Projects Archives - Page 9 of 16 - Fellows eapcivilsociety.eu

Fostering Democratic Citizenship in Georgia

Fellowship Summary: Promotion of democratic culture and citizenship to students through a series of dialogue activities, competitions and social media campaign.

Sandro embarked on a mission to ignite a passion for democracy and citizenship among Georgia’s youth. His project was centered on promoting the values of active citizenship and democratic engagement.

The key objective of his project was to encourage reflection on democracy and citizenship, advocating for a positive change in Georgia’s political culture. While changing political culture is a substantial task requiring both education and direct democratic participation over time, the project successfully sowed the seeds of change. Positive feedback and outreach indicate that it achieved its intended goals. Youngsters, although in limited numbers, have gained a deeper understanding of democracy and citizenship. Importantly, they have become advocates for change in political culture and democratic values, setting the stage for positive transformation in their local communities.

The cornerstone of this endeavor was the creation of a comprehensive report on the problems of political culture and citizenship in Georgia based on the public discussions focused on the merits of democracy and the citizens’ role in the democratization process. This report, which can be accessed here in Georgian, gives a general assessment of political culture in Georgia, and identifies key challenges and potential solutions, creating foundation for future discussion and research of the topic.

Sandro: “An important finding of the project was that if one aims to facilitate democratic values and ideas, the most effective way is when the beneficiaries themselves are directly engaged, rather than being just passive participants. For example, young people engaged with my project were given the opportunity to express their opinions via video, as well as through photos and essays. That is quite effective in terms of spreading message/values, as the participants themselves become advocates of the ideas, who have access to, and bigger trust within, their own communities.”

Country	Georgia
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Enhancing the Capacities of Local CSOs in the Youth and Women Needs Assessment Process

Fellowship Summary: The Fellowship project aims to increase the capacity of local CSOs to successfully identify, understand, and better tailor activities to address youth and women’s challenges, including mentoring on leadership skills.

The project was designed to empower local Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) in identifying and addressing the challenges faced by youth and women at the grassroots level. Implemented through a series of workshops, webinars, and mentoring sessions, the project aimed to equip CSOs with the necessary skills and knowledge to conduct effective needs assessments and develop tailored interventions.

The project began with a public call inviting CSOs to participate in workshops focused on needs assessment methodologies. Three workshops were conducted, bringing together a total of 45 participants, including CSO directors, project managers, volunteers, young people, and women from rural areas. These workshops provided a platform for participants to enhance their understanding of the challenges faced by youth and women and to learn best practices for needs assessment.

Additionally, the project selected 15 local NGOs from different regions of the country to receive mentoring support. These organizations were guided in conducting their own needs assessments, with a focus on identifying the specific needs of youth and women in their communities. The project also developed and distributed a supporting toolkit to assist these NGOs in their assessment process. To further extend the project’s reach, a webinar was organized, attracting 75 participants from various CSOs, youth centers, and women’s associations.

As a result of the project, CSOs have increased their confidence in assessing community needs and have become more engaged in communication with local public administrations. The project has also contributed to a more active approach in working with young people and women beneficiaries, ultimately enhancing the impact of CSOs in addressing the needs of these vulnerable groups.

Moving forward, the project’s impact is expected to be sustained through the dissemination of knowledge and skills gained by trained CSOs to their partners, as well as the continued use of the supporting toolkit for conducting effective needs assessments. The project has laid a foundation for CSOs to play a more proactive role in addressing the needs of youth and women, contributing to the overall development and well-being of their communities.

Country	Moldova
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Victory Gardens of Radomyshl hromada

Fellowship Summary: Mobilising community and local authorities to make a collective response to the war through environmental activism – public flower garden and vegetable growing.

Updates coming soon!

Country	Ukraine
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MEntor – Me as a mentor

Fellowship Summary: Based on international good practices, develop and deliver a Handbook for mentors of Erasmus and other international student exchange beneficiaries.

“I feel like I was born to volunteer!”, says Nensi Mkrtchyan as she explains about her first experience with European Volunteer Service (EVS) in Armenia. “It was a wonderful learning experience, meeting with young people from France, Spain, Italy…and it showed me that schemes like EVS demonstrate how united people can be without borders!”

