Who are we?

We are Jan en Anneriet Boonen. We are the initiators of Vita Tilburg. During our own studentdays we have benefited greatly from a setting where you could make friends, discuss existential questions and where you could just be yourself. After our graduation we lived in Sarajevo for three years, to create such a setting for Bosnian students. In 2008 we came back to The Netherlands. Jan went on to work as an IT architect and Anneriet as student pastor and lifecoach in Tilburg.

We would like to develop Vita Tilburg together with students and young professionals themselves.

Jan Boonen

Anneriet Boonen

Our volunteers

Amela

Laura

Our dream

It is our dream to be a center of well-being and meaning in Tilburg. A location where students and Young professionals can go to for trainings, encounters or coaching. But also a location where you can lodge, rest, celebrate, meditate, eat and live together.

Why

Your student days are not meant for just acquiring cognitive abilities but also for gaining practical life skills and engaging in questions about meaning. We would like to present you with an offer that students and young professionals can go to with their own specific questions, to explore what makes life worth living together.

Moreover, from all kinds of research it appears that students’ well-being is under pressure. Well-being is closely connected to your finding meaning in your life. We want to get to work at the forefront of well-being and meaning .

Our values

At Vita Tilburg all students and young professionals are welcome and you may be who you are.

We love authenticity. We try to be ourselves as well as we can, we do not pretend to be nicer than we are ( and that includes on social media 😊) and we watch over the balance between working and resting.

Vita Tilburg is going to come about as a collaboration of initiators and students.

We cater to both Dutch- and international students. We always try to make sure that everybody can take part. This means that most of the time we communicate in English.

Sustainability and taking good care of our earth is important to us. In everything we organize we strive for as high a level of sustainability as we can reach in our environment. Should you have any ideas about even a higher level of sustainability, then we will gladly reflect on that with you.

In Vita Tilburg every one of us is both guest and host. You will be able to tell your own story and we all see to it that everyone feels at home.

At Vita we like both hustle and bustle and peace and quiet, we are into contemplation and parties, into deep thinking and learning by experience, into living together and time off for ourselves.

Vita’s initiators live their lives from Christian spirituality. When we offer meditations you will notice that we take our inspiration from ancient monastic traditions. We cherish Vita as a place where your spirituality or whatever your beliefs are can be discussed. Everyone is welcome and we love to hear what inspires you!

Our partners

Vita Tilburg is a pioneering place of de Protestantse Gemeente in Tilburg. Other congregations that support Vita Tilburg are Ontmoetingskerk Tilburg, GKIN Tilburg, PKN Oisterwijk en PKN Hilvarenbeek.

We keep in close contact with Tilburg University and Fontys Hogeschool Tilburg. In that way we can constantly adapt what we have on offer to the perceived needs of students and young professionals.

Vita Tilburg is part of Vita Communities. In several cities with students comparable initiatives are underway.