With Burja Across Europe within the Erasmus+ Program

By implementing staff mobility in the accredited Erasmus program for the period 2022–2027, we are improving the approaches to non-formal education for ethnic minorities in Slovenia.

Members of the Burja Institute, during the first staff mobility of the Erasmus+ program in the 2024/2025 season, visited the Croatian Educational Society Matija Gubec from Tavankut.

In 2022, our institute obtained Erasmus+ accreditation in the field of adult education. Through staff mobility projects and group mobility of our adult learners, we pursue our strategy of internationalization, strengthen our international network of partner organizations, and introduce new knowledge into our work processes. We exchange best practices, relevant information, joint initiatives, mutual learning, and new projects, thereby contributing to the greater role of minority organizations in the field of adult non-formal education and adding greater value to our target groups.

Each work visit has a long-term impact on key areas important to us. We enhance the motivation of minority adults for non-formal education, increase their learning opportunities, potentials, knowledge, and skills, promote awareness, information, and social inclusion activities, improve the institutional capacity of our organization, and simultaneously develop international and regional partnerships.

In carrying out our mobility, the broader context is focused on the social integration of people with fewer opportunities, particularly members of ethnic minorities from the former Yugoslav states, who are the primary target groups of our institute.

Based on previously established ties, representatives of the Burja Institute embarked on a working visit to Serbia to learn about good practices. We learned about the methodological and operational process of organizing the Tavankut Fruit Festival, which is unique in connecting and showcasing the cultural heritage of the Bunjevci Croats living in the multiethnic region of Vojvodina, as well as the introduction of good green practices. This knowledge and experience will be valuable in our future planning of educational processes for our target groups, as the Burja Institute emphasizes learning programs for the promotion of cultural heritage through so-called minority tourism.

In addition to various bilateral meetings with host representatives, where we exchanged examples of good practices and different methodologies in adult education, we dedicated part of the mobility to developing new project ideas. Together, we developed several different conceptual proposals and projects on the topic of learning solidarity through so-called soft solidarity skills (developing intergenerational solidarity, developing local solidarity actions, empowering volunteerism). Additionally, we met with various stakeholders from the local community (representatives of the Innovative Network Subotica, the Gallery of Naïve Art, Matija Gubec Primary School, the Tourist Board of Subotica, and representatives of the Red Cross of Zagreb).

The topics of discussion included ideas for solidarity learning projects that encourage solidarity-based cooperation through joint development projects, the transfer of good practices into our educational environments, the introduction of various educational programs into our workplaces, particularly based on inclusion, the development of digital literacy among the elderly, active participation of participants, and local action in a greener and more sustainable direction.

Examples of good practices we encountered included the restoration of the Balažević Ethno Farmstead and its conversion into a tourist facility, the development of the Tavankut Ethno Village, the restoration of the cultural monument Orluškov Farmstead, and more.

The hosts prepared an excellent work program, for which we thank them once again. Moreover, we had the opportunity to meet again with the Minister for Minorities in the Government of the Republic of Serbia, Mr. Tomislav Žigmanov. We once again shared our experiences and views on the social integration of minorities in Slovenia and elsewhere. We also presented successfully implemented projects from various European programs and plans for synergistic collaboration in the future. The Minister praised our work and offered his continued support for strategic cooperation between various local communities in Slovenia and Serbia, especially on the topic of empowering ethnic minorities.