Projects Archives - Fellows eapcivilsociety.eu

Empowering Kvemo Kartli’s Youth: A Research-Driven Civic Engagement Initiative

Fellowship Summary: The Fellow will conduct a research in Kvemo Kartli to identify the root causes of lack of youth civic engagement and develop
evidence-based policy recommendations for both local authorities and CSOs. The Fellow will collaborate with local authorities and CSOs to implement campaigns to raise awareness about civic engagement among young people in the target region.

Updates coming soon!

Country	Georgia
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10:11 Mentorship Programme

Fellowship Summary: The Fellowship project aims to develop methods and mechanisms for the organisation ’10:11′ in order to promote and support mentoring within the civic sector, with specific emphasis on Ukrainian youth.

Updates coming soon!

Country	Ukraine
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DATA: Driving Accountability Through Empowered Youth

Fellowship Summary: The Fellowship project aims to empower local youth, activists, and journalists by raising their awareness of open data, offering practical training and mentorship on its use, and providing opportunities for them to use the data available on DataLab.Ge for holding local governments accountable.

Updates coming soon!

Country	Georgia
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Vartovy (CityGuard) SaaS platform

Fellowship Summary: The Fellowship project aims to create “CityGuard”, a digital platform in partnership with Ostroh territorial community. It enhances emergency preparedness, communication, and safety in Ostroh by offering digital evacuation plans for population points, training, and real-time communication during emergencies.

Updates coming soon!

Country	Ukraine
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Empowering Women’s Health: Policy and Advocacy in Georgia

Fellowship Summary: The Fellowship intends to identify possible policy reforms to ensure that vulnerable women and girls have better access to healthcare services.

Updates coming soon!

Country	Georgia
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Making Family-Friendly Workplaces Workable

Fellowship Summary: The Fellowship project aims at advocating for reforms to improve employment terms for working women, through research and promotion of good practices from EU Member States.

“I hope that one day, women in Armenia will not have to choose between family and work, proper childcare or sufficient income.’ This ‘hope’ has been the driving force for Astghik Karapetyan, an EaP Civil Society Fellow and co-founder and president of Point 33 NGO. Astghik sees that the workplace culture in Armenia, like in many places, faces challenges in supporting working parents, especially women. These gaps sparked her mission to foster Family-Friendly Workplaces (FFW). Her fellowship project, “Making Family-Friendly Workplaces Workable,” confronts the realities that many Armenian parents face: limited childcare support, rigid work hours, and a lack of policies that truly accommodate family life. “A family-friendly workplace allows employees to be close to and care for a family member in need while continuing to work and earn an income,” says Astghik․

Astghik is a human rights journalist. Since 2011, she has been reporting on topics covering human rights and the judiciary, including analytical and investigative pieces on state procurement and illegal enrichment.

Besides, Astghik is a mother of two. When her second child was born, she began to recall all the difficulties that she had gone through during the birth of her firstborn: labor rights violations, obstetric violence, depression, and other issues. However, she was a strong woman and was able to resist. But she kept thinking, how do other women who don’t know about their rights and don’t have enough strength to protect themselves settle all these problems? And this thought made her act and start advocating for women’s rights and family-friendly policies.

Astghik’s journey as an EaP Civil Society Fellow began with qualitative research on the Armenian legislative landscape and opportunities to have FFWs, and FFW models in Europe, including Czech and Hungarian examples where progressive policies have made balancing work and family more achievable. There, she observed pioneering approaches to workplace flexibility, affordable childcare, and parental support that have made balancing family and work more feasible. The research, Family-Friendly Workplaces: Armenian Opportunities (download report in Armenian language), includes legal and practice reform recommendations for the Government and parliament, as well as employers of Armenia.

Beyond research and policy recommendations, Astghik has engaged the public directly through her podcast series, Մեծ գործ (Metz Gorts, or “Big Thing”). The podcast addresses practical aspects of family life for Armenian working parents, covering crucial topics like mental health for working mothers, childcare accessibility, and perspectives on balancing work and family in Armenia. In less than a year, the podcast has gained thousands of listeners, amplifying discussions around family-inclusive workplace cultures in Armenia. The episode about the mental health of working parents is the most popular with our audience. One listener wrote that in her most exhausted moments, she remembers and follows the idea in the episode that you must give yourself time to be with yourself and “recharge” during the day.

Astghik’s advocacy reached a significant milestone at the final project’s event attended by Armenian government and parliament representatives and the Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Ambassador of the Czech Republic to Armenia, Petr Pirunčík. Ambassador Pirunčík expressed his gratitude for the project’s accomplishments, including the insights gained from visits to the Czech Republic and Hungary to study their family-friendly workplace models. He highlighted the complex challenges that remain, noting, “Many issues can be resolved through legislative changes, but often the solution depends on the goodwill of the employer. It is difficult when people believe that having a child means you shouldn’t return to work. The hardest part is addressing societal mindsets and customs.”

During the event, the representatives of Armenia’s parliament and government expressed strong interest in Astghik’s recommendations and commended her work as “ready material for legislative change,” indicating its practical value. For Astghik, this recognition represents a hopeful step toward an Armenian workplace culture that genuinely supports family life, encouraging both career and personal wellbeing.

