Description
The project addresses the need for more micro grants for citizens' green initiatives. It aims at supporting citizens to participate by helping them develop their projects. It involves a competition for micro green projects developed by citizens, with mentorship services envisaged for all participants in need of support to present appropriately their projects. The selected supported projects will be visited and monitored by the project promoter and interviews with the local community are planned to ensure feed-back on the initiatives' impact. The implemented projects shall be promoted and recommendations shall be developed to be presented before public institutions for ensuring funding for more micro grants schemes. The project is in the benefit of the local public, NGOs, decision-makers and local communities in general.
Summary of project results
The project addressed the need for supporting more grass root initiatives. It aimed at developing the capacity of informal groups concerned to implement small-scale green initiatives. 24 micro-initiatives were selected by the project promoter "Za Zemyata" and almost all of them turned out a success. Many of the initiatives resulted in a serious public response and local and national media coverage. The project "Urban Nomads" which looked for alternatives for homeless waste pickers in Sofia was covered numerous times in the prime time of the largest electronic media in Bulgaria; the single article of "Green Roof Rousse" was read more than 70 000 times. The initiative from the town of Pernik, "We Want Revegetation", which was launched as desperate outcry of the local community against the illegal actions of a mining company on the property of citizens, resulted in a strong local group which worked actively and with a long-term perspective with "Za Zemyata" - the project promoter who managed the implementation and provided mentorship to all selected grass root initiatives within the project. All initiatives continued running after the financing stopped. The team of "Za Zemyata" reinforced its ambition to turn the competition into a long-term programme for micro grants that can be carried out in time without any breaks and that can be financed from various financial sources. You can read more about small green grants on the website of "Za Zemyata" on:
http://zazemiata.org/v1/Proekti-finalisti-ot-2015-g.516.0.html
Summary of bilateral results