PACT - Community-based organizations - centers for community mobilization

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Public Report in support of community projects in Constanta sustained by PACT through Community Fund Pontus Euxin In early June 2011, PACT launched Community Fund Pontus Euxin, totaling 32.600 RON, under its management. The Fund was established by selling tickets at the conference-event, held up by actor Dan Puric in Constanta, on November 20th 2010. The event was organized by a group of citizens in Constanta (constituted as an Initiative Group for Community Fund Pontus Euxin), with support from PACT Foundation, in order to attract funds to sustain local community projects. The main purpose of the fund is to stimulate initiative groups and NGOs in Constanta to develop projects that contribute to producing positive changes in different urban communities in the city of Constanta.

PACT Foundation held Wednesday, December 7th, from 19.30 at Café Godot Theatre, a medieval theme party, which is the second fundraising event from private sources for the Community Fund for action and transformation of villages in southern Romania. The total amount collected at this event, of 8754 lei, from selling tickets, "all pay" auction (everyone pays) for special objects donated and classic auction for works of art offered by artists, will be used to support projects initiated by groups of citizens in rural communities in southern Romania.

Project Title:		COMMUNITY-BASED ORGANIZATIONS - centers for community mobilization
Description:	Through this project we aimed at increasing the sustainability of 12 community-based organizations (CBOs), by building their capacity to work in a participatory manner with members of their community and to mobilize them in participating in various activities to the benefit of their community. Representatives of each organization participated in two training modules. Supported by PACT, the CBOs then applied the knowledge and abilities gained through training within their own communities, so as to mobilize citizens towards drawing viable action plans and implementing new community projects. The final event in the project brought together the community-based organizations PACT Foundation collaborated with in this project, as well as beneficiaries of these organizations, actual/potential collaborators/partners (local public authorities and institutions) and potential financers (representatives of public institutions that manage structural funds). The objectives of the event were to disseminate the project results, to share experiences, as well as local development opportunities that can be addressed by accessing European funds. By participating in this project, CBOs strengthened their organizational development capacity, learning, on one hand, to involve community members in their organization’s projects through innovative participatory workshops, and on the other hand to operate planning and management tools in order to consolidate the inner structure of their organization. In the final event, representatives of CBOs and representatives of local communities had the opportunity to work together with resource persons from central, regional, county and local level, so as to draw action plans that would lead to facilitating the access of local communities to development funds.
Location:	12 communities in the Southern part of Romania (South Muntenia and South-West Oltenia regions): - Turnu Magurele city, Teleorman county (CIVITAS Association) - Pitesti city, Arges county (ProElevi Pitesti Association) - Malu Mare commune, Dolj county (ProEuroYoung Malu Mare Association) - Tismana city, Gorj county (Tismana Foundation) - Valea Mare Podgoria locality, Stefanesti city, Arges county (‘Education and Culture for People’ Association – AECO) - Vranesti village, Calinesti commune, Arges county (‘Sons of Vranesti Village’ Association) - Afumati commune, Dolj county (ABC Afumati Association) - Iancu Jianu commune, Olt county (Humanity Rom Association) - Dorobantu commune, Calarasi county (Rom-Roman Association) - Arcani commune, Gorj county (Association for Development Initiatives of Communities in North Oltenia – IDCON Association) - Carna commune, Dolj county (NASTA Association)
Time span:	December 24th, 2008 – October 23rd, 2009
Goal:	The project aimed at developing the capacity of 12 community-based organizations to work in a participatory manner with community members, in order for them to become strong, visible actors in their community, to be sustainable and efficient in their work and to play a significant role in the development of their communities, as real dialogue partners for local and regional actors.
Beneficiaries:	Direct beneficiaries: - Over 60 representatives of the 12 CBOs involved in the project. The number of CBO representatives that took part in the project varied across project activities (24 representatives took part in the first training module, 36 in the second one, over 35 members participated in the experience exchange visits and over 60 representatives contributed to both organizing participatory events in their community and applying management instruments in their organization). - Specifically for the final event - the Future Search Conference, the direct beneficiaries were 70 representatives of CBOs and local communities involved in the project, together with other stakeholders involved in planning, managing and implementing development funds addressed to local communities. - PACT Foundation, which strengthened its organizational capacity by increasing the number of its team members and by building on its experience in developing and assisting CBOs. Indirect beneficiaries: - The community members that participated in the project activities developed by the local CBOs, the community groups targeted through these activities, as well as the 12 communities where the project was implemented.
