INSTITUTE BURJA EXPLORING EUROPE UNDER ERASMUS+

By implementing learning mobility of staff within the framework of the accredited Erasmus program in 2022-2027, we are improving approaches to the informal education of members of ethnic minorities in Slovenia.

Imotski is a leisurely continental town in the south of Croatia, not far from the border with Bosnia and Herzegovina. The city has approximately 10,000 inhabitants. It is the centre of Imotska Krajina, located behind the mountain Biokovo in the Dalmatian Zagora, on the border between Herzegovina and Dalmatia. It borders the Bosnia and Herzegovina from the northeast, the Makarska Riviera from the south, and the Sinj-Omiš region from the northwest. The Imotski region has quite a few natural gems: Red and Blue Lakes, the area of ​​the Vrljika River and the Biokovo Nature Park. 

In recent years, despite the pandemic, the Imotski region has been one of the most developing regions of tourist activity in Croatia. The general prosperity of the area was mainly helped by the construction of the infrastructure that connected this part of Croatia with the highway corridor and by the tunnel Sv. Ilija under Mount Biokovo, which connected the Makarska riviera in just 20 minutes drive. The Mediterranean climate, unspoilt nature, vineyard area and affordability are just some of the factors that impress more and more tourists every year.. Higher quality accommodation facilities offer a lot of privacy. They became famous as an area of ​​the Istria inland, which is somewhat better known in Slovenia. The tourism boom has partly stopped the flight of people to more developed places. More and more young people decide to stay at home and build their lives on the opportunities offered. 

Historically speaking, Imotski is the centre of the old Croatian parish of Imota, after which the Imota tourist community is named, which hosted the mobility of our staff for a few days. We have connected with the Imota tourist association to understand better the exploitation of local potentials based on preserving cultural traditions and unspoiled nature in the so-called deficit region. On the one hand, we find here multiplicative vulnerabilities and, on the other, opportunities. Through educational activities, we will transfer examples of good practices, trends and experiences to our local community, whose tourism potential also rests on similar foundations. 

Our Institute Burja has obtained Erasmus Accreditation for 2022 – 2027 after several years of staff mobility projects in the field of adult education. Through the previous implementation of mobility projects, we gained the confidence to start implementing more complex projects in non-formal adult education. Above all, we gained a lot of experience and strengthened the international network of partner organizations. We introduced new knowledge, good practices and joint initiatives, mutual learning, and new projects into our work processes. In this way, we contribute to the more significant role of minority organizations in non-formal adult education and more excellent added value for our target groups. 

With each working visit, we strengthen our key priority areas in the long term. We enhance the motivation of our adult minority members in non-formal education, create new learning opportunities and potentials, promote awareness, information and social inclusion activities, improve our organization’s institutional capabilities, and develop regional and international partnerships. To strengthen cross-sector integration, we choose various institutions abroad, from municipalities to folk universities and governmental or non-governmental organizations.

We decided to visit the Imota Tourist Community because they represent an example of a good practice organization that coordinates the entire community’s progress. We were able to convince ourselves of all this in the short time of our visit. Imota is strongly involved in the local community, and every year, according to the trends, it creates various programs, mainly informal education for adults. They organize other training for new users of the tourist infrastructure. They cordially connect various stakeholders, provide them with logistical and professional support and try to create the best synergistic effects for the local community, its residents and visitors. They have their premises in the centre of Imotski, in one of the idyllic streets, ventilated by the stone facades of nearby buildings. 

Director Luka Kolovrat and a group of his colleagues welcomed us on behalf of the tourist community. He explained that the original office a few years ago was mainly based on his initiative and on making people aware of the potential of the landscape. The guests were primarily one-day trippers escaping the hellish heat of the Makarska riviera. Then the development of events began to force them to set up a new personnel infrastructure, which began to improve both by drawing European funds for the development of the region’s potential, by investing in tourist infrastructure, and in various contents. 

We were also presented with various content and projects carried out in cooperation with the Makarska tourist community and as independent projects. A lot of energy is devoted to implementing green and sustainable implementation. We were presented with various tourist routes, their appropriate markings and arrangements. We were also presented with local methods of healthy food production, cultural heritage preservation and various good practices. Above all, how the locals introduced these contents into their accommodation facilities. We also visited some tourist facilities, talked to the locals and came to a new common denominator – the issue of motivation and investing in the necessary additional knowledge for successfully implementing content that already exists but which must be tackled systematically for successful implementation. 

We also saw the traditional way of baking bread from under the coal oven and walked along the well-maintained footpath to Blue Lake. 

We see the possibilities of further cooperation mainly in transferring good practices, which learning adults from our environment could summarize through joint mobility and educational activities. We also see further potential in cross-sector networking with various organizations in this field.