Citizen Legislative Advocacy in Minority Communities
SMALL GRANT PROJECTS in Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania and Slovakia August 30, 2013 With the financial support from the U.S. Department of State Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs Office of Citizen Exchanges Professional Fellows Program from four Central and Eastern European countries a total of 32 European fellows participated in a 6week exchange program in the U.S. in 2012. They learned about community organizing and other methods to engage citizens to make changes in their own and their communities’ life. They got many new ideas that they could implement after their return to their country and community. Thanks to more than 20 U.S. hosting organizations and U.S. mentors across the U.S. which provided up to 3-week internship fellows not only gained practical experiences, but they also collected many useful training materials that were previously not available in Europe. Everyone participated in a variety of training opportunities before and during the U.S. trip and most of them gained enough knowledge and confidence to make presentations and trainings for others after their return using their U.S. experience. They started to work on many different follow on activities based on their action plans and welcomed 22 U.S. mentors in three groups who made a reciprocal visit to Europe to help the alumni with implementing their projects and provided additional training, consulting, mentoring. During the spring/summer of 2013 the Great Lakes Consortium announced a small grant application opportunity to any of the 2012 alumni for them to complete some projects. Small grants (under $2,000 each) helped to cover expenses of the projects but alumni contributed their volunteer time, brought in additional
resources and engaged others to do the same. Small grant support was also available to create training materials or other publications that are connected to this exchange program so more people can benefit from the experience. From the four countries altogether 26 of the 32 alumni submitted applications and successfully completed their projects by August 30, 2013. They proposed and implemented a variety of activities including issue organizing, parent and/or youth organizing, training/seminar/workshops, involving disadvantaged people from urban or rural communities, with special emphasis on Roma and disabled people. As a result thousands of people became familiar with community organizing and many of them were youth who got very interested to continue this type of community work. In the small grant projects alumni collaborated with others who participated in different exchanges and they brought back different experience to share. Some U.S. mentors also helped the alumni in the organizing in Europe and/or preparing training materials. The Sister City connections between Banska Bystrica, Slovakia and Charleston, West Virginia also benefited from joint projects, and the Sister City collaboration between the City of Szeged, Hungary and the City of Toledo, Ohio also became stronger. Special Thanks for the support to the successful exchanges and follow on activities to our collaborating European partners: C.E.G.A (Creating Effective Grassroots Alternatives) in Bulgaria; CCF (Civil College Foundation) in Hungary; CeRe (Resource Center for Public Participation) in Romania; and CKO (Center for Community Organizing) in Slovakia.
The Citizen Legisltative Advocacy in Minority Professional Fellows Program was organized by the Great Lakes Consortium for International Training and Development with WSOS Community Action Commission, Inc. – Contract Agent and Manager Website: http://www.glc-teachdemocracy.org/ Facebook: GLC_Teach Democracy Contact: glc_teachdemocracy@hotmail.com Phone: +1- 419-973-8007
“Let’s organize the diversity” – increase the awareness of the youth about their rights as citizens Lead Alumni: Ognyan Isaev, Bulgaria The main idea of the project was to organize 5 dayslong training in Varna for 35 high school Roma students and to invite influential community members to share experiences, exchange ideas and debate issues in an open forum. The youth got tools to understand their dynamic roles in society and to deal effectively with the challenges that they and their community face. The program was suc-
cessful in preparing promising youth with information, leadership skills, and motivation to develop and improve their lives and their communities. The sessions included the following topics: human rights, ethnic integration, history and identity of all ethnic groups in Bulgaria, leadership skills, community responsibility, sexual education, discrimination and human trafficking. In addition to Roma youth local community and governmental leaders, pastors, writers, school teachers, and Roma community members were part of the program too.
“Roma Youth Empowerment for Active Citizenship through sharing good community organizing practices from U.S.” Lead Alumni: Maryana Borisova, Bulgaria
involved and support community organizing and bringing the change in the neighborhoods we live in.
