The Development Centre of the Heart of Slovenia is an organisation which has been leading, co-ordinating and connecting development projects of the area since 2000. By its reliability, professionalism and experiences!

The team of the Development Centre of the Heart of Slovenia, in cooperation with numerous local, regional, national and European partners, realizes projects to enhance the life quality of people in the region. The members of the team are younger but experienced and excellently interconnected professionals for individual fields of development. They are included into international partnership network with almost 230 organisations from 33 countries.

The team of the Development Centre of the Heart of Slovenia at its work considers the needs of the local environment all the time. To realize this, it organizes, leads and coordinates networks, like the network of communities and municipalities, the network of tourist bidders, network of kindergartens and schools, the network of farmers, the network of craftsmen, the network of entrepreneurs.

By operating in network it has been increasing competences of local bidders of various products and services, as well as their power of self-organizing.

Development Centre of the Heart of Slovenia has so far participated at 28 international projects being run in the following programmes (15):

• Interreg IIIB Alpine Space: project RegioMarket
• Alpine Space: project CO2-NeuTrAlp
• Bilateral International Development Cooperation of Slovenia to asist developing countries: Macedonia
• Central Europe: projects Listen to the voice of villages, Cultural Capital Counts
• Lifelong Learning: projects Aktos, AcTour
• MED: projects CYCLO, Remida, Wider
• South East Europe: project FaRInn
• Interreg IVC: projects DANTE, IN-EUR, INN.O.V.Age, LOCFOOD, RITS-net, Young SME's
• Europe for Citizens: projects Benefits of the European Union Enlargement for Regional Development,  LAGs4EU
• Swiss Contribution: project Local products
• Intelligent Energy Europe: project Poly-Sump
• Horizon 2020: project EUth
• COSME: project EDEN55+NW
• Interreg Europe: HoCare, TRINNO
• Erasmus+: SEEDs among NEETs, STEER

Read more about the main development projects we have implemented so far in the References section.

The role of Development centre of the Heart of Slovenia:

• connecting municipalities, inhabitants, tourist bidders, entrepreneurs,
• farmers, societies, institutions….
• being active according to the principle »from bottom up«
• bringing financial resources to the area of the Heart of Slovenia
• training, educating and advising
• opening sales paths and creating new market products
• informing and promoting the area and services of the Heart of Slovenia
• organizing events and conferences
• preparing strategic documents for municipalities

The vision of the Heart of Slovenia is to become a place of opportunities. By bringing together individuals, municipalities, projects, products and services in the Heart of Slovenia new opportunities arise in entrepreneurship, tourism and environment.

The values of the Heart of Slovenia represent a foundation for all cooperation, which leads to a stimulating development environment, self-sufficiency of the area and a better life quality of the people. Co-creation, knowledge and integrity are the source of excellence and welfare in the Heart of Slovenia.

The Heart of Slovenia team and partners follow the following principles:

• co-creation, which is based on mutual respect and is a source of trust between partners in Slovenia as well as abroad;
• knowledge, which the employees of the development centre constantly enhance and share with partner network all over Europe, thus enhancing their own competences as well as the competences of their partners;
• excellence, which brings recognisability of the development centre, the area and the Heart of Slovenia brand;
• welfare, which stems from generating their own capital from diverse networks that themselves finance their activities and thus strengthen their independence;
• integrity, which connects all aspects of sincere communication between employees and partners at all level.

Awards and acknowledgements:

• Bronze Sejalec Award for the innovative and creative tourism product “Bicycle, equestrian and hiking trails of the Posavje hills” (Slovenian Tourist Board, 2004)
• InLoCom Award for the most innovative local community (InCo Movement, 2011)
• Award to LAG The Heart of Slovenia at the international photography contest “Photos of rural Europe” (European Network for Rural Development, 2012)
• Family-Friendly Enterprise Certificate (2012)
• European Green Office Certificate (2013)
• InLoCom Award for the most innovative project at local community level for projects “The Land of Hayracks” and “Abraham’s Key of the Heart of Slovenia” (2013)
• Recognition award for exceptional achievements – “The Heart of Slovenia – systemic and sustainable approach in rural development” (2013)
• Finalist Sejalec Award 2013 for the innovative and creative tourism product “Caravanning in the Heart of Slovenia” (2013)
• 3rd place for webpage www.srce-slovenije.si on WEBSI competition (2015)