Marija Gajic

Trainer background

Current occupation

Free lance trainer for personal, proffesional and civil society development; Theatre director; Expert in creativity development programmes;

Work experience

Engaged / contracted by many national and international organizations and member of their trainers’ pools. In the field 15 years, held more then 170 trainings and had around 700 training days.

The projects targeted various groups: youth, students, minorities, school staff, politicians, NGOs, government, suburban population, artists, journalists, managers, employees, institutions, interested individuals.

Working throughout Serbia and Europe.

Some recent international training courses I worked on as trainer/facilitator, within YiA programme or YiA&COE are:

European seminar "Young People and Mobility, a Luxury?" – 8th till 12th of December 2010 in Namur, Belgium, in the frame of the Belgian Presidency of the European Union, Le Bureau International Jeunesse

CMS Artistic (Contact Making Seminar for Creative Youthworkers) – Norwegian NA, 18th – 23rd of October, 2010, Fredrikstand, Norway

Creativity Ventures, EU Youth Programme (Action 3.1), Training For Advance Development of Creativity Competences of Trainers and Youth Workers, Belgrade 5-13th of July, 2010

CMS For Youth Exchanges for Youth With Less Opportunities - Norpartner, Norwegian NA and Gjovik community, 13-17 June 2010, Gjovik, Norway

Cross-Border Cooperation on Youth Entrepreneurship Development and Promotion – People’s Parliament, Youth in Action, 15th – 21st of February, 2010, 6 days, Novi Sad, Serbia

EVS trainings for volunteers from EU coming in Balkan region – Belgrade and Sarajevo, 10 days, Salto South East Resource Centre, European Youth Programme, Ljubljana

Global and Effective Youth Projects for Intercultural Dialogue - training course for leaders of youth projects supported by the Alliance of Civilizations initiative (UN, New York) in cooperation with the Council of Europe. European Youth Centre, Strasbourg, 5 days, December 2009

Value the Difference - From Monoculture to Diversity - The Finnish National Agency of the YiA Programme and SALTO Cultural Diversity Resource Centre, in cooperation with the National Agencies of Sweden, Norway, Denmark, United Kingdom, Ireland, the Netherlands and Belgium (Flemish Community). Helsinki, Finland, 5 days, October 2009

Other relevant courses:

2005 - 2006 and 2005 - 2004

Long-term Training of Trainers for European YOUTH Projects - YOUTH Programme of the European Commission; Interkulturelles Zentrum (IZ), Austria and SALTO Training and Cooperation Resource Centre (RC) in the name of the network of National Agencies for the YOUTH Programme of the European Union. One year process, 3 residential seminars of 10-12 days plus project practice phase with supervision.

Educational pathway

10/1997 M.A. in PSYCHOLOGY, Department of Psychology, Faculty of Philosophy, University of Belgrade;

2008 - 2009 MAPA – Moving Academy for Performing Arts, Netherlands; Projections in Theatre; Lightening Bodies; Coaching in Theatre;

2004 – 2000 Educated in Developing Creative Potentials and Intuition Development Advanced Level; Sandra Mussey; Expressive Arts University of California, San Francisco-Belgrade

2003 – 2002 Educated in Expressive Arts Techniques – theatre, visual arts and poetry; Advanced Courses in Expressive Arts Therapy – EGS; Paolo Knill, Majken Jacoby, Melinda Meier, Stephen K. Levine– Italy (2003), Germany (2002);

2002, 2008 Certificated director of Theatre of the Oppressed – Forum theatre (The Forum Theatre Week) and Rainbow of Desire - Adrian Jackson, Cardboard Citizens, London, UK

2001 International Certificate to competently prepare, run and evaluate training activities with an international and intercultural dimension; Council of Europe’s Directorate of Youth and Sport- European Youth Centre, Budapest, Hungary

From 1995 onwards Participated in many national and international trainings, seminars and conferences on peace education, conflict resolution, communication skills, teamwork and leadership, intercultural learning, diversity, stress management;