The project aimed to raise the awareness and motivation for actual community organizing among local Roma youth. Identify challenges and how we can use CO practices and methods in our local reality in order to overcome the Roma exclusion and bring positive change was one of the objectives during the 3 day training in Simitli. The most important element of this activity was the time spent on thinking about ourselves and the power of each individual and the community as a whole. Community organizing as a concept was introduced after long discussion and eliciting from the participants according their understanding for change, progress and activism. The target group was Roma youth, but other youth, representing the Bulgarian and Bulgarian-Mohammedans ethnic group were also included. All together 23 people identified local problems and proposed few ways for being
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Community Organizing: “People Power from the Grassroots” – Workshop Lead Alumni: Peter Lazarov, Bulgaria Other alumni involved: Emil Metodiev, Maryana Borisova, Miglena Yordanova, Ognyan Isaev, Nedka Taneva, Vladislav Petkov, Milenko Milenkov, Delyana Mihneva, Shaban Darakchiev, Hristo Angelichin This workshop in Sofia aimed to familiarize all active participants of the civic sector in Bulgaria with the philosophy, objectives and methods of community organizing. Opinions, views and positions on the challenges and prospects facing different communities in their work with government, media and citizens were discussed. Possible strategic steps to improve modes of interaction and cooperation
between the participants in these processes and to build strong and effective relationships between them were discussed. The Political Officer of the U.S. Embassy of Sofia spoke about the necessity of more effective dialogue and two-way cooperation between NGOs and the legislative and executive power was also part of her speech. She paid particular attention to the strength of the initiative, emphasizing that the change shall not be expected passively but actions are required, and that the best decisions are made by people concerned themselves. The meeting ended its work uniting around assessment that it has made a good start. Beginning, which should find its practical development in the activities of the newlycreating organization - Foundation of Civic Initiatives and Volunteering Development - “GID”
“Problems and Solutions of Community Organization of the Roma Minority” Lead Alumni: Nedka Taneva, Bulgaria In Sliven a training was implemented where participants, many of whom are members of the Roma minority, have expressed considerable interest in the various options for community organizing. Realizing the need to have as wide a participation of each member of the Roma community in solving community problems in turn will allow for the basic needs of the community, and the other will be a guarantee that there will be adequate solutions found to achieve favorable results. It was agreed that if more people participate in solving community problems will be overcome vicious pyramid among the Roma minority. With the project activities were discussed ways that lead to the creation of such an organization of the community to enable successful and to specify their problems, propose solutions to overcome them and “2013 Small Grants Project in Europe”
how to actively participate in local government, including and effectively controlled local government decisions and their implementation as they relate to the community.
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Roma Youth Camps “Forward Together” – Workshop Lead Alumni: Miglena Yordanova, Bulgaria Other alumni involved: Emil Metodiev, Vladislav Petkov Three Roma youth camps and one leadership training for potential young Roma leaders were organized in the village of Socolitsa. Each camp lasted for seven days where a total of 115 Roma youth from all over Bulgaria gathered together and gained knowledge on how they can make positive changes in their communities through community organizing activities. and four of them were dedicated to community organizing and particularly the U.S. experience gained from the Citizen Legislative Advocacy in Minority Communities. The follow up idea is to continue to work with the participants after the camps who as youth leaders will become volunteer in the Youth Volunteer Network to organize and implement different initiatives and campaigns in their communities.
During the camps the motivation to continue higher education was one of the main objectives, while the youth gained communication skills, team building skills and knowledge on issues concerned them as being Roma in a disadvantaged village, such as health care, human rights amongst others. Every day different sessions were delivered
“Community Organizing through my eyes” publication in English and in Bulgarian by Emil Metodiev, 2012 Spring alumni of the Citizen Legislative Advocacy in Minority Communities” grant from Bulgaria, includes his personal story describing his experience of being treated differently because of his Roma ethnic background. The publication describes also U.S. organizations and the different community organizing campaigns he took part in during his internship in Chicago with his fellows. Reflection on the learning points is also included. Ognyan Isaev also contributed to the publication.
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Conclusions by Emil Metodiev, Country Director for Bulgaria “The small grant as part of the
Citizen Legislative Advocacy in Minority Communities exchange was one of the highlights regarding the progress in community organizing in Bulgaria. The small projects implemented by the 2012 alumni in Bulgaria have closed the full cycle of successful implemented projects. The idea of having such part within the overall grant is very important, as it gives the alumni sense of responsibility, engagement and added value from their own contribution. Over 250 people, mostly young Roma, were involved directly in the five projects implemented by the alumni of 2012 in different parts of Bulgaria. Many of the actions were targeting the Roma communities, particularly in the area of building capacity and develop leadership through trainings and seminars. Human rights, ethnic integration, history and identity of all ethnic groups in Bulgaria, leadership skills, community responsibility, sexual education, discrimination and human trafficking were some of the topics covered by the trainings provided through the grant. Community organizing was part of every initiative, where people got the sense of how things happened in
the United States. Through presentations, personal stories, videos and pictures the alumni presented the issues they saw, and shared their experience how the community with the help of the organizers is fighting back in U.S. The implemented small grant projects are very important, because through them many young Roma got the chance to meet other Roma youngsters, which motivates them to work on bringing changes in their communities. Motivation for continued education was important within the young Roma who are facing challenges with studying out of their town both with the new situation and the amount of money they should invest in the education. Except Roma as target group and people with disabilities, there were involved different stakeholders such as the U.S. Embassy in Sofia, who came to a meeting and spoke out about the importance of cooperation between NGO’s and decision makers. As a result of the small grant, one of the initiatives implemented, brought out a newly established organizations focusing on community organizing: Foundation of Civic Initiatives and Volunteering Development “GID”. Two of the alumni are in the Board of Trustees and engaged themselves in introducing the community organizing process in Bulgaria. The target groups of the organization are all disadvantaged group, particularly Roma, young people and people with disabilities.