Activities:	- Project promotion among the CBOs that PACT Foundation works with - Selection of the 12 participant CBOs - Selection and contracting of 3 community facilitators to become members of PACT team - 2 training modules for CBO representatives: - Innovative participatory methods of work with community members and efficient communication tools (2 representatives of each CBO took part in this module) - Resource and activity management (3 representatives of each CBO took part in this module) - 2 on-site consultancy/facilitation sessions delivered by PACT (one following each training module) in order to support local CBOs in implementing the knowledge and techniques gained through training: - each CBO sustained a participatory workshop within the community in view of planning community actions - the CBOs applied planning and management tools in order to build their organizational capacity - Experience exchange visits between participant CBOs - final event organized as a Future Search Conference, on “The access of local communities to development funds. How to better respond to citizens’ real needs?”; this event brought together various stakeholders involved in planning, managing and implementing development funds: management authorities for European structural funds’ financed programs, regional implementing bodies of these European programs, regional and county level offices and directions, county councils, local public authorities and institutions, community based organizations and local communities’ representatives – beneficiaries of local level projects and services.
Results:	- 3 new community facilitators joined PACT Foundation’s field team; through their involvement in the project, the facilitators gained knowledge and built their abilities of work with community-based organizations and local community members, through applying innovative participatory methods in local communities, as well as by supporting these organizations to draft their own strategic plans - 24 representatives of the 12 local CBOs participating in the project (2 representatives of each organization), participated in the first training module on Innovative participatory methods of work with the community. During the training, CBO members gained knowledge and exercised practical abilities for the organization and implementation of 2 participatory methods: the World Café and the Future Search Conference - Each CBO (assisted by members of PACT team) applied a participatory work method within its own local community. Based on the results of these participatory workshops, each CBO drafted a concrete action plan regarding the problem addressed together with the community members - Around 320 citizens of the 12 communities took part in the workshops organized by their local CBO. Community members participating in these events had a positive feedback on the CBOs’ initiative to organize such meetings and showed their willingness to participate in similar events or other community actions proposed by their local CBO in the future - 36 representatives of the 12 CBOs involved in the project (3 representatives of each organization) participated in the second training module, on Resource and activities management, developing knowledge and abilities to help them build organizational capacity related to planning and managing the activities of their organization - 6 CBOs worked on the strategic planning for their organization, 3 other CBOs developed plans for attracting material and financial resources, 2 CBOs drafted their financial planning, 1 CBO worked on a volunteer management plan and another one developed its members’ time management skills - Around 60 members of the 12 CBOs involved in the project took part in these planning and activity management sessions - In the final event of the project, the 70 participants discovered a common vision on the future of local communities’ access to development funds and drafted 6 action plans to facilitate local communities’ access to development funds - Editing an Informative Bulletin (350 copies) to disseminate project results, to promote good practices and to illustrate concrete experiences of the 12 participant CBOs; disseminating this newsletter to all participants in the final event of the project, as well as to other 51 CBOs that Foundation PACT has been working with in local development projects - Making 11 presentation videos, illustrating the 2 participatory working methods applied in the project and the benefits of applying such methods in local communities (1 presentation video for the World Café and 10 short videos showing the different steps of the Future Search Conference method); these videos were disseminated to all beneficiaries of the final event, as well as to other 51 CBOs Foundation PACT has been collaborating with - Editing the report of the final event (200 copies) and disseminating it to institutions and organizations represented in the conference, and to other 51 local organizations PACT Foundation has been working with in local development projects - Editing a brochure (70 color copies) comprising information on financing sources available for local communities and disseminating it to over 60 CBOs that PACT Foundations has been working with, either in this project or in other local development projects - Organizing the final event of the project as a Future Search Conference was a challenge in itself for the project implementation team, this specific method being used for the first time in Romania. PACT Foundation shall seek to build on the experience gained, by organizing similar participatory events in the future. .
Founder:	The European Union, through PHARE Program 2006/018-147.01.02 – Increasing the role of civil society in Romania’s integration process, Component 3 – Developing the NGO sector and civic education
Contact Persons:	Ruxandra Sasu – Project Coordinator
Project Documents:	FutureSearchConferenceReportSynthesis.pdf ConferenceReport.pdf FinanceSourcesForLocalCommunities.pdf
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