After supporting EVS, Nensi learned all about the Erasmus+ programme and realised that Armenia would benefit from having a network that pooled the experience of Erasmus students. Thus, in 2021 the Erasmus Student Network in Armenia, founded by Nensi, was formally registered and joined the global ESN. In order to strengthen the work of the network Nensi wanted to build the capacity for mentoring among the students and therefore designed her Fellowship around the concept of ‘MEntor – Me as a Mentor’.

Through the Fellowship Nensi has been able to research successful mentoring schemes of ESN Croatia and others, and develop Armenia’s first ever bi-lingual handbook on mentoring. She has also created a cluster of young mentors within ESN Armenia and supported them through the delivery of a training on how to mentor effectively. “I want the ESN members to use mentoring as a tool for personal development, given that the relationship and sharing between mentor and mentee is equally rewarding for both”.

The highlight of Nensi’s Fellowship has undoubtedly been her project’s final event at which the handbook on mentoring was formally launched in the company of the ESN members, the EU Delegation in Yerevan, and other volunteer-focused stakeholders. The event also coincided with ESN Armenia’s 1^st anniversary, so the Fellowship ended with a birthday cake!

Nensi is currently enrolled in an Advanced Master’s programme of European Interdisciplinary Studies at the College of Europe in Natolin (Poland), but is clear that her future lies with contributing to the development of Armenia. “I envisage that I will always be occupied with activities that are non-profit and public service oriented, and would like to do as much as possible to help Armenia get closer to the values and opportunities of the EU”.

If you want to know more about the results of Nensi’s Fellowship project, please download her latest publications. The purpose of the “Guide for Mentors of International Volunteers and Students” is to collect best practices and assist mentors in their mentoring experience while hosting international volunteers and students in their local university, organisation and community in general.

Country	Armenia
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Protection of Child Victims Rights in Georgia

Fellowship Summary: Researching, drafting, and promoting a policy document and roadmap for stakeholders engaged in protection of the rights of child victims in Georgia.

Lado Javakhishvili is a lawyer by training and has spent nearly 10 years in public service working within the Georgian justice system. Up until the end of 2021 Lado served as the Deputy Director at the National Agency for Crime Prevention, under the Ministry of Justice, but with a growing desire to contribute to restorative justice and support of juvenile justice beyond the political constraints of working for government, Lado moved his career into civil society. He founded the Institute for Democracy and Justice in Tbilisi and launched his civic activism with a Fellowship project focused on the protection of the rights of children who are victims of crime.

“Juveniles are some of the most vulnerable of citizens when they become the victims of crime and in Georgia, although there is some State provision for services for juveniles who commit crimes, for juvenile victims there is almost nothing. So, I wanted to use my fellowship to raise awareness to this issue.”

During 2022 Lado has researched and developed a policy document and roadmap to help steer stakeholders responsible for the protection of rights of child victims in Georgia. As part of the research Lado looked at good practices in other countries and as a benefit of the Fellowship was able to participate in an international conference in Italy on ‘Justice Beyond the Borders’ organized by European Forum for Restorative Justice.

“Participating in the conference was probably the most satisfying and enjoyable part of my fellowship, as like so many others, it was my first chance since the Covid pandemic to actually sit down face-to-face with my peers to learn and share ideas. There was one particular session, led by a legal professional from Brazil, which I found truly inspirational.”

In addition to the policy paper, Lado has successfully led an awareness-raising campaign, using a series of digital posters on social media to highlight the plight of juvenile victims of crime and promote the need to protect their rights. “I expect the future beneficiaries of my fellowship will be the 1000 or so juveniles who are victims of crime in Georgia every year”.

Lado has not only kick-started his civic activism through his Fellowship, but it has also facilitated him to extend his networking, with an additional role as an Observer to the EaP Civil Society Forum in Prague at the end of 2022.

“This is a great opportunity and I know that when I look back on my civic advocacy I’ll see that it all started with the Fellowship.”

Country	Georgia
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‘City Dream’: a crowdsourcing platform for local communities

Fellowship Summary: Development and launch of a ‘City Dream’ digital platform that facilitates more participatory local planning in the Cherkasy region of Ukraine.

