NGO Creative Minds for Culture

The Association “Creative Minds for Culture” (abbreviated as CMC) is a youth non-governmental organization founded in 2014 by young people, and its main goal is to promote the active civic participation of young people and students in Latvian and foreign processes.
The main target group of the organisation is youth with disadvantages – those who live in rural areas, those who are experiencing economical and social issues, those who have health problems and disabilities.
Aims of our organization:
- to promote cultural and creative development of the society;
- encourage youth and students to be active citizens in Latvia and be a part of foreign cultural processes;
- to promote intercultural dialogue and tolerance for cultures and cultural heritage;
- Promote the development of volunteering and highlight its importance to local communities’ development.
- Provide young people with the opportunity to make good use of their free time.
- Provide young people with information relevant to their development needs availability.
- to develop and improve competences of youngsters and students through non-formal education.
- to promote the development of volunteering and to increase its importance in the development of the local community.
- to develop and maintain partnerships with organizations and institutions that support youths and students’ interests.

Using non-formal education methods, CMC organizes various events for young people - trainings, seminars, camps, discussions and workshops - on topics of interest and relevance to young people - participation, media, healthy lifestyles, career and educational opportunities.

Over the last years, CMC has been involved in and have implemented several national and international projects on volunteering, youth discussions with politicians (Youth Dialogue), youth initiatives, Youth Media Academy, on youth civic participation, hate speech and human rights, media literacy and critical thinking.
CMC is the regional coordinator of the European Youth Information Network Eurodesk in the Pieriga region, providing information for youth on a regional level. In 2021 CMC received the Eurodesk Award for the most inclusive information project.

Youth involvement (with youth and for youth) and non-formal education:
One of the organisations’ aims is to develop and improve competences of youngsters and students through non-formal education, according to that CMC focuses on giving young people the opportunity to develop their competences, by giving them the optional activities to participate and to organize activities by themselves. These activities include activities about culture, creative thinking, critical thinking, photo and video, art, music, theatre, ICT and other relevant topics. CMC supports youth volunteering and promotes it in local communities.
Young people with disadvantages:
The main target group of the organization is youth with disadvantages. We organize local activities for youth with disadvantages, provide the necessary support they need. We provide mobile youth work services in the rural areas. Mentors from the CMC has been involved in a number of activities for youth employment, implementing the ESF project "Youth Guarantees" administered by the State Employment Agency, involving young people in the labor market, providing a job for young people with special needs and improving the employment of young people.
Youth participation and active citizenship:
CMC has 8 years of experience in reaching out to the youth, providing them qualitative information about their possibilities for studies, work and wellbeing and motivating them to involve and be an active citizens. CMC has organized meetings with politicians and youth in regions, in order to develop dialogue (Youth Dialogue) between them and help the youth voices to be heard.
Youth information:
CMC is providing a qualitative information to young people through various channels (Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, home page), are active in preparing and sharing the information. We have developed non-formal youth group (CMC Youth Media) for those who want to develop their multimedia competences and media literacy. CMC is Eurodesk coordinator in Pierīga region, ensuring young people with information about EU and its programs opportunities.

CMC regularly participates in international projects developing cooperation and exchange of experience with young people from different countries, youth non-governmental organizations and with youth actors.
The organization is actively developing project organizing competences on the local level and have gained some capacity through various international projects.
The organization has experience in implementing the following activities:
-7 years’ experience in youth work in local level;
-active cooperation with other stakeholders in developing different youth work practices on local level;
-3 years’ experience organizing different non-formal educational activities for youth who lives in a rural areas;
-From 2017 the organization is supporting and providing mentorship for young people, especially young people with fewer opportunities, to ensure that they receive a good offer of apprenticeship, training, continued education or employment that is suited to their abilities and experience within four months of becoming unemployed or leaving education;
-7 years’ experience in supporting youth initiatives, advising and helping them to implement their ideas on local, regional and international level.

More information: https://mindsforculture.com/; www.facebook.com/CreativeMindsforCulture; www.instagram.com/creativemindsinlatvia/