Description
PACT's Foundation project "Action for Our Community" tackles the lack of civil society structures and the general lack of civic involvement in 6 villages from Braila, Tulcea and Constanta counties. The project's objectives are: 1) To facilitate the creation and development of 6 initiative groups in 6 villages from the 3 counties; 2) To stimulate the participation of at least 300 inhabitants of the 6 villages involved in the project and other stakeholders to community development processes; 3) To stimulate the participation of at least 360 volunteers to participatory community development processes; 4) To increase PACT Foundation’s organizational sustainability. The project contributes to the development of 6 capable civic structures to become partners of local public authorities in sustainable development projects through the involvement of at least 360 active citizens. Overall the project will contribute to the development of active citizenship in the region. Village Life Association (partner) will contribute, through its activities, to inspiring and motivating the involvement of community members outside initiative groups.
Summary of project results
The current project addressed the issue of lack of structures - associations or initiative groups - in rural communities across three counties in south-eastern Romania - Brăila, Tulcea and Constanța. Through the activities, the project promoter helped create 5 initiative groups in communities from southern Romania: Mahmudia and Sfântu Gheorghe (Tulcea), Mircea Vodă and Viziru (Brăila) and Moșneni (Constanța) through a series of actions. PACT developed the abilities of citizens to become involved in the life of their home communities through participatory processes, to identify community problems, to create solutions based on local resources and to implement them, in collaboration with various local development stakeholders. In order to develop the initiative groups, they organized: 1 workshop with facilitators on innovative work methods involving the community; 2 residential training modules on participatory assessment of community needs and resources, storytelling, communication, promotion and fundraising; 11 local workshops on participatory project planning and project management. Overall 185 people were involved in assessing creatively the needs and resources or their communities. Community members were stimulated to participate in activities together with the initiative groups during 6 creative workshops, hence 944 people were consulted during the process of assessing the needs and resources across the 6 communities involved in the project. 5 community projects were developed by the initiative teams based on the needs prioritized by each community. A film crew travelled to each locality to film the entire process of identifying the problems, finding solutions and creating the projects, which resulted in 34 short films. Therefore, 22 film screenings followed by discussions were organised across all 6 project communities and a total of 240 people attended. A fundraising event was organized; about 4180 Euro was collected and 45 new donors were attracted. The long term results consist in: promoting active citizenship through the number of citizens directly involved in assessment processes of community needs and resources and community project planning; developing the skills of the 5 new community groups in terms of participatory project assessment, participatory project planning and management, fundraising, organisational communication; 18 relevant local partnerships developed in each of the 5 communities.
Summary of bilateral results