THANK YOU TO DAVID GUSTAFSON, PROGRAM OFFICER AT THE U.S. DEPARMENT OF STATE AND PARTNERS AT THE U.S. EMBASSIES IN BULGARIA, HUNGARY, ROMANIA AND SLOVAKIA! THANK YOU TO THE EUROPEAN PARTNER ORGANIZATIONS AND COUNTRY DIRECTORS: C.E.G.A (Creating Effective Grassroots Alternatives) in Bulgaria CCF (Civil College Foundation) in Hungary CeRe (Resource Center for Public Participation) in Romania CKO (Center for Community Organizing) in Slovakia SPECIAL THANKS TO OUR PROJECT ADVISORS IN THE U.S. AND EUROPE: Dave Beckwith (Toledo, OH) Cris Doby (Detroit, MI), Chuck Hirt (Banska Bystrica, Slovakia) and Paul Cromwell (Duren, Germany) 2013 Small Grants Project in Europe”
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Artistic Community Project – A Youth Leader Organizing Initiative Lead Alumni: Tamas Avar, Hungary The small grant project in UZD-Sarszentlorinc aimed at improving the competences of an identified group of young leaders as well as promoting a community organizing effort of establishing a local art-based community
platform primarily fuelled by artistic self-expression of the youth and the discussion of public issues to foster change in these villages. The program also provided moral support for the local people and created another good example for peaceful and joyful coexistence of Roma and non-Roma in these villages.
Summer Camp Organized for Underprivileged Minority (Roma) Children Lead Alumni: Boglarka Janoskuti, Hungary This project in Kecskemet enabled children become more aware of their rights, by facilitating them to act as informed and active citizens in their local communities, which on the long run can make them more apt to start youth organizing. The sensitizing activities contributed to
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increase awareness for cultural sensitivity amongst children regarding integration and elimination of biases (especially with respect to Roma children and children living with challenges). Finally the community organizing training opened up new perspectives and methods as regards how to get children and possibly parents more active in reaching a specific common goal.
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“Together with our children” – A parent organizing initiative in the village of Bocs, Northern Hungary Lead Alumni: Krisztina Molnar, Hungary With the help of this small grant ninety Roma children benefited from the summer youth camp opportunity organized by the parents. At the Recognition Ceremony 200 people including the local mayor, church and other community leaders, and the media also participated. This was the first time when forty Roma people got a certifi-
cate of recognition and the Mayor of Bocs recognized this community effort in this Roma community and offered to work with them on future projects. This program was a proof in the village that this Roma community can do something on their own instead of expecting others to take care of them and they surprised the leaders of the village and their neighbors. Now they are ready to work on other issues!
Youth Organizing Training for Children from Third Countries in Szeged, Hungary Lead Alumni: Zsolt Fugg, Hungary The project’s target group was young people between the ages of 12-22 from different non-EU countries around the world. The participants got an insight into what community organizing is, and also practical knowledge like
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conducting one-on-one interviews, methods of cutting an issue from a problem. After learning the history and basics of community organizing, the participants discussed what common problems they face and how these can be cut into issues and probably solved by working together.
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“Together with our children” – A parent organizing initiative in Budapest Lead Alumni: Eva Eszter Nagy, Hungary Other alumni involved: Boglarka Janoskuti Alumni introduced the basic concept of community organizing for Roma parents and started to work together first to support the summer school for minority students. They assisted as volunteers and organized various activities for the children. On the last day the parents organized
a family day for the children and they volunteered to cook the food. They all live in the 13th district of Budapest, and this program was organized with the cooperation of the Local Roma Self-Government. At the parent meeting they shared some of the problems in their community, and they expressed interest to make efforts in order to reach some change in their neighborhood. As a result two organizers from the Fall 2013 exchange will start the organizing process. In addition to the parents, university students received a training as well.
Bottom-up Community Organizing of Marginalized Roma and Non-Roma People in B.A.Z. County Lead Alumni: Marton Gosztonyi, Hungary Other alumni involved: Bernadett Sebaly Using community organizing methods in the village of Borsodbota in Northern Hungary helped to strengthen the informal groups which already existed around the community leaders. The initial activities and the strategy created generated grassroots power and increased the membership base. This program contributed to organizing skills and strengthen the position of the informal leaders. People also learned from the difficulties to work together on issues in a small community when many are afraid and there are many different self interest that has to be considered in local government decisions. Alumni worked closely to prepare the local community on working on an issue (in their case the issue was that not many people from the village had the opportunity to participate in the workfare program locally and they wanted to see some changes at the local government in the selection Page 8
process and also increase the number of people participating in this income generating opportunity. As they were getting organized and their leadership were getting stronger they represented a stronger power that the elected leaders needed to consider, and as a result they made the effort to hire more people in the program.
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“Workfare Movement for the Future” – Events for developing the ongoing organizing process with workfare workers Lead Alumni: Balint Vojtonovszki, Hungary Other alumni involved: Judit Szollar This project helped the community organizing process of the Hungarian Anti Poverty Network working with workfare workers in Budapest. The project with public events & trainings held by volunteers aimed to improve the
outreach and recruitment. New activists are needed all the time and this project managed to make the group find out about efficient ways of recruiting new people who are affected by the same issues as themselves. Base building and training are the foundation of organizing, so now they can concentrate on putting pressure on the decision makers in order to change the standards of unemployment, and improve conditions for the workfare workers.
