Ecosystem platforms

DILIJAN COMMUNITY CENTRE

Dilijan Community Centre’s mission is to shape an educated, engaged and inclusive community by strengthening the capacity of residents and inspiring lifelong learning. Many thousands of people of various ages participate in the Centre’s projects.

The Centre serves as a platform for implementing projects in Dilijan for organizations such as the AGBU, Birthright Armenia, Luys Foundation, UWC Alumni, Teach for Armenia, Flex, COAF, TeachSurfing, and others.

Within the framework of the Centre’s educational work, the following regular and short-term projects are carried out: Language Studios for persons aged 5 to 45; computer courses for adults and elderly people; teaching of social design for Dilijan teenagers; sports groups, including yoga, tennis, swimming, football (including female football), basketball and volleyball teams, along with UWC Dilijan College students and teachers; scientific and research programs in biology, chemistry, physics and computer science for mixed groups of UWC Dilijan students and local teenagers; open lectures by international and national level professionals for locals; summer education day camps for children aged 8 to 13; short-term international education programs; teacher training in teaching programs on the online platform, and more.

The Centre’s cultural work consists of dance, theatre and choir studios, art classes, the Nazani Dance Ensemble and the Luse vocal ensemble, street art projects. It also includes projects for promoting, through art, the visibility of issues faced by people with special needs, as well as over 80 open events (Easter fairs, electronic music festivals, dance festivals, etc).

Within the framework of professional development, the Centre carries out trainings on writing successful CVs and developing basic business communication skills, including use of the Microsoft Office suite; special training on drafting, conducting and analyzing an opinion poll for Dilijan municipality representatives and the city’s NGO’s; trainings on building business startups for Dilijan women; trainings on journalism basics for Dilijan teenagers; trainings on designing social entrepreneurship projects; trainings on preparing adventure tourism guides for Dilijan National Park.

Dilijan Community Centre supports local initiatives such as Dilijan youth football and volleyball championships, citywide activities aimed at the cleaning and improvement of the city, a Volunteers’ Club, annual fundraising and collection of learning materials to support children from disadvantaged families, an Open City Chess Tournament, performances (including international ones), and other enterprises.

Dilijan Community Centre has joined the Network of Adult Education Centres, developed by DVV International in Armenia. The purpose of the network is to jointly promote opportunities for learning for adults, encouraging their participation in cultural, social and economic processes.

The Accelerate Rural Communities program was designed specifically for residents of Dilijan’s rural communities, to help in developing soft skills and knowledge that would be directly applied to their own businesses.

A number of City Development Projects were carried out, among which were the improvement of a new basketball court, tree planting, cleaning of the Dilijan community area, and painting of garbage bins.

In 2017 Dilijan Community Centre became the official partner of an international competition the Diamond Challenge, bringing this competition to Armenia for the first time. The winners of the competition presented their business ideas in the United States. In total, 60 business ideas were implemented.

Dilijan Community Centre carried out Projects for Artsakh People. Since October 2020, the Dilijan Community Centre started receiving clothes, shoes, first aid goods from various partner organizations and individuals for our compatriots displaced from Artsakh. The Centre, in cooperation with partner organizations, organized various events, trainings, activities, a Christmas event for the children of Artsakh, an Easter day event, performances, games, and other activities.

During the Christmas event, 41 children from Artsakh wrote letters to Santa and received gifts from him, did science experiments and much more. The children of Artsakh have been attending the DCC Choir and Dance classes.

CHOIR “LUSE” AT DILIJAN COMMUNITY CENTRE

The Choir “Luse” at the Dilijan Community Centre was created in 2014 by conductor Serine Khachatryan. To date, more than 50 young and adolescent children have participated in the choir. The repertoire of the musical group includes children’s works by Armenian, Russian and Western European composers, as well as Armenian folk songs. Choir “Luse” actively participates in community cultural events in Armenia and abroad. In 2016, “Luse” performed with a concert program at the cultural and educational centre “Hayartun” of the Georgian Diocese of the Armenian Apostolic Church in Tbilisi. In 2018, the “Luse” choir, together with the “Nazani” dance ensemble, performed in a concert program organized as part of the 17th Summit of Francophonie in Armenia, and, in 2019, as a participant in the “International Choir” Visited the cities of Armenia, Georgia and Abkhazia with concerts.

THEATRE STUDIO AT DILIJAN COMMUNITY CENTRE

The theatre studio at the Dilijan Community Centre was founded in 2014 by Vahan Badalyan. Young students of the studio learn the basics of acting, stage speech and movement, and participate in city and regional events. THEATRE STUDIO AT DILIJAN COMMUNITY CENTRE Every year, the community centre plays host to an interactive performance “Real Fairy Tale”, in which up to 500-600 young residents of Dilijan are involved. In 2021, Dilijan Inclusive Theatre was launched in the community centre. The first performance “Colours my life” has already taken place. The goal of the program is to involve children and youth with disabilities in the cultural and social life of the city through theatrical art, to educate them, to transfer knowledge about the world and man by means of theatre, to form values and foundations of behaviour in modern society.

SCHOLARSHIPS

Projects