About us

Innovators’ Valley was founded in 2015 by the “National Social Integration Institute” team, aiming to open the door for creativity and working space in nature. Our main objective is the development of social business and social innovations.

We have chosen bees as the principal attribute of the Innovator’s Valley. Beehive symbolizes order, collaboration, and harmony with which we align in the Innovator’s Valley.

Our values include empathy, close community feeling, and connection with nature. Those are also reflected in the activities which we carry out.  We openly discuss human rights, social exclusion, social innovations, youth education, and ecology questions. Apart from that, we organize local as well as international training and projects that would positively affect mentioned areas.

Innovators’ Valley is open to collaboration – here you can organize your training, seminars, or other events. Also, in our team and between our acquaintances we have plenty of specialists that work with social projects and businesses. Therefore, by prior agreement, we can organize training regarding human rights, media and computer literacy, social business, leadership, or apprenticeship topics. We also arrange team-building activities. You are free to come here either alone or with the group, to work, create, or to relax. Moreover, we kindly welcome volunteers, generators of ideas, and everyone eager to join us with positive emotions and helping hands. Let‘s communicate, create innovations, and support each other!

History

Innovators’ Valley location has an authentic history – it begins when the Selonians tribe settled in current Antalieptė. At the same time, monks also moved to this area – in a town, where the majority of the population was the Jews, in the 17th century the Barefoot Carmelites had started to move in. Still today there are plenty of unanswered questions about the first monks, who lived in Antalieptė. They had to back out after the rebellion which took place in 1831 when the military unit of Daugpilis fortress has been moved to the monastery and right next to the central entrance the punishment cell was built. In the end of the 19th century, when the military has abandoned the monastery, it was passed to the hands of Orthodox monks that stayed here up until the first World War. When the first World War has begun, the German soldiers had settled in the monastery. The drawings by the soldier on the second floor of the monastery resembles that particular period. At the end of the war, the monastery went to the nuns (Širdietės monastic order). In that time many ancillary buildings were built next to the monastery, education and manufactories started to develop, in the summertime big conventions and summer camps took place here. During World War II, the monastery was turned to agricultural technical school.

In Soviet times, some buildings of Antalieptė that held historic value had suffered; however, quite a few authentic objects remained. A former brewery, water mill of Tiškevičiai (that in the Soviet times belonged to the Arts technical school – now Academy of Arts), swinging bridge, mountain-type hydropower plant can be visited in Antalieptė today.

Team