Conclusions by Mate Varga, Country Director for Hungary “As it can be seen from the individual reports, besides training, exchange and development the U.S. State Department “Citizen Legislative Advocacy in Minority Communities” program provided a supportive framework strengthening local democratic action as well as professional framework for the community organizing approach in Hungary. The delivered activities are far beyond “simple events”, all of them are process oriented. This manner is quite obvious in the cases of Balint Vojtonovszki and Marton Gosztonyi who both took the responsibility to formulate complex local/thematic development and organizing processes with diverse methodology but easily recognizable in all other alumni programs. The reported community gatherings, youth and parent organizing initiates were all planned, prepared and implemented with several forms of community empowerment 2013 Small Grants Project in Europe”
primarily targeting longer-term cooperation within the involved groups, which was the key goal of our common program. From another aspect it is very important to highlight that these projects and processes clearly proved the outstanding self-organizing potential - and willingness to act for positive changes - of the involved diverse minority and disadvantaged groups. This should not be surprising but certainly has a special important message in present Hungary where stereotypes are seriously forming the public opinion. From a program contributor/implementer perspective reviewing the personal development of the participating alumni is more than satisfactory. It would be difficult to count all the improved skills and characteristics of the participants, more important to recognize that this intercultural learning and development reshaped their general attitudes, contributing our constituency to work with open, motivated and empowered people for positive changes.”
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Informing and Community Organizing Process in Paltinis village with Regards to Fracking Lead Alumni: Vlad Catuna, Romania The project aimed to inform, empower and mobilize the rural community of Paltinis village (Vaslui County), mainly formed by Roma poor people, with regards to shale gas and fracking. The main activities conducted were: a listening process to better understand the needs and priorities of people; debates on how people could get involved and express
their concerns with regards to fracking; informing campaign through film projections and flyers/leaflets, and identifying potential leaders in the community. The main result we expected was to increase the civic involvement of people, and through community organizing, give them a voice in front of public authorities, and in all public decisions not only related to shale and gas . More than 100 people were involved in the activities carried out during the project.
Mothers’ Club Celebration Event – A Parent Organizing Initiative in Ferentari Roma Ghetto, Bucharest Lead Alumni: Radu Raileanu, Romania Other alumni involved: Raluca Negulescu The Mothers’ Club is a citizen initiative group supported by Policy Center for Roma and Minorities in one of the worst ghetto type community in Bucharest. The majority of Roma living in this area suffers from extreme poverty, is exposed to risks (violence, drug abuse), marginalization and discrimination. Despite all this, Roma mothers got involved in civic life and demanded better living conditions in their neighborhood. As a result of their community organizing efforts, they managed to convince the authorities to finish the refurbishment of a park on the main ghetto street. On August 11th, over 200 people participated at the celebration of this victory. The community event recognized the efforts of the mothers and increased their power base, and they made a need assessment in the community. Mothers organized activities for children and talked to other parents about their issues. They also collected more signatures for their new campaign focused on convincing local authoriPage 10
ties to take over the security costs in two local schools, paid currently by the parents. All in all, the celebration helped Roma Mothers’ Club to become more visible, it gave their efforts legitimacy and credibility, and the confidence to carry on the organizing work. 2013 Small Grants Project in Europe”
Dismantling Discrimination through Joint Leadership Trainings and Sharing of Experiences between Roma and non-Roma Community Members Lead Alumni: Lavinia Chiburte, Romania Other alumni involved: Raluca Negulescu, Iustina Neagu, Andreea Buzec, Ioana Petrache The project aimed to increase community leaders’ abilities to work together and bring positive changes in their communities and reduce discrimination and negative attitudes towards Roma people. Two community organizing and leadership trainings were organized for Roma and nonRoma community leaders and activists. The first workshop brought together leaders from 4 civic initiative groups from Bucharest, in order to increase their abilities to work together. The second activity in the project was a joint community leadership training, that reunited activists and community leaders from CeRe’s neighbourhood groups and Roma ac-
tivist women from the Mothers’ Club (Ferentari ghetto), supported by Policy Center for Roma and Minorities. Roma and non-Roma people worked together to increase their capacity to improve their neighborhoods using community organizing methods. They discovered, as community leaders, how much they have in common (values, the interest to make their neighbourhoods a better place to live in, similar struggles with convincing public officials to take action etc), despite all differences among them. This exercise helped participants from medium income neighbourhoods of Bucharest better understand the difficulties Roma face in the ghetto in Ferentari, and to meet Roma activists and leaders ready to take action and get involved in order to improve their community. They consider this type of activities that bring together Roma and non-Roma community leaders as a first step towards less intolerance and hatred against Roma population.
Spreading Community Organizing in Brasov Area Lead Alumni: Mihaela Carstea, Romania Other alumni involved: Ana-Maria Suciu, Silvia Ursu
involvement in the community and how through community organizing, one could improve the level of participation in Brasov City and County.
