Description of organisation

Carpe Diem is a non-governmental organisation founded in 2005. The aim of the organisation is to encourage and
develop creative and social potential of children, youth and adults. We are located in the city of Karlovac but we work
throughout Karlovac County. We cooperate with organisations from Karlovac, Karlovac County, Croatia and Europe. Our
main target group are young people aged 15-30. The main topics of our activities are – non-formal education, youth
information, leisure activities, youth mobility and volunteering. Our main projects are Youth Club/Youth Centre, Youth
Information Centre, Volunteer Centre and youth mobility projects. Youth Centre is a place of non-formal education and
leisure activities for young people. Throughout the year we organise in the Youth Centre various activities – art and
creative workshops, art exhibitions, IT workshops, foreign languages lessons, social and pedagogical workshops, job
skills development workshops. Through Youth Information Centre we provide to young people information about all
issues related to young people (e.g. education, employment, health, culture, mobility). The information is carried out by
the principles of ERYICA (European Youth Information and Counselling Agency). We are also Eurodesk multiplier for
Karlovac County and thus we provide young people in Karlovac County information about the opportunities of
international mobility.
The aim of our Volunteer Centre is to increase the number volunteers, to increase the number of organisations that
provide volunteering activities and to connect volunteers and organisations that receive volunteers. Throughout the year
we also organise several volunteer actions in local community. Annualy we organize a Festival of volunteering through which organizations nominate their candidates for the best volunteer of the year. Volunteer Center is also responsible for educating volunteer coordinators, as well as volunteers and organizations of volunteering. Several of out volunteering programmes were enlisted in best practices handouts of regional volunteering centers. The aim of the Volunteering Center is not only to be a link in the community and to solidarly provide services to those who need it, but to develop the infrastructure of volunteering: with educations, advocating for better regulation, promoting quality labels etc. Our Volunteering Center holds a Quality label of the Croatian Volunteering Development Center.
Through our mobility projects we aim to give opportunity to young people in our local community to participate in various
types of project (e.g. youth exchanges, training courses, ESC) which enables them to acquire new skills and knowledge in
European/international context.
The National Agency has contracted Carpe Diem as an ambasador organization for European Solidarity Corps: we promote ESC in our region and provide support to other organizations within this program.

Inclusion topics

This organisation is willing to involve volunteers who face situations which make their participation in activities more difficult, from the following categories for different types of project:

• Cultural differences
• Economic obstacles
• Geographical obstacles