Goals

Problem statement:

Rustavi is a town near Tbilisi. This location brings various advantages and disadvantages for the local youth. Young people in Rustavi constantly have the dilemma: to stay or not to stay. Due to the fact that Tbilisi offers more opportunities and diverse activities for personal/professional development or leisure time, the town is facing huge brain drain. All of my friends and social circle is currently working or studying in Tbilisi and have no time to contribute to life in Rustavi. As a result, town is passive and "boring" for youth and is not capable of offering the activities and places where youngsters would realize themselves.
In private conversations or on social media, you can easily see the Rustavi youth complaining about not having the space for gathering with peers, getting non-formal education or challenging their creativity.
There are youth organizations in Rustavi, that work with young people but they cannot offer the space and diverse activities and cannot cover the wider public. The events made for youth are usually one-time activities and does not have permanent character, which is not giving the results in long-term perspectives.
Changes we want to achieve are:
- Free space for social gatherings;
- Multiple regular activities;
- More active and involved youth;
- New initiatives from youth;
Active youth are the change-makers in the society. So I want to combat above mentioned problems through working for and with young people. And the 42 – Social Café will serve exactly this purpose

How will your initiative achieve/contribute to this change?

42–Co-working and Social Café–will be created in order to tackle above mentioned problem in community. First of all, this will be the place available for everyone, all day, every day.We believe in power of youth.But this power is lost if it’s not directed,supported and given the platform for realization. Skills, non-formal education, creativity and activism is not granted.They need a space where they will learn,teach,experience and reflect together. We see that 42’s potential to boost the youth participation in Rustavi and become one of the biggest supporter of their ideas.First of all, 42 will be the co-working,co-learning space for young people,which will provide regular activities every working day and guest trainers’/experts’/educators’/volunteers’ activities on weekends. The plan contains workshops on: - Art therapy (painting, drawing, coloring, knitting, embroidery and etc.) - Cinematography; - Yoga and Meditation; - Ecology, sustainability and gardening; - Readers’ club; - Lingua Club; - Handcrafting; - Social Media Campaigning; - Cultural Cocktai; Every Saturday there will be the event in the café with guest speaker, comedian or in style of TEDtalk or a Movie Screening and Sunday mornings will be dedicated to kids.They will have a chance to try gardening and listen to fairytale reading. Also on every public holiday we will organize different events with youth. The café itself will be multicultural. The menu will contain a dish from different cultures to raise the awareness about different cuisines from different countries. It can also provide some cooking workshops and host ethnic minorities, tourist or foreign volunteers to present their cultures. The prices in the café will be symbolic, it will just provide enough to maintain the space and educational activities. The staff of the center and café will be local young people with fewer opportunities.42 will be the living organism, as it will be functioning in many different fields and cover the wide specter of interests

What will happen to your initiative and to the purchases?

The idea of 42 is not one-time activity or an event. It is a long-term social project. To maintain and sustain the center we will time to time apply for different grant opportunities and donors. Furthermore, we have a desire to involve the local municipality as this work is their duty and we have already started cooperating with them. In the initiative we also included the social café, which, in case of success, will provide the finances to continue educational activities in future. The step-by-step action plan for our initiative looks like this: Finding Location: -We did not wait the initiative to get funds, we already started searching for the suitable location/building for our centre. We wrote a letter to the mayor of Rustavi to provide us the space for this social enterprise, but we are afraid, that we can get rejected, so simultaneously, we are negotiating with private owner about the agreement, prices and conditions. -The place we are searching should be the old building with its authentic character. In order to 1. Highlight the fact that old building can serve the great purposes without much reconstructions. 2. We hope that this will influence the general attitude in society that what is old, should be demolished and new things should be built on those places. 3. To promote in local municipality taking care of the old buildings and giving them the function; -After we have the agreement with the owner (City hall or person), we sign the agreements and be ready for next steps. Renovating and Cleaning up: -Once we receive the grant approval, we will start cleaning up the space, give it the final touches, fix what is needed to be fixed and decorate; Purchases: -The next step is buying all the necessary equipment for the space and arranging the rooms; Activities: -Once the space is ready, we will start implementing the activities according to the schedule and agenda we will plan beforehand; All the purchases will stay at the center throughout its existence.

How will initiative provide equal opportunity for men and women?

42 will equally welcome boys and girls from the community. The place will be open for every initiative from both gender representatives. In the organizers’ team we also keep the gender balance. In case of misbalance, we will promote the activities among less represented group. We think that boys and girls can both successfully use the opportunities the center provides for them.