The project had as main goal spreading information about the importance of community organizing to improve citizen participation. Three main activities were conducted: creating a Romanian language brochure of the most important tools and methods used in community organizing. The brochure was distributed to NGOs, to mass-media and to elected officials from the city of Brasov. The second activity consisted of training on community organizing for 13 representatives of local NGO’s. After the training, a seminar was organized related to the content of the brochure and how it can be used in community work. There was also a debate on the local situation of citizens' 2013 Small Grants Project in Europe”
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Let’s Live United! – A Parent and Children Organizing Initiative in Maguri, Timis County Lead Alumni: Anda Lupusor, Romania Other alumni involved: Lia Gaudi The goal of the project was to empower poor Roma people from Maguri village to get involved in community life, and make their voices heard in front of local officials. A listening process was conducted between August 5th and 7th through one-on-one interviews with parents, teachers, school leaders and the youth to find out more information about their community, their values, their issues and priorities. Subsequently, two full-day workshops were organized in a village school community with the help of the principal and the teachers. The workshops brought together over 200 people to discuss the problems they face in their community and to plan steps towards solving them. One of the main problems identified was the lack of leisure activities and spaces for children. As result of the project, the Mayor of Maguri promised to allocate
money to purchase equipment for a playground in the school yard and the community members volunteered to install it. A celebration is being planned for the moment when the playground will be functional and open to the community.
“Youth Voice Romania” – a High School Students’ Initiative in Four High Schools in Bucharest Lead Alumni: Andrea Buzec, Romania “Youth Voice Romania” is about students getting organized to identify issues within their high schools, design and run campaigns to bring positive changes to their communities. This program was set up in April 2013, following the model of Youth Voice Detroit, with the help of Kayla Mason, from the Harriet Tubman Center. The small grant, offered by the U.S. State Department, helped us move forward by allowing the organization of a three-day workshop between the 16th and 18th of August. Each day of the workshop had a different topic - human rights, activism and community organizing, and involved thirty-four high school students. The workshop created common understanding on community organizing approach, commitment and helped identify six issues in their high school to be tackled once school starts concerning hate speech, restrictive school library program, lack of extracurricular activities, lack of professional guidance for career choice and bad logistical arrangements: breaks, location of classes etc.
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Moreover, the project allowed the organization of the first direct action of Youth Voice Romania – on August 11th, the core group of young high school activists displayed a banner with no hate messages in front of the Romanian Parliament (on the occasion of the No Hate Speech Campaign launched by the Council of Europe).
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Conclusions by Nicoleta Chirita, Country Director for Romania “In Romania, the 6 projects carried out under the Citizen Legislative Advocacy in Minority Communities grant from the U.S. State Department proved to be extremely diverse, both in terms of activities implemented and their location, and the target groups impacted. Overall, the activities undertaken varied from informing and listening campaigns (Paltinis and Bacesti villages, Maguri village), to issue identification (Maguri, Bucharest), community events (Ferentari ghetto in Bucharest), workshops, trainings, creation of useful tools and materials in community organizing, and dissemination to other NGO representatives. As for the target groups, the alumni focused mainly on disadvantaged communities, especially on Roma poor communities from both rural and urban areas of Romania (Bacesti, Maguri, Ferentari ghetto in Bucharest) that live in precarious conditions, are uneducated and deprived of resources and information. Nevertheless, the projects targeted also youth from Bucharest high schools, community leaders from medium-income neighborhoods of Bucharest, other NGO representatives and local authorities (Brasov County), parents and school teachers (Maguri) etc. More than 900 persons from these communities were involved in the projects, either by being participants in direct activities (training, workshop, community event etc), by being part of the informing and listening campaigns or by benefiting from the results of the projects (community organizing tools and materials on Community Organizing). At the core of almost all projects lies the idea of informing, mobilizing and developing skills and abilities for people so that they could act together to improve their communities. The projects answered foremost to the need of empowering those who have the least power to make their voices heard in front of decision-makers and of those who lack the information, knowledge and skills to influence the decisions that affect them directly (like Roma poor and uneducated population, especially from rural areas, Roma women, youth etc). Some of the projects tackled also the issue of discrimination against Roma by creating the framework where Roma and non-Roma could work together for a common purpose. With little exceptions, the projects were implemented according to the initial plan. Where changes were made, it was because of external factors and the alumni were 2013 Small Grants Project in Europe”
flexible and adapted to the unforeseen (for example: the leaders of a group formed by persons with disabilities couldn’t joint a common training because their leader died, but other participants were invited). The most impressive aspect is that almost all project activities were designed to fit into a bigger effort of the alumni’s work in those communities, since their return from the United States. It was not about sporadic actions and events but about a long term process meant to empower people and to help them get involved in decisions that affect their lives on the long run. And the results of their efforts are beginning to show off – the Mothers’ Club in Ferentari won their first issue and had a celebration event. In the Maguri Village they also started working on their new advocacy campaign, and the Mayor promised to the parents and children a new playground, Students from several schools of Bucharest identified and prioritized the issues they want to work on. It was a need for a creation of training material in Romanian, so everyone can learn from, so it was important that by our alumni a Community Organizing Brochure was created and distributed etc. Another positive aspect is that our alumni are enthusiastic and eager to continue the work they have started in those communities. Many of them changed their way of thinking and action since they have returned from the Unites States Professional Fellowship Program. They switched from a mere social service perspective to a community organizing model focused on empowering people to act on their own, not waiting for others to speak on their behalf or solve their problems. Thanks to their enthusiasm, commitment and continuous effort, the alumni are changing the paradigm in the whole NGO sector in Romania. They are introducing and promoting community organizing - a model of community intervention less known and used by non-governmental organizations in a variety of forms – neighborhood organizing (Bucharest), issue organizing (Bacesti, Vaslui County), youth organizing (Bucharest), parent organizing (Ferentari and Maguri), etc. The small grant projects were the perfect opportunity for the alumni to put into practice what they have learned in the U.S.A., but also to increase their abilities as community organizers through practice. Last but not least, the projects enhanced the cooperation between the alumni of the 2012 and 2013 programs, building work relationships among a handful of young people committed to use and promote community organizing in Romania.”
