. The participant are highly international, be it from different EU countries or with a refugee status. 

Furthermore, we actively promote women (e.g. with scholarships) to take part in our courses to increase the share of women in IT. 

Our master-trainers are certifiet for training. Furthermore, we carry out an internal training centre for junior trainers. To guarantee the best quality and support for the learners, our courses are always led by two trainers.

Enjoy Sicily is a cultural association born as an informal group of young people in 2006 and was established as a cultural association in 2016 given the number of projects carried out in the area and the strong participation of schools and young people from 19/30 to cultural and training initiatives that we have undertaken over the years. Our group is made up exclusively of volunteers who also make up the board of directors and we boast within ourselves psychologists of the developmental age, teachers, animators and experts in social media and marketing. We started our Erasmus adventure in 2017 by requesting accreditation for EVS as SO and subsequently as HO and we participated both as lead and as partner in several Ka2 projects of the Erasmus + program.We have also obtained hosting accreditation in the new Esc program and we await the outcome of the request as Lead. We have helped many young people to get to know the program and to enroll, we have helped the givoani that we have hosted, in the search for a job both in Italy and once they return home; for the number of activities organized in the area, we have been chosen by the Municipality of Messina as an association for the promotion and dissemination of the ERASMUS + and ESC opportunities by activating a desk at the municipal building of Messina, we have entered into an agreement that allows our volunteers or VETs to we receive, to carry out volunteering / training internships in various fields both in contact with children and with teenagers / adults, with fewer possibilities (department of the third sector) and in contact with tourists at the tourist information point and the museum of modern and contemporary art and with all citizenship at the municipal library (tourism and culture department). We have collaborated with other associations that have been working in the Erasmus + program for several years and with brand new associations that appear for the first time in this world. We have activated  think  tanks  to  identify  the  needs  of  young  people  in  a  city  that  boasts  the  sad  record  of  the unemployment rate of 35%. We have established stainless international collaborations for the exchange of good practices and for the voluntary service and methodologies. 

Lava Legato foundation, the Netherlands
Lava Legato was founded in 2001. Since then the organisation works on supporting international volunteers, both hosting in the Netherlands and sending abroad. Currently the foundation hosts 14 volunteers in different regions of the country. This group of volunteers is mainly supporting people with limitations. The foundation works with a large network of local partners so that young volunteers from abroad are facilitated to contribute to local, small-scale organizations and communities.

Besides, Lava Legato supports special education students by providing internships. The foundation initiates learning companies and social enterprises that offer internships where (less privileged) students can learn while doing. Lava Legato has started, run and eventually sold a fruit perserve company and an Italian restaurant where people with
limitations and special education students work to produce fruit preserve and help out with catering activities to run the restaurant.
Over the years Lava Legato has been involved in a variety of different European projects, such as Erasmus+ projects, both as partner for youth exchanges, volunteer projects and strategic partnership projects. The aim of participation in such projects is to always involve less privileged youth and adults, as participants or eventual users of materials that are developed.