Description of organisation

Projects that bring together the New East Youth Initiative were founded back in 2014 to change the region's cultural landscape and physical appearance. The New East program is currently working on education projects in the region, culture and youth participation. Our activity is an educational program focused on the positive changes in the post-Soviet cultural space. A program based on creating new values, non-formal education opportunities and the presentation of examples of successful development. New East is a non-governmental cultural and educational program based on an interdisciplinary approach addressing local issues by engaging citizens with the potential to transform environmental culture code. Our projects aim to develop media literacy, critical thinking, creative industries, integration processes, and cultural environment. The organization is engaged in youth initiative support, creative projects, youth initiative support, organization of public events (festivals, workshops, seminars, courses, business events, simulation games, acceleration programs). In 2017-2018 we organized events such as music festival "Kvartirnik", performance "21/11", youth forum "EUROPE 2050", masterclasses and concerts in Latgale, business simulation games together with LIAA Daugavpils Business Incubator, Media Camp project (10 meetings and work with mentors), Dwina-rekoj tvojej festival, Idea Hub ”creative workshops, musical performances, film screenings, theater experiments, Latvian edition of the“ Poems in the city ”project in Daugavpils, where more than 100 poems were collected in various languages - Latvian, Latgalian, Russian, Polish, Roman, Ido, German, French, Tatar, English, Byelorussian, etc. all authors are young people from Daugavpils. New East was nominated for the DAUGAVPILS TOURISM AWARD 2018 with the project “LAVKA 100- Freedom Unites”. This project is already in the traditional format - informal networking and meeting with guests from culture, art, music, business, politics, etc. to find inspiration, activate a new generation, and update the topics that matter to us today. The project LAVKA 100, in 2018, took place as a cooperation program between the Polish Parliament, Office of the President of Poland, Fundacja Pomoc Polakom na Wschodzie. Two meetings in Latvia and in Warsaw, guests of LAVKA were urbanists and creators of non-governmental theaters from Minsk, organizers of multi-functional self-entertainment centers in Latgale, administration of the President of Poland, the youth thought leaders and journalists of liberal publications, representatives of the Ministry of Culture of the LV100 office, etc. Musicians from Latvia, Hakasia, Poland and Lithuania also participated. The aim of the project was informal meet to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Latvia's independence and the 100th anniversary of Poland's independence. and citizens on an international scale, involving both project participants and guests from several countries, making Daugavpils a city where we celebrate Freedom together. In 2019, the LAVKA 100 project was continued on a larger and larger scale. July 2019 saw the launch of the LAVKA Urban Talks about our Future, designed as a platform for dialogue between administration, culture, employees and young people, where urban planning experts from Tallinn Street, FreeRiga, TotalDobze, etc. were invited. In the autumn, young people and guests from more than 10 countries met at the Polish National Stadium. We invited Daugavpils Theater and Rothko Center representatives from Daugavpils to promote our city internationally. Since 2018, we have been hosting an international media literacy project, Media Lab. The project aims to bring together young people from the three Baltic States who are interested in media literacy and media content creation- three MediaLab introductory seminars were held in three Baltic cities - Daugavpils, Narva and Siauliai, followed by a three-week challenge. The project was implemented as a formal media literacy education program organized by the New East Society as a commission program for the US Embassy in Vilnius, Riga and Tallinn. At the moment we are starting the Media Lab / Radio season as part of the 95th anniversary of Latvian Radio, as an official educational program for young people from the US Embassy in Latvia. Also in the spring, we will host a forum of local initiatives for youth from all regions of Latgale. In May, we are preparing a program as part of Europe Day; an orientation and cognitive race will be held. This year we are preparing a cultural program for the first creative incubator cluster in the Daugavpils Fortress, where over six months more than 10performances in 7languages, 20performances, an orchestra concert in 150people from 10countries, festivals, educational programs, plain airs, and exhibitions will be performed. To attract youth potential from all over Europe and partner countries, we are applying for the ESC.

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
• Geographical obstacles
• Refugees