This year, Velika Gorica celebrates 20 years since it was granted the status of a Child-Friendly City. On this occasion, a conference titled 'Velika Gorica to the Measure of Children and Young People' will be held as part of Children's Week, organised by the media house Motus Media.
The conference will take place on Tuesday, 6 October, at the Velika Gorica Entrepreneur Incubator, located at 6 Podložnica Street, in the Poduzetni inkubator. The event begins at 10:00, and participation is free. All interested parties must register via an online form.
The event will bring together children and young people, experts, and representatives from institutions, the education sector, and the local community. Participants will discuss what the lives of children and young people in Velika Gorica look like today, as well as more broadly, and the conference will highlight what the status of a Child-Friendly City means today. Topics include how the system supports children and families, how much children are involved in city life, and the current state of their mental health, relationships, and digital world, as well as how they cope with the challenges of growing up. The focus will be on the experience of the City of Velika Gorica, with guests hearing about the numerous investments made and being made.
One of the participants will be the Mayor of Velika Gorica, Krešimir Ačkar. The director of the Croatian Association 'Naša djeca' (Our Children) and chair of the central coordinating board of the 'Cities and Municipalities – Friends of Children' programme, Dr Arijana Mataga Tintor, will also speak on what has been achieved over the past 20 years and what is being done today. Katarina Sikirić Lukić, a social pedagogue and educational consultant at the elementary school named after Nikola Hribar in Velika Gorcia, will also take part. Children will speak about their experiences, wishes, and concerns, revealing what the world looks like from their perspective.
The question 'How is a city built to measure for children?' will be addressed by the secretary general of the Croatian Association of Naša Djeca, Snježana Krpes, the head of the Department for Monitoring Children's Rights and Evaluation at the UNICEF Office in Croatia, Marijana Šalinović, and Prof. Dr. Martina Ferić from the Laboratory for Preventive Research at the Faculty of Education, University of Zagreb. This will be followed by a performance by children and the presentation of the 'Children's Voice Counts' game, created by three former members of the Children's City Council in Velika Gorica: Nera Stipetić, Brigita Grčić, and Matea Hrgen.
The question of what growing up looks like today will be discussed by students, followed by a debate on mental health entitled 'Caring for the Invisible: What Lies Behind 'I'm Fine'?'. The debate will feature Hana Hrpka, executive director and president of the Hrabri Telefon (Brave Phone) association, Sanda Puljž Vidović, director of the Centre for Children, Youth and Family in Velika Gorica, and Anja Ravnak, a student at Velika Gorica Grammar School and mentor in the children's council. Teachers of informatics at the elementary school named after Eugène Quatremene in Velika Gorica, Dalia Kager, will also speak, alongside the head of the media literacy centre at the Croatian Catholic University, Prof. Dr. Igor Kanižaj, and the founder of Crew, Dario Marčac.
At the end of the conference, children will deliver their final messages, reminding adults once again of what is most important to them.
