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1. Reducing obstacles to young people's access to culture

2. Disseminating information on cultural opportunities

3. Knowledge of cultural heritage amongst young people

Reducing obstacles to young people's access to culture

Young people can benefit from initiatives aimed at facilitating young people's access to cultural environments and fostering their participation in cultural events and experiences. 

The project "European Youth Card - the path to European opportunities" implemented by the European Youth Centre and funded by the Ministry of Youth and Sports aims to encourage youth mobility through numerous services, discounts and benefits in Serbia and abroad. The idea is to enable youth to explore the world they live in and be informed about the events and to actively and fully participate in social life. Several types of cards are available for young people, students, upper secondary school pupils and teachers.

EYCA – European Youth Card is intended for all young people between the age of 7 and 30, regardless of whether they are pupils, students, employed or unemployed.

• 24h UNIQA insurance and travel insurance for an unlimited number of trips during the validity of the membership fee;
• discounts in Serbia and other European countries. Discounts apply to buying tickets for museums, theatres, bus and train tickets, accommodation in hotels and hostels, visits to restaurants, shopping for clothes and other needs of young people in various retail chains and on trips;
• gifts throughout the year at promotions and through social networks;
• participation in various thematic calls and events for young people.

ISIC – International Student Identity Card is intended for students who have certificate of enrolment in studies issued by faculty or college in bachelor, postgraduate or PhD studies. It serves as an internationally recognized student ID. With this card different discounts are also enabled in different areas: for the museum tickets, theatres, tickets for bus and rail traffic, accommodation in hotels and hostels, visits to catering facilities, the purchase of wardrobe and other needs of young people in different chains of commerce and on travel services.

Disseminating information on cultural opportunities

As presented in the research study Youth Cultural Participation in the Balkans young people in the Western Balkans countries are most often informed about the cultural events via Internet. Even so, there is no unique web portal(s) either directly organised or funded by top level authorities on informing young people about cultural opportunities in Serbia.

The same research study showed that “word of mouth” in information transfer is quite significant as about a quarter of respondents rely on this type of obtaining information.

Observed comparatively Internet is the most popular medium, while print and TV media have lower popularity among young people (Figure 4).

Figure 8.4.1: Ways of informing about cultural events

Source: Youth Cultural Participation in the Balkans, 2017.

As the Internet being the most popular medium, the most widespread ways of communication and information shows that Facebook, Instagram and Viber are most popular in the region, while Skype, Twitter and Google + are less popular.

Knowledge of cultural heritage amongst young people

Within the process of raising public awareness about the importance and value of heritage, events such as European Heritage Days, Museums from 10 to 10, Museum Night are held and realized throughout Serbia.

The "European Heritage Days" event is part of a large European event of the Council of Europe and the European Commission, which every September presents heritage as a common heritage of the European nations, diversity of cultures, traditions and customs.

Every year, in cooperation with the secretariats in charge of culture, environmental protection, education and childcare, sports and youth, many programmes are prepared in each of these areas. Special attention is paid to acquainting children and young people with the importance of heritage, the possibilities of sustainable use and preservation. As young people are especially interested in the application of modern technologies in cultural heritage, numerous contents in digital form are also being prepared (virtual tours, exhibitions and catalogues in electronic form, films, video materials, TV shows, recorded performances, etc.).