ReViving Istra is a long-term EVS project, facing issues of deprivileged rural border region of Slovenian Istria. Young people are leaving this region, while cultural and natural heritage slowly disappears. ReViving Istra project will offer 4 young people with fewer opportunities from different European countries an option, to make a difference by dedicating a year of their lives to help the locals that still remain in our region. We will help the locals to preserve or create new green jobs and to preserve their rich natural and cultural heritage. There is a huge potential for sustainable development in the region, but new knowledge and young energy is needed to move forward. This is exactly what we would like to bring here with ReViving Istra. Participants in the programme will be priceless help with planning and coordination of effective voluntary work for the locals. Participants will be stationed in an centuries-old stone-made house that we saved from destruction, completely renovated and turned to Volunteers' Center. Since 2014 the center has hosted almost 500 young volunteers from all over the world and gave them an experience of sustainable living, meaningful work, fun and education. EVS participants and other volunteers in the center will experience voluntary work, combined with intensive non-formal education that will teach them practical skills, team work, cooperation, social responsibility and proactive attitude to challenges. We believe these experiences can be life-changing. The goals of ReViving Istra project are: - To enable young people with fewer opportunities to help others with fewer opportunities. We will support the locals with good ideas to help them create or preserve jobs in the local area. This will also give EVS participants new skills that could help them to find or create jobs for themselves when they return home. - Preservation of cultural and natural heritage of rural Istria. We will help the local community with its identification, protection and promotion. - Empowerment of participants who will learn a wide variety of new skills during the placement. Volunteers will learn new practical knowledges, how to live and work in a group, to express themselves, methods to efficiently solve conflicts, to critically verify new information and to realize their ideas. - To show the participants that through meaningful work and active citizenship we can have a positive impact on the world and at the same time benefit from new fulfilling experiences. - A long term goal of the project is to develop a model of supporting sustainable development in regions with fewer opportunities, that we could transfer to other such regions. We will reach the goals with these activities: - Establishment of a regular and effective communication channel between our project and local community.- Identification of local project ideas and cultural and natural development potentials in our region. - Research of good practices from outside the region and their dissemination to local environment. - Field work: planning, coordinating and performing the actions to support the local ideas, local community or preservation of local heritage. - Identification of appropriate funding opportunities to support local ideas. - Educational activities, discussions, workshops and field trips for volunteers. - Evaluation and dissemination of project results. Volunteers will be actively participating in all listed activities, from planning to realization. This will enable them to gain new skills and experiences. Non-formal learning will be an important part of this placement and will be passed to volunteers by different methods, such are individual and team work, practical assignments, trips, workshops and discussions in culturally rich and varied environment where volunteers from all over the world live and work together.