Rojc Community Center
Rojc Community Center is in downtown Pula, in a building named after national second- world-war hero Karlo Rojc. It is city’s largest building, with a surface area of 16.739 m2, an internal courtyard, a free car park, sports facilities and green areas. Built in 1870 under Austro-Hungarian rule, it served as a military school under the monarchy and under Italian and Yugoslavian rule until 1976 when it became a barrack. The Yugoslavian army vacated Rojc in 1991. In the beginning of the ‘90s the building turned into a war refugee shelter. In the late ‘90s, after the refugees left, the first squatters and civil associations arrived. The city of Pula decided to formalize the existing situation in 1999 by signing the first contracts for using the premises. Today, 106 associations have signed a contract to use the premises for free. They are only obliged to pay their electricity bills. With their own efforts and funds, the associations organized the space and brought about the transformation of the former barrack. Through work and programs they revitalized both the building and the town which created foundations for further development. The corridors of Rojc resemble a big gallery, since more than 4000 m2 are painted by numerous artists within the project “Krojcberg”.
Rojc is the only place in Croatia which gathers associations and promotes their development. It is a unique kind of “civil society sector”, where more than 106 different users unite towards a common objective. It is a place in which the associations of civil society “live” and work in the fields of culture, sport, psychosocial welfare and health, children and youth, assistance for people with special needs, environmental protection, technical sciences, ethnic minorities and more. These various associations represent a model of successful cooperation between the local authorities and civil associations. People from the entire region and further afield gather in Rojc to engage in countless activities and programs.
On a yearly basis, Rojc plays host to hundreds of activities, workshops and concerts, as well as seven festivals. On average, the building sees more than one thousand visitors per day.
The Association of Rojc Alliance (SUR)
SUR is a network of associations in Rojc Community center which gathers together to represent the center and promote its interests, to encourage cooperation between associations and to actively participate in the community. The goals of the association are to build a stable and recognizable network of associations based on cooperation and common objectives, to improve the management of Rojc based on a participatory model, and to promote active participation in community with shared values of respecting diversity, solidarity and cooperation.
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