The aim of the project is to acquaint young people with the meaning, structures and importance of civil society. We will encourage their active involvement in the decision-making process in the local community and will strengthen the dialogue between young people and decision-makers. We aim to improve knowledge and skills of young people about the functioning of the institutions, ways of communication and civil organizations for participation in public life at local, national and European level.

Bulgaria, Cities and municipalities in Plovdiv and the region: Plovdiv, Kuklen, Asenovgrad

The main challenge that we have to face and solve is the low level of knowledge how the young people could individualizing, formulating and implementing their socially useful causes, as well how to involve responsible institutions in their ideas implementation. The said challenge is particularly relevant in the smaller towns in the Plovdiv region. There is a low level of initiatives and creativity for achieving socially significant projects in Bulgaria. We believe the reason is unsatisfactory knowledge of public and institutional life at local, national and European level. The project will reveal the opportunities that democracy offers to solve their problems.

The project is aimed at young people in small municipalities of Kuklen and Asenovgrad together with those from the big city of Plovdiv, especially from disadvantaged and underdeveloped communities. We expect the participation of at least 100 young people, both young men and women (15-30 years).

To achieve the goals of the project, we want to use five types of activities:
1. Conducting educational talks (interactive webinars);
2. Presenting information materials for European experience, good practices;
3. Practical trainings on the types of civil society organizations, the types of institutions at local, national and European level and the ways of interaction and communication between them and society;
4. Practical training for building communication strategies and popularization of public ideas, interaction between institutions;
5. Popularization of the project;

After the completion of this project we aim a strong group of young people (minimum 30) from the whole social spectrum, who are aware of the types of civil society organizations, types of institutions at local, national and European level and ways of interaction and communication between them, able to participate in public life. We aim a city where officials will be more sensitive to the needs of young people in community planning and more open society to discuss and change the old traditional understanding of the role and status of young people in society. We also hope to have at least 3 municipal projects that solve young people problems and are managed by them.

The essential goal of our project is to learn young people how they could actively involved in a social or political issue in their local community. We believe that young people are present not only in the future. The only way to do this is to involve them and create communities in which they can find their place and learn them how to find and moreover- to create them. One of the missions of our organization is to establish partnerships with universities, research institutes, public administration, business circles and many NGOs, which we have been successfully implementing for more than five years, so we will use that partnerships to promote and spread our project ideas in wide range of young people. Also we will plan set of educational lectures and practical trainings.

Оur team is consists of professionals with a solid background from various public fields - EU and Bulgaria law, finance, media, mediation, ecology etc. All of them has a strong experience in projects related with variety of public initiatives as social and environmental issues, mediation, social inclusion, etc. We have established partnerships with universities, research institutes, public administration, business circles, which will be especially useful for the implementation of the project. Moreover, we live in Plovdiv region and are familiar with the problems of its citizens. We believe that the basis for the sustainable development of civil society is knowledge of public and institutional life at local, national and European level and the involvement of young people in these processes.

Project administration: 4,200 EUR
Basic training - 100 young people: 17,000 EUR (materials and consumables, mentors and experts, halls, technical support)
Promotion and publicity, project communication and initiatives: 10,000 EUR (during the project, at the end of each initiative, and at the and of the project - public event to present the results):
Publication of final results of the project documentation: 1,500 EUR
Assessment and sustainability activities: 1,800 EUR

We are so glad, that we find you and have that chance to present shortly our ideas. We find it particularly useful to get practical ideas for interesting approaches to presenting the project information to young people and ideas for engaging as many stakeholders as possible.