A glimpse into a brighter future for each and everyone.

We are here with a purpose: to be the advocate of sustainable development among youth with an emphasis on health and environment. We want to provide young people in Slovenia with a well-established and comprehensive platform for activating and developing their own potential.

We leave our mark in numerous important fields, which are filled with challenges that are important for the personal growth of young people, the strengthening of personal competencies, and improving society. That is why we leave it with pride, for a better world, with no excuses.

● Care for the environment: No Excuse Slovenia has been active in the field of climate change since 2009 and has since spread to the whole field of care for environment. We give a lot of attention to evaluating information and its sources and promoting critical thinking. We spread the acquired knowledge through workshops, presentations, seminars, education and projects among our members and the general public. We advocate for a healthy environment, waste reduction and reducing the ecological footprint.

● Challenges of present-day society: The central area of activity in No Excuse Slovenia is recognising and addressing the challenges we face daily in the local environment with the aim of creating positive social changes. Our members prepare and implement local initiatives across Slovenia with the assistance of experience leaders, mentors, and youth workers. Through it, they learn the basic steps of successfully completing a project. Our moto is: “criticize, suggest, act” – at No Excuse we encourage young people to take a step further and find solutions to the problems that they identified. We also strive to connect young people from different environments and numerous European regions through participation in international events, training, and educational programs.

● Health and preventive action: One of the cornerstones of No Excuse Slovenia is also the public health of young people and preventive action in this field. We implement this through creating and implementing effective preventive programs for young people in different areas. We focus on different areas: we advocate regular exercise and a healthy, balanced diet; spread awareness of the negative effects of active and passive smoking; and warn of the negative effects of alcohol, cannabis, and other drugs. We also encourage an open debate about issues related to teenage self- image, peer violence, self-harm and stress.

● Mental health: In the field of mental health, we are breaking new ground, since we are trying to implement the principles of effective preventive action into mental health problems in general, not only into addiction- related programs. We mostly focus on four main themes: self-image, peer violence, self-harm, and stress. In doing so, we collaborate with different experts and organizations to develop and design various preventive programs for youth, which we implement in Slovenian primary and secondary schools. In this field, members of our organization are getting increasingly involved – through completed programs, they become ambassadors of a healthy lifestyle and promoters of mental health among their peers.

● Addiction: In the field of addiction, No Excuse Slovenia has been active since 2006, particularly in the areas of tobacco, alcohol, and cannabis. The reason behind this is the widespread use of these substances among young people and strong manipulation by the industry. In these three areas, our activists raise awareness among pupils and student in primary and high schools through peer-lead workshops. All workshops have been created and supported by experts, so it is a combination of a professional background and peer approach. We also strive for change of policies in this area, for which we are actively fighting within various projects and collaborations with other non-governmental organizations.

● Nutrition and exercise: We began to work in the area of nutrition in 2010 with the workshop Fitfest. Later, we broke down the extensive topic into sub-areas, through which we now develop further activities. We continuously collaborate with Slovene Consumers’ Association. We also emphasize the marketing strategies of the industry in this field, since they significantly influence the eating habits of young people and search for healthier eating alternatives in our environment.

● Sustainable development: In the recent years, Youth network No Excuse Slovenia has become increasingly active in the field of sustainable development. We take pride in working in accordance with the Sustainable Development Goals 2030. We mostly focus on climate change, social impact, environment, and health, since we understand that human health is largely dependent on the environment and conditions in which one lives. At No Excuse, we focus on all three components of sustainable development: environment, society, and economy. We are trying to bring the topic closer to young people. We advocate for collaboration among governments, economy, non-governmental organizations, and the public, and wish to aim to influence economic development and the sustainable use of natural resources. We also advocate for sustainable and active mobility and encourage expert discussions on pressing global issues.

● Nassim Djaba, President of No Excuse Slovenia, former senator of the University of Primorska: I joined No excuse in 2006 as a green high school student. During my growing up at No Excuse, I gained a lot of knowledge, but also a second family, who stands by me for better or for worse. Without No Excuse, I would never have achieved as much in my life, from the viewpoint of ambitiousness and support as well. Once a No Excuser, always a No Excuser. #NoExcuse4Life

● Nina Rogelj Peloza, Vice President for Sustainable Development at The National Youth Council of Slovenia: No Excuse is an organization which shaped me into the person I am today. When I was accepted into the organization, I came into an environment of young people, who wished to leave behind a better world. Through projects and countless fun work weekends, I met loads of like-minded peers and acquired knowledge and skills I could not acquire elsewhere. To this day, I still remember international youth exchanges that I participated in as a No Excuse activist. To get the chance to travel the whole Europe and more, meet peers from other countries, and have fun while acquiring new experiences and knowledge – no one should miss this. 🙂

● Luka Vitez, Internal Medicine Physician at University Medical Centre (UKC) Ljubljana: No Excuse makes sure that every individual has the appropriate structure and support to develop their personal and social potential. Being a member of this organization helped me a lot.

● Luka Keserič, EYCA Youth Panel member and former leader of No Excuse Slovenia: No Excuse is a family that accepts you for who you are and stands by your side in the process of growing up and discovering yourself and the world. What I like the most is that here, young people learn the responsibility of changing the world for the better.

● Urška Erklavec, former President of No Excuse Slovenia, currently employed at the Ministry of Health of the Republic of Slovenia: No Excuse activists are young people who are not afraid to think differently, and who constantly learn to critically evaluate information from their surroundings. In the organization there are a lot of young experts, who are highly knowledgeable in various fields, so I will always recommend them to other young people and support them with my own knowledge and experience.

● Tjaša Deu, TEDx speaker, strategist for the development of YouTube channels, influencer, entrepreneur: When I was in my teenage years and my personality was most significantly shaping, Program No Excuse gave me a safe space for growth and development. Through socializing and workshops, I developed rhetorical skills and in practice learned what active citizenship is. I give great credit to No Excuse for my self-confidence, openness to new, crazy ideas (and implementing those!), and the desire for public speaking and sharing knowledge.

● Sinja Čož, Research assistant at Centre for Social Psychology, University of Ljubljana, Faculty of Social Sciences: Personally, organization No Excuse represented a place, where I could develop myself as a person in the full meaning of the word. In the organization, there was no scarcity of challenges, through which I learned to solve problems better; interesting lectures, which broadened my knowledge; activities, through which I not only developed my skills, but also learned to pass on knowledge; trips to unknown and interesting places; and last but not least, there was never a shortage of people, with whom I shared laughter and tears, and who always took me seriously, even when I did not. Even today, from the time when I was a young activist in ‘No Excuse,’ I still have an indescribable feeling that I matter and can always contribute positively to making society better.

● Dr. Blaž Gasparini, Postdoctoral Researcher in the Department of Atmospheric and Climate Science, University of Washington, Seattle, USA: We all criticize and talk about all the injustices in this world, but we stop at the criticism. But No Excuse offers you an environment that helps you overcome mere criticism and pushes you into action. At the same time, teamwork in daring and ambitiously planned projects gives you a chance of working and socializing with other great people from Slovenia, Europe, and the whole world.

● Manca Kozlovič, singer and former Vice President of No Excuse: When I think of No Excuse, I get an association with endless experiences, which have become a great part of my life and myself. Through the many years of socializing with incredible people, knowledge, and experience, which No Excuse gave me, I developed a different view of the world, one that is more developed. It went something like this: I first saw the world in a different light and then saw how each and every individual can change it into something better. Not just for their own benefit, but also for everyone else, and those who come after us.