Zorica Lucic Norstedt is a dedicated social entrepreneur and physiotherapist with more than a decade of sustained leadership in child welfare, social inclusion, and community-based education in Montenegro. She is the founder and driving force behind the NGO Riznica Mladosti (Youth Treasury), an organisation based between Stockholm and Montenegro that since 2012 has operated a long-term partnership with the Mladost Children’s Home in Bijela, Montenegro.

Through Riznica Mladosti, Ms. Norstedt has designed and led multiple structured educational and psychosocial programmes serving vulnerable children in institutional care — including children with special needs attending inclusive education, children in regular schooling, and children in the reception centre for temporary placements. Over more than a decade, the organisation’s programmes have reached over 170 children, the vast majority of whom have successfully integrated into society upon leaving institutional care, entering employment, forming families, and avoiding re-entry into the social protection system.

Under her leadership, Riznica Mladosti has attracted international volunteers and donors, secured funding for study grants supporting higher education for residents of the children’s home, organised international cultural and sporting activities, and delivered professional development for the organisation’s associates in areas including Montessori education, NLP, and yoga instruction. Ms. Norstedt was nominated by the Municipality of Herceg Novi for the prestigious October Award in recognition of her contributions to the local community.

By training a licensed physiotherapist, Ms. Norstedt combines clinical knowledge of physical and mental wellbeing with proven organisational and leadership capabilities in a cross-border, multi-stakeholder context. Her work reflects a long-term commitment to the rights, education, and dignified development of children in some of the most vulnerable circumstances in the Western Balkans.