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Workshops for Children and Parents of Kotva facility Lead Alumni: Martin Micek, Slovakia The goal of the project was to empower people from the Kotva facility – a municipal housing project for very poor, mainly Roma families in Banska Bystrica – to give them voice and help them to organize for better living conditions. Workshops were focused on building self-esteem and changing the way people from outside look on people living
in Kotva. First the children learned some art techniques to express themselves and their life and presented their work to broader audience. The second part of project was focused on the parents of the children and let them speak for themselves. Other opportunity for parents was on August 2, 2013 when there was a Roma Holocaust Remembrance Day in Banska Bystrica.
Mr. Peter Gogola, Mayor of Banska Bystrica on meeting with parents of Kotva. One of the parents held presentation about life in Kotva and asked Mayor to help to solve some of the problems they are facing.
New Generation – Development of Community Organizing Skills in Young Generations Lead Alumni: Jolana Natherova, Slovakia The project was focused on explaining basics of community organizing to young leaders and young people from the community in order to use methods of community organizing to empower Roma youth to be able to bring change to their communities. Development of community organizing skills in young generations included visits and
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interviews of Roma children and youth in three segregated Roma locations near Banska Bystrica, provided volunteers who accompanied children during the project and traveled with them to training sessions as well as for the collection of information in the communities. The target group was children and young people – girls from these communities – were given the opportunity to learn in a different environment where they live and understand the problems that these communities are struggling with.
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Color Your Community Camp in Sasova Lead Alumni: Veronika Strelcova, Slovakia Other alumni involved: Zuzana Bargerova, Jolana Natherova One day camp in Sasova neighborhood of Banska Bystrica was organized together with four young leaders from the neighbourhood. It was in the Community Center Sasova and its community garden to make children understand the importance of the community in their lives and also break the barriers and strereotypes among the
children coming from different social backgrounds by bringing them together. This program used arts to overcome the barriers, to visualize the ideas, to realize the real importance of the term community. Energizers and icebreakers were used to make children concentrate, focus their energy and get closer to the project leaders and each other. The introductory games helped to realize importance of each individual. Parents through their children‘s involvement also have learned more about their own community and the importance of community links at the place where they live. Based on the success this program has a strong potential to be repeated.
Workshop on “Empowerment of Women Migrants” – What is Community Organizing? Lead Alumni: Zuzana Bargerova, Slovakia Other alumni involved: Veronika Strelcova The first ever women migrant empowerment initiative focused on community organizing in Bratislava where is the most substantial migrant communities in Slovakia (in numbers), mainly third country nationals who have strong contacts or positions in their communities. The workshop (mainly training and debates) was focused on community organizing approach and migrant women empowerment. In addition the Islamic Foundation organized a guided tour around the city center; followed by a discussion about future plans and options to continue in communities. They came up with a creative way to send messages to others migrants. Participants of the program all were socks and gathered together, discussed how and what they would draw on the socks and took pictures of the final composition. 2013 Small Grants Project in Europe”
The idea behind the picture was following: Only when we are together as a community, our message can be read.
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“Work group meeting” – Preparation of Strategies and Manuals on Community Organizing Lead Alumni: Milena Kacmarcikova, Slovakia Other alumni involved: Monika Vaskovicova, Maros Chmelik, Daniela Batova, Miroslav Ragac, Martin Klus and Milena Kacmarcikova The “Work group meeting” – preparation of strategies and manuals on community organizing to be implemented in Roma communities by social workers – was held in Dudince with twelve participants – six alumni and 6 professionals working with Roma minority.
Alumni gradually introduced various aspects of community organizing and its concepts during the workshops. Community workers introduced their work in the Roma communities. The seminars included vivid discussions on possibilities of implementation of community organizing in the Roma communities. As a result a manual will be created to help social workers and community activists to use community organizing methods to increase civic participation and effectiveness in solving problems in communities across Slovakia.