Denys Andrushchenko’s City Dream Platform is a crowdsourcing initiative in Ukraine, serving as an effective communication tool between businesses, local government, and community residents. Launched in April 2023, the platform empowers active residents to highlight critical community issues through social projects, fostering collaboration among stakeholders to address these challenges by inviting them to join the project and contribute their resources. This approach has already yielded tangible results, with success stories inspiring greater civic engagement and citizenship.

The City Dream Platform has not only initiated impactful campaigns but has also received acclaim from volunteers and activists in Cherkasy. The platform’s success lies in its ability to bridge gaps and stimulate solidarity among diverse groups.

Through the City Dream Platform, Denys has sparked a seed of change, inspiring active citizens to persist in working with public servants and holding them accountable. Despite challenges, including the impact of war on Ukraine and its people, Denys remains committed to promoting the City Dream platform and the crowdsourcing approach.

Country	Ukraine
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enWAR_mental: Information Campaign of the War Impact on the Ecosystems in Ukraine

Fellowship Summary: Enhance the awareness of the war impact on the environment among Ukrainian students by implementing the information campaign “enWAR_mental”.

Nataliia Yaroshenko has been active in civil society since 2015. Her early years of activism were mostly focused on supporting cultural events, such as the Sumy Rock Fest, but then she experienced the ‘Active Citizen’ programme of the British Council in Ukraine and turned her attention to mobilizing youngsters to collaborate on community development projects.

As a result of this activism Nataliia became the Coordinator of the ‘School of City Ambassadors’ in her home city of Sumy in Ukraine. But this isn’t her only ambassadorial connection as in 2021 she also joined the ranks of the Young European Ambassadors programme.

“As I’m a biologist the next obvious step for me was to unite my civic activism with my passion for the environment. So, with a team of like-minded colleagues, I ran a campaign to promote the concept of the Green Office. This was a great way to help people in Sumy to make the connection between taking local actions and the global movement to protect the environment”

In being awarded a 2021 Civil Society Fellowship, Nataliia was ready to further her journey of finding creative methods for having young people engage in environmental issue, when the Russians invaded Ukraine and her world turned upside down. But Nataliia was not perturbed. She recognized the need to stimulate a dialogue about the impact of war on the environment and her Fellowship shifted its emphasis to become the ‘enWAR_mental’ initiative.

“‘enWAR_mental is all about helping the younger generation understand that the damage to our environment by war will not only have long-lasting effects but that the damage is wide-reaching. Bombs falling on fields and forests in Ukraine will eventually also impact on ecosystems outside of Ukraine. We need to help students and youth understand the issues and the long term consequences, and to build their capacities to advocate for this understanding within their communities.”

Nataliia’s Fellowship has had a strong focus on combining creative talents with scientific evidence and documentation. She has mobilized a team to research, design, and create comic strips that raise awareness to the environmental damage of war. “Such graphics are not only a great way to engage with young people, but they also help to make the difficult topic more digestible”.

She also produced short videos featuring young activists from other countries previously impacted by war, such as Kosovo and Georgia, and other posts on the enWAR_mental Instagram pages. A competition for younger students across Ukraine resulted in more than 50 posters being created and submitted to enWAR_mental, demonstrating a range of perspectives of how young people see the war impacting on their local environment. All the visuals on Instagram have helped to grow enWAR_mental’s followers. “Just last week we saw that we attracted views from about 1,500 new visitors and we see the rise in searches around #environment#war.”

