Ljubljana seeks innovative ideas from its youth

The city will fund and support the implementation of the best ones

Ljubljana is looking for innovative ideas on how to improve life in the city. The Slovenian capital last week announced the fifth call for participants aimed towards local youth. They are invited to send proposals on how to support Ljubljana in its creative, solidary and green transformation.

Improving the city while developing yourself

The City Incubator (originally Mestni incubator) program is open to young men and women from Ljubljana aged 18 to 29. The incubator consists of a series of workshops, mentoring and last but not least – financial support for the projects that show the best results. Its mission is to get the best out of the local youth and chart their professional paths but to also navigate them on how to harness their ideas and improve the quality of life in the city.

This year will be the fifth season of the municipal programme and as usual, the projects have to be feasible and accompanied by a detailed plan for their implementation as well as an explanation for the project-senders' motivation. They have to support one of the following themes:

• creative Ljubljana;
• solidarity Ljubljana;
• green Ljubljana.

The deadline for project submission is on Tuesday, 3 November, via the online application form available on Ljubljana’s website.

Finally, the municipality wants to remind that the programme is a wonderful learning experience for both the participants and the programme providers - the Mladi zmaji (Young Dragons) public institution is in cooperation with TiPovej! Institute for Creative Society.

“Young people have tremendous potential to create solutions to the challenges of the communities in which they live. They just need space, knowledge and trust.

We believe that young people are harbingers of change and that with the right approach they can make a significant contribution to meeting today's societal challenges.

The city incubator is the voice of young people in the city, it is a learning and working environment where mistakes are allowed, and it is a place where visions of the future are realized”, the team of Mladi zmaji describe the initiative on their website.

The incubator has realised 37 ideas so far which have contributed to solidarity, creativity and environmental awareness in Ljubljana.