Small regions of Bulgaria suffer from low population, insufficient work opportunities and inactive and ineffective local communities. We want to change this by building an environment where everyone could share problems and ideas and find help and supporters. Using the open source platform Open Community Map as a base for our Local Community Map, we help people voices and needs to be heard clearly, and build new social opportunities that leading to solving problems and finding solutions.

Svilengrad, Bulgaria

Region Svilengrad, as well as many similar small regions in Bulgaria, suffers from a lack of a sufficiently united civil society. Specifically in Bulgaria, there are several reasons for this. The main ones are: the small population in the village areas, the aging population, the lack of interest of the local authorities on certain issues that affects the basic rights of the society. In small local communities, it is difficult to defend ideas that clash with some traditional understandings or are not in line with the "strong of the day". One of the big problems is the inability of "ordinary" people from small villages and towns to independently defend their civic positions related to a more understanding and tolerant community, a community in which the voice of everyone is important.

Through the organization of 96 initiatives in 23 villages on the theme of Powered by Change and the use of Local Community Map we intend to achieve a high degree of commitment of the local community, which in turn will lead to the presentation of different points of view, and the best thing is that these positions will be able to be represented by everyone. The use of Local Community Map will not allow anyone to be excluded, regardless of their opinion. Local Community Map target audience is literally anyone, regardless of gender, age, race, ethnicity, political orientation or views. The pilot region for the project includes a small municipal center, 23 villages and will affect more than 23,000 people. We at Local Community Map believe that LOCAL is New Global.

LCM project consists of 7 macro phases:
1. Planning of the intervention and structuring of the training/information material.
2. Generation of guidelines “Powered by Change” approach
3.Integration with Open Community Map project, contribution to development of the required functionalities for the layer of our organization
4. Engagement of Local Community Map ambassadors to the platform for all 24 points in the pilot region.
5. Training of the ambassadors of the platform through physical and online seminars
6. Develop of networks with local and international public and private stakeholders( Each of the ambassadors will be responsible for a specific point in the region)
7. Awareness campaign on the objectives, results achieved and capabilities of the community platform.

If our idea is selected, the difference from now on will be that the LCM platform will have all the necessary features to be a real local community map. The real success for LCM will be to increase the community's commitment to identify solutions to the problematic issues. The very use of LCM will show an already occurred change in the thinking of society. And when a society begins to think in the same directions and act together, it already means that it has gained power over its existence and has turned its back on its prejudices.
The 24 ambassadors will help highlight the good practices that emerged in the process of change and these will serve to catalyze the interest in the adoption of solutions by other communities.

Giving the opportunity for free, fast, unhindered and, most importantly, independent sharing of ideas, initiatives, sharing opportunities or showing their absence has always been a base for the development of highly democratic communities. Providing a methodology and tools to give voice to needs and specificities thanks to the support of a specific platform for this purpose will concentrate the actions, subscriptions, groups, etc., scattered on social networks. And when the platform is also a map, it will be very easy for anyone to pay attention to the "hot spots" created by the needy themselves or caused by the presence of a problem identified by the community.

I grew up and currently live in the area and believe that LCM can make a significant contribution to the development of civil society there. My teammates are from different regions and countries (Italy, Croatia), but share the idea of creating an ecosystem allowing effective collaboration between people. Furthermore, the realization of the project will in fact constitute a pilot experience that can be enhanced and replicated in other territorial areas in Europe since the technological platform is already oriented without geographical restrictions, and ideally intends to give a voice to the needs and ideas and solutions of every citizen living in Europe, starting from the weaker groups, like immigrants and people with social difficulties.

Platform development and service maintenance – 8000 EUR
Project management - 8000 EUR
LCM ambassadors training, education webinars - 4200 EUR
Power to Change approach guidelines - 3000 EUR
Public Relations, information campaign - 2000 EUR
Web page and service maintenance - 2500 EUR
Design, production of 25 plaques on the territory of the town of Svilengrad and the municipality: 5000 EUR (25x200)
Travel and accommodation costs (96 visits in 23 villages – 16320 EUR (96x170))

Similar movements and organizations, advice for good practices for building such community and more ideas to enrich the LCM ecosystem.