Nataliia also reflected on the personal impact of her Fellowship: “it has helped me through a very traumatic time and the volunteers who have helped me have grown in confidence. Together we are going to continue the work of enWAR_mental”

Download the Comic Book in UKRAINIAN

Download the Comic Book in ENGLISH

Country	Ukraine
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Research on Best Practices and Effective Methods of Developing Social Entrepreneurship and Advocacy Campaign

The project activities were aimed to analyze local and international legislation and strategies in Social Entrepreneurship (SE) and develop a lobby and advocacy campaigns to introduce the best practices for local legislation. To achieve the project’s objectives, Zinaida analyzed the effective methods of developing social entrepreneurship in EU countries (Romania in particular), researched the local legislation, and introduced amendments accordingly. Hence, to develop the organizational capacity of the local social enterprises and NGOs, the project team created the Social Entrepreneurship Platform working mostly in Transnistria and conducted a number of online events. Within the frame of the action, the Zinaida held over 20 offline/online working sessions to identify the strengths and weaknesses of the engaged stakeholders, drafted legislative initiatives, and a 2-year strategy/action plan for the SE Platform. Finally, she organized an international online conference tailored to social entrepreneurship and a better synergy among the executive branch, business communities, and the social initiative groups.

The project accelerated the development of the social entrepreneurship (SE) sector in Transnistria through research, lobby, and advocacy campaigns in this area. Therefore, the action delivered the research document analyzing the current landscape of the local social enterprises and the collaborative platform facilitating the cooperation among the 21 stakeholders. As a result of the active contribution of the local and national NGOs, lawyers, independent experts, etc, the project team developed a legislative initiative submitted to the Parliament. The changes will allow social enterprises to pay less taxes, and to have less bureaucratic procedures.

Country	Moldova
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Elephant in the Room: Improving Campaigning Skills for LGBT Groups and Organizations in Georgia

The project: Elephant in the Room aimed to enhance the campaign planning capacity of the LGBTIQ groups and organizations in Georgia. The fellowship action comprised the international study trip, awareness-raising training and creative campaign. In the first stage of the project, Beka organized a study trip/internship at the ILGA World – International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association in Brussels, Belgium. Then, having learned new perspectives and approaches to the community outreach and anti-discrimination initiatives, he launched a series of training for the local LGBTIQ groups. On top of that, to raise the visibility of the basic problems faced by the Queer community, Beka started the social campaign – For the Equal Opportunities. Through the creative posters tailored to the various concerns affecting the universal rights of freedom of expression/education and access to healthcare, he enhanced the visibility of the Queer issues to the larger audiences.

The action increased awareness of the 24 beneficiaries from the Georgian LGTIQ communities in terms of planning and managing large-scale campaigns on the local level. Also, the project delivered 20 creative electronic and printed posters raising the understanding of the everyday challenges (tailored to the universal human rights) faced by the LGBTIQ communities. The above campaign served as a creative tool to empower the Queer community and tackle gender-based discrimination in Georgia. Finally, the action increased the capacity for the Beka himself, since he had an opportunity of traveling to the ILGA World Office and upgrading his skills in social and legal issues.

Project in media:

ქვიარ საფოსტო ბარათები – თანასწორობის იდეისთვის

საფოსტო ბარათები ქვიარ ადამიანების პრობლემებზე

საფოსტო ბარათები, რომლებზეც ილუსტრირებულია უმცირესობების უფლებები:

Country	Georgia
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Paint Their Life

The Art Project: Paint Their Life aimed to inspire children and youth from the Ukrainian orphanages, rehabilitation centers, children’s homes through their engagement with the local artists. To transform the interior of the above public facilities and bring joy to its inhabitants, Stefaniia and her friends painted 7 rehabilitation centers in Kyiv. The art project was followed by the development of the PTL official website to showcase project impact and raise visibility/financial resources for their future interventions. At the final stage of the action, Stefaniia organized a Project Exhibition at the Main Hall of the National Academy of Arts and Architecture engaging the project beneficiaries, volunteers, the Union of Artists of Ukraine and other stakeholders.

The action delivered the official website fundptl.com.ua ensuring the project sustainability and active involvement of the respective donors/private contributors to the social initiative. During the fellowship, #PaintTheirLife artists visited 7 buildings, painted more than 10 walls, created the scenery for the Children’s Charity Festival, and inspired hundreds of young people. Also, the excursion to Kyiv and exhibition at the National Academy of Arts and Architecture engaged 20 teenagers from Rehabilitation Centers of Kyiv interested in art and creativity; they had the opportunity to watch how future artists study, work and what they should do to become a professional artist. As a result, young people raised their awareness on the study opportunities at the Academy through the direct networking with the university lecturers and students.

Country	Ukraine
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