About us

Klaipėda Open Youth Center is a space where you can relax and just be yourself. Everyone looking for fun is welcome here: table tennis, billiards, PlayStation and a variety of board games await you. It doesn't matter whether you come with a company or alone - you will always find interesting activities and new friends here.

What are we doing?

Our forms of activity – click to learn more.

Open work with youth

Simply put, open youth work is a form of youth work that aims to provide all young people, regardless of their social status, with opportunities to safely spend their free time, engage in activities that interest them, and, if necessary, with the help of competent youth workers to solve challenges and issues that arise in everyday life.

Open work is unique in that participation in the proposed activities is not binding. „obligation”: a young person does not have to commit to attending regularly – he decides for himself how to use his time.

The open job is intended for young people who:

looking for a safe environment, new forms of togetherness, being together;
has free time, but does not know how and where to spend it meaningfully;
They stand out through their clothes, speech, and behavior, thus expressing their otherness.

Special attention is paid to those who:

does not fit in with peers or adult society due to their behavior or appearance;
does not see a purpose in his life;
lack motivation to learn and strength to creatively manage their daily lives;
are prone to crime, use alcohol and other intoxicants.

Activities in centers and spaces are not charged - anyone who wants to can get involved.

Institutional forms

Adopted as a good practice from the old European Union countries, this method of working with youth has begun to gain ground in Lithuania since 2005. Its main institutional forms are two:

Open Youth Center – a legal entity or organization carrying out work with youth based on the voluntary decision of young people to participate in the activity.

Open youth space – a facility managed by a legal entity providing cultural, educational, sports or social services, where the same volunteer-based work with youth is carried out.

Working with youth on the street

Working with street youth is work in a non-institutional setting, but directly in informal gathering places for young people: public spaces, streets, parks, cafes, sports fields, clubs, etc.

This form is focused on young people in large cities. It is particularly appropriate in parts of the city and neighborhoods where there are no youth centers or organizations working with youth and where there is a higher concentration of young people experiencing social challenges.

Youth information and counseling

Goal. To increase the number of young people aware of youth policy opportunities and services provided to young people, helping them integrate into public life, the education system and the labor market.

Tasks:

to provide accurate and understandable information on topics relevant to young people;
mediate or refer a young person to competent institutions when specialist advice is needed;
promote critical thinking, information literacy and the ability to make independent decisions;
to prepare attractive information materials on topics of interest to young people;
to introduce young people to sources of information and their rights and obligations in the areas of education, social security and the labor market.

Main topics:

Labor market Education Civic and public life Health issues

All consultation topics

General information and consultation:

education (secondary, vocational education, studies, languages, non-formal education);
rights and responsibilities of young people;
Internet (information) literacy and online safety;
leisure and involvement in social activities;
solving social problems and psychological assistance;
health, mental and reproductive health issues;
financial literacy and entrepreneurship;
addiction prevention;
employment and job opportunities;
needs of young families and housing.

Specialized information and consultation:

youth volunteering;
non-formal youth education;
youth employment and leisure (AJC, AJE, mobile and street work with youth);
youth empowerment and participation.

More information on the JRA page ↗

Youth worker

In both centers and spaces, the main character is youth worker – an adult who operates outside the boundaries of formal education, family and work activities, striving for the personal and social development of young people through individual work and work with groups and communities.

He/she has the professional competences required for this work and is entitled to remuneration for the professional work performed. It is desirable that the youth worker has a pedagogical, psychological or social science education or has otherwise acquired competences in social work with youth.

Want to learn more or just stop by? You'll find the answers On the FAQ page, and addresses and opening hours – on the home page.