Certificates (L-R) row 1: Bernadeta Tothova, Maros Chmelik, Lucia Lucy Pustajova, Daniela Batova and Martin Klus; row 2: Peter Pollak, Bella T. Jady, Jolana Saltiel, Monika Vaskovicova, Jana Uhminova, Milena Kacmarcikova and Miroslav Ragac. Page 16
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Conclusions by Veronika Strelcova, Country Director for Slovakia The small grants program supported by the U.S. State Department “Citizen Legislative Advocacy in Minority Communities” exchange created an opportunity for Slovak alumni to get support to follow on activities in their own communities or worked with others in different communities. This also helped them in getting together as a group (and invite others) to develop common strategies to continue their work especially in implementing community organizing tools in civic participation in their communities. Out of seven alumni of exchange program 2012, five of them decided to use the opportunity, invest their work and share the knowledge that they have gained from the exchange with others: colleagues, volunteers, leaders of the communities, social workers, activists, children, youth and their parrents. They supported each other and/or brought new volunteers into the process and created great
and ambitious new project ideas in connection to their action plans and they all implemented these projects very successfully. They reached over 700 people all together in spite of the summer holidays when the projects were implemented. The media gave special attention to the projects especially those focused on youth and children. In addition to the small grants alumni received significant in-kind conributions for each project. But the overall outcome and impact in the communities and change in the attitude of people and way they do their work or do what they do is not a matter of money. These programs are contributing to democratic change in the society and a better understanding of what it is to express the voice and be empowered. The small grants had a great success. All Slovakian alumni accomplished their goals and helped to empower their communitites and managed to bring principles of community organizing to their communities. The Small Grant projects helped to create and prepare a good soil for further development and any follow on activities.“
OUR SINCERE THANK YOU TO THE FOLLOWING SPRING 2013 ALUMNI INVOLVED IN THE SMALL GRANT PROJECTS
Romania: Raluca Negulescu, Silvia Elena Ursu, Ioana Petrache, Lia Gaudi —a Fall Professional Fellow
Hungary: Bernadett Sebaly (GLC Alumni Spring 2012)
Slovakia: Maros Chmelik, Monika Vaskovicova, Martin Klus, Daniela Batova and Miroslav Ragac
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Highlights of Country Directors Evaluations of the 2011-2013 Exchanges on “Citizen Legislative Advocacy in Minority Communities” grant Emil Metodiev, Country Director for Bulgaria
Mate Varga Country Director for Hungary
“Community Organizing in Bulgaria is not wellknown among the non-governmental organizations, although lately there is every day protest in front of the Parliament, using exactly the community organizing philosophy. Since this exchange program started in Bulgaria in 2011, many activists, organizations and leaders got aware of this concept. In 2012, seven applicants were selected from Bulgaria with the advice and support from the U.S. Embassy in Sofia. All seven alumni gave wide publicity on their U.S. experience to their peers, members of the organizations and others. Since the returning of the 1st Alumni group people became more aware of the people’s power concept, widely popular in the United States. The chance that each fellow was hosted by a family and worked closely with American organizers gave the participants awareness of the real American life. Most importantly that not all part of American communities is living in dream. Due everyday engagements with the community organizers in different parts of America, the participants learned the basic and crucial components of community organizing, such as the canvassing, door knocking, house meeting, community meeting and most importantly not giving opinion, but listening to people’s stories. It shouldn’t be forgotten the learning aspects from each other as well as from each country delegation while they were together in the U.S. The everyday engagement with the other member’s delegation gave them better picture of the issues each country is facing with minority, and some solutions. The three U.S. mentors delegation’s visit to Burgas, Varna, Simitli, Blagoevgrad, Peshtera, Dupnica, Stara Zagora, Sliven and Sofia also contributed to the awareness of the community organizing concept in Bulgaria. The U.S. mentors also helped to increase the motivation of local people to fight for changes and improving lives. A real experience has been transferred into two localities. One in Stara Zagora, where Kaloyan Damyanov (Fall 2012 alumni) used direct action against the new law on Education in Bulgaria and in Sofia Peter Lazarov, (Spring 2012 alumni) organized a protest with and in support of people with disabilities in front of the Ministry of Health in Sofia. Both of these actions made a big impact and was successful. In addition a national organization was formed “GID” with special focus on supporting and spreading community organizing activities in Bulgaria.”
“This grant period and the program itself was a unique catalyser of establishing community organizing framework in Hungary, from building the basic constituency through investing in human resources and organizational development to strengthening local action and professional practices. This program also committed Civil College Foundation to continue a longer term strategy to serve as a resource center, which provides wide range of professional assistance in order to launch and support organizing activities on the national scale and on a long term basis. This strategy fundamentally builds on this exchange program, which allowed the initiation and extension of various professional activities and processes in Hungary. The overall goal of all these efforts and developments is to widen the practice of participatory democracy in the Central and Eastern European region. In this part of the world that certainly needs changes in attitudes and new citizen skills and techniques. This exchange program provided a platform to make steps in that direction but also taking the risk that besides all kinds of help and support a key part of the expected results is depending on the selected program participants. The nine Hungarian alumni fulfilled the complex project requirements: they provided (and still provide) extending dissemination activities (workshops, university lectures, trainings etc.), all of them linked the gained knowledge with their existing practices or new fields (including: local or thematic community organizing processes; new/innovative services; adaptation and dissemination of new methods; event organizing; fundraising etc.); almost all of them took the lead or contributed to self-organized and process oriented small-grants programs reaching several hundreds of people mainly from disadvantaged and ethnic communities. They produced training curricula, background materials, case studies, articles etc. Most of them were able to extend their own or organizational and financial resources to move forward with organizing activities. As a result, they already delivered changes for Hungary and are motivated to make further steps. Therefore it is crucial to sustain and develop the common framework keeping together and channelling the growing pieces of this new direction within Hungary and around.”
