13-04-2023 10:40
Introduced by us, they are:
Kalina is positive and smiley; she enjoys art, talking and volunteering. If you ask her, she can sing you Diana Express's "Sineva" and probably a lot more. And most importantly, she's a youth worker at the youth centre.
Nikolai loves folk dancing, talking to you and helping. And he oozes serenity and enthusiasm. According to Google, he's the local media's favorite young person. He has proven that being a straight A student doesn't mean being a nerd at all. He loves economics and wants to stay in Bulgaria. He works and lives as a mediator at the youth center.
When they get together, there is a lot of laughter. I get a decent share of it, while we talk about important topics, like the youth center and what it means to young people.
How did you become a part of the youth center and how did it become near and dear to you?
Kalina: For almost 5 years. First I was working in the administration, but here we all get involved in the events. So I joined the organisation by helping where needed. The more I got involved, the more I found that youth work was made for me. I took part in a recruitment process for youth workers and got selected, which I didn't know could be a dream come true, but it turned out to be just that.
Nikolai: I'm now in my third year with the team. I am a mediator and this is my first job. It all started after I was a Youth Ombudsman for the city of Plovdiv during the 2019-2020 school year. I had a meeting with the management of the centre to see what kind of things we can do together. For a year we developed active joint activities. And when my term was up, I started an internship at the youth centre and then stayed on as a mediator.
What is the Youth Centre team - colleagues, friends, family?
Kalina: Youth work is about a lot of emotions, a lot of giving of yourself and the people who are committed to this work are sor of infected by it and it brings even more together.
Nikolai: As someone who loves math, statistics and anything to do with numbers. By my calculations, I've spent a lot more time at the youth center than I have with my family and other friends. When you add to this equation the working environment we are in, the mission and the values we share - the friendship comes naturally.
How do you see young people from your position and contact with them? How would you describe them to adults who may find them difficult to understand?
Kalina: For me, part of youth work is being a bit of an ambassador and telling people what we do at the youth centre. And very often the reaction is with exclamations of "Oh really? The youth initiated this? Are young people like that now?" And I get more and more passionate about everything we do because youth initiatives are super inspiring. So the young people we meet, a lot of them are motivated to make their dreams come true. For the rest of them, when they visit the center, I see and hear a click (a change of mindset) that gives them a direction to think about and they become like those in the first group.
Nikolai: Young people to me are...they are/we are.... (you are, I encourage him, and Kalina laughs). We are like some inscrutable corners of nature that need space to reveal our thoughts, desires and interests. They just need the human attention to show it in the light of day. For me, youth centres and youth work allow young people to discover this vast space full of potential and opportunities and skills.
Looking at the youth centre programme for April - you have at least 20 different events on all sorts of topics. And I was thinking, if you both had to pick one thing that happens at the centre that is your thing that you enjoy the most, what would it be?
Laughing together, "Youth Forum!"
Kalina: It's my super favorite because young people come from all over the country. Every edition has participants from the previous ones as well as new ones. Apart from the programme, which we always prepare around a theme, there are also gatherings with guitars in the garden, watching videos and more... It really becomes an explosion of ideas and inspirations on how to make them come true. Everyone is telling something about themselves and wants to learn about others
Nikolai: Training and working in small municipalities in the region is my favorite activity. Whichever place we go to, it's like I'm there for the first time and meeting these people for the first time. I like the feeling of helping out and presenting my favorite topics - financial literacy, entrepreneurship, and in general the idea of developing yourself personally. For me, these are the topics through which we change the minds of the youth in small towns. This is also the activity that inspires me the most to continue doing what I am now.
The biggest challenge for me as a youth worker is.......
Kalina: ... moving from topic to topic, changing shoes constantly. We always do a survey from which we choose the topics for our next events. That getting from topic to topic is my biggest challenge. Because some of the topics I'm very familiar with, but others I get into just so I can learn more and show and tell it to others.
Nikolai: The challenge for me is to explain to people what is a youth worker and what is a mediator. Including the youth, our close relatives and family. Because if we start explaining what we do, the list will get so long that the person will stop listening to us. This is the challenge - to explain in one word, in one sentence what a youth worker and mediator is.
Sweet or salty? - a joint answer: SWEET!
At home, at a restaurant or in nature - again both: In nature!
What book have you read recently that has impressed you?
Kalina: "Stories from hand luggage" by Georgi Milkov.
Nikolay: One book on entrepreneurship, there are actually two of them. "A book about business" - sort of an encyclopedia that includes hystorical figures who have contributed to entrepreneurship. And one more: 'Mad Genius (A Manifesto for Entrepreneurs)' - gives the idea of creativity in entrepreneurship and finance and tells us about the role of creativity and informal methods.
Few people know that I love....
Kalina: Classical Film Music.
Nikolai: That I love watching horror movies.
Which song would you greet each other with?
Kalina: Slavi and KuKu Band - "Together"
Nikolay: Desi Dobreva - "Song about Little Red Riding Hood"
Apart from the fact that the facilities here are amazing, why should the young people come at least once to the Plovdiv Youth Centre?
Kalina: Because they will feel it as their own and also a place where freedom of expression is always encouraged.
Nikolay: To do something different. To get out of the ordinary events of their everyday life. To use their free time in meeting their peers and people they will really enjoy spending time with. And along with that comes their moment of informal learning.
Kalina: At the end of every event we have feedback from the participants and a lot of them tell us exactly that - we like the youth centre because it's the place where we talk about topics that we also talk about at school, but here the approach is so much better and the result stays within us.
I'm part of the youth center because I want to....
Kalina: So that I can give young people the chance that I've been given - to express myself and realise what I want.
Nikolai: I want to give direction, to tell about myself, about what conclusions I have come to and to compare them with those of the youth. I'm here to communicate with young people. It gives me pleasure and I hope it does for them as well. The two-way effect and the exchange of ideas - that is my mission. You accumulate, accumulate and at some point start giving - that's the most satisfying thing.