“Through my project, I want to talk about the difficulties of women who combine family, childcare, and jobs and the means to solve these difficulties. We have the opportunity to achieve this. Specific legislative changes are, of course, essential and will have significant changes. However, the most important thing is for employers to take the first step to make the workplace family-friendly” – says Astghik.

Astghik envisions an Armenia where workplaces truly support family needs, empowering a stronger and more balanced workforce. Her work brings Armenia closer to a culture where parents can thrive both at work and at home, creating not only supportive environments but also a more resilient society.

Country	Armenia
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CSOs4ECC: CSOs for Effective Cross Sectoral Cooperation

Fellowship Summary: The objective of the ‘CSOs4ECC’ Fellowship is to enhance cross-sectoral cooperation among CSOs and other local stakeholders(LSG, Private sector) in Tavush and Lori regions for more effective and impactful collaboration promoting locally-led/need-based operations, local ownership and sustainability.

Updates coming soon!

Country	Armenia
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Volunteer4Ukraine: Engaging Worldwide Support for Local Impact

Fellowship Summary: The Fellowship project aims to support civil society in Ukraine by assisting civil society organisations (CSOs) to access voluntary international expertise. This will be achieved online through facilitated digital matchmaking of Ukrainian CSOs and international volunteers.

For Diana Daiub, co-founder and director of Support Ukraine Now, the Russian invasion of Ukraine wasn’t just a national crisis – it was deeply personal. As a long-time advocate for civil society, she knew that Ukraine’s civil society organisations (CSOs) would play a vital role in supporting those most affected by the war. But there was a challenge: how could these organisations, many already stretched thin, access the expertise they needed to tackle the growing demands?

Diana saw an opportunity in the global outpouring of support for Ukraine. Many people wanted to help, but logistics were difficult—how could international volunteers lend their skills to local organisations that were struggling with everything from project management to language training? This is when Diana’s idea was born: a platform that could connect international volunteers with Ukrainian civil society organisations, giving these organisations the support they needed while allowing people worldwide to contribute meaningfully to Ukraine’s future.

“I realised that the world was ready to help, but the challenge was creating a system that made it easy for volunteers and organisations to connect. That’s how the idea for Volunteer4Ukraine was born.”

Diana applied for the Eastern Partnership Civil Society Fellowship because she knew she needed support to turn her idea into reality. Through her fellowship, Diana developed Volunteer4Ukraine, an online platform that uses no-code tools to match CSOs with international volunteers. The platform allows CSOs to register and share their needs—whether it’s for help with fundraising, teaching English, or financial management. On the other side, volunteers from around the globe sign up and are matched with opportunities based on their skills.

“Before the fellowship, we had a form collecting contacts of potential volunteers, but we didn’t have the resources to match them with CSOs. The fellowship gave me the tools and connections to develop and launch the project, and we’re already seeing the impact.”

Over 2,600 visitors checked out the Volueert4Ukraine platform, with 24 CSOs and 39 volunteers officially registered within the first 3 months of the platform work. These volunteers come from countries like the US, UK, Germany, Switzerland, and South Africa, bringing a variety of skills from language teaching to strategic planning. The system identified 255 matches between CSOs and volunteers and made the first automated introductions, with five confirmed collaborations already underway.

One of the early successes includes volunteers from the UK and the US working with Smart Osvita, a Kyiv-based organisation, to teach English to children affected by the war. At the same time, Skhidnyi Menti, another CSO, has started working with volunteers from Germany and Switzerland to manage projects and finances. These collaborations show how international volunteers can fill critical gaps and help CSOs do more for their communities.

“The beauty of this project is that it’s not just about technical skills—it’s about building connections. These collaborations are not just helping CSOs meet their needs; they’re bringing people together across borders.”

Looking ahead, Diana is optimistic about the future of Volunteer4Ukraine. The platform is fully automated and can run with minimal supervision. As the war continues and the needs of Ukrainian CSOs grow, this digital tool will remain an important resource for hundreds of organisations. Diana plans to seek additional funding to keep the platform running long-term, ensuring that more CSOs can benefit from international expertise.

“Volunteer4Ukraine has shown that global cooperation can make a real difference. As long as Ukrainian CSOs need support, we’ll keep building these bridges.”

Country	Ukraine
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Factors Affecting NEET Youths’ Transition into Adulthood in Samtskhe-Javakheti Region

Fellowship Summary: The Fellowship project aims to explore the factors affecting transition to adulthood for rural NEET (‘not in education or employment’) youth in the Samtskhe-Javakheti, with a focus on ethnic minorities and girls, in order to identify the underlying socio-economic, cultural, and educational barriers that prevent them from transitioning to adulthood successfully.

Updates coming soon!

Country	Georgia
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Evaluating Local Government’s Contribution to Sustainable Development

Fellowship Summary: The Fellowship project will assess Yerevan’s sustainable development policies, measure impact on greening the city, air quality & waste management through analysis of the effectiveness of city projects in reaching SDG3. The Fellow will identify policy gaps, recommend interventions based on best practices, promote collaboration & accountability.

Updates coming soon!

Country	Armenia
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