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2013 Small Grants Project in Europe”
Nicoleta Chirita Country Director for Romania
Veronika Strelcova Country Director for Slovakia
“This grant offered a rich and intense learning opportunity for 9 Romanian young civil society professionals. Their six-week stay in the U.S. combined in a successful manner trainings, meetings, networking and work on the ground, giving them both the theoretical understanding about community organizing and minority communities, but also hands-on experience and the opportunity to participate in direct actions, and volunteering in America. The impact of their fellowship experience is visible at least on two levels. Firstly, on a personal level, they have developed new soft skills and strengthened some of their abilities. The main improvement are related to presentation and communication skills, public speaking, networking/building relationships, flexibility and openness to different cultures, just to name a few. All these skills are essential in community organizing work and in general for their professional performance and career growth. Secondly, this experience was energizing and eye-opener for many of them as they have seen and learned about other approaches to citizen participation and empowerment of vulnerable groups. They used their new knowledge and skills related to organizing to improve their community work and some developed new projects based on the experience gained in the United States. The alumni had successes in spreading organizing, adapting it to their local contexts and integrating it to their work. This grant led to an incredible expansion of the idea of community organizing in many places in Romania and in many organizations that work with vulnerable and minority groups. Many of the alumni and organizations changed their way of thinking and action. They switched from a mere social service perspective to a community organizing model focused on empowering people to act on their own, not waiting for others to speak on their behalf or solve their problems. Thanks to their enthusiasm, commitment and continuous effort, the alumni are changing the paradigm in the whole NGO sector in Romania. They are introducing and promoting community organizing in a variety of forms – neighborhood organizing (Bucharest), issue organizing (Bacesti, Vaslui County), youth organizing (Bucharest), parent organizing (Ferentari and Maguri) etc. Hand in hand with the organizing perspective, the alumni have been exposed to fundraising events and practices, coming back with a changed perspective and a willingness to try to introduce the culture of grassroots fundraising into their organizational culture. Last but not least, the project enhanced the cooperation between the alumni of the 2012 and 2013 programs, building work relationships among a handful of people and organizations committed to use and promote community organizing in Romania.”
“This Professional Exchange enabled seven Slovak participants to travel for the internship and trainings to the U.S. All have returned to their work with a new perspective about how they can engage with the community and their constituency. By continuously working with them we can observe a significant increase in their skills, not only in their professional life but also individually. They got more confidence, a better overview on differences that determine certain behavior in their societies and realized where the weak points in the work of their communities can be changed to stronger ones. Moreover, they are ready to train others to become active citizens and possibly an organizer etc. We observed major progress in the attitude in the work with minority communities which is significantly moving from the service and advocacy to more of an approach to empowernment. All participants had the opportunity to improve their language skills and communication skills in general. Moreover, as a result of this program, we can really see the progress in the change of attitude of the leaders and members in each community where participants acted before and continued their activities. This was further supported with visits of the U.S. mentors and their professional and active approach. There was also help through the call for Small Grants and their realization by the alumni. In fact, the Small grant project was a huge success and made a considerable impact in Slovakia. This exchange project has significantly deepened the understanding and interest in community organizing in Slovakia. There are now a great number of people who have been affected by the various interventions, trainings, visits, small grants etc. Moreover, the exchange program has created new relationships with government officials including the Roma Pleni-potentiary as well as Civil Society Plenipotentiary. At a local level, it has opened up new relationships between the Mayor of Banska Bystrica and predominately Roma residents of a public housing project. To conclude, the project has opened up a new aspect of community organizing work in our country; namely focus on work in minority communities; particularly Roma communities. This aspect had been tried on a very limited basis on the past but a strong new emphasis has been placed on this aspect with significant results that can be proved by the changes in our communities and all local or national partners and co-workers.”
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OUR SINCERE THANK YOU TO THE FOLLOWING 2012 ALUMNI LEADING OF OR CONTRIBUTING TO SMALL GRANT PROJECTS
Bulgaria: Maryana Borisova, Ognyan Isaev, Miglena Yordanova, Peter Lazarov, Nedka Taneva and Emil Metodiev
Hungary: Balint Vojtonovszki, Boglarka Janoskuti, Tamas Avar, Eva Eszter Nagy, Zsolt Peter Fugg, Krisztina Molnar, Marton Gosztonyi and Judit Szollar
Romania: Andreea Buzec, Radu Raileanu, Anda Lupusor, Lavinia Chiburte, Vlad Catuna, Mihaela Carstea; and, Ana-Maria Suciu (contributing Alumni)
Slovakia: Jolana Natherova, Martin Micek, Milena Kacmarcikova, Veronika Strelcova and Zuzana Bargerova
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