Description
The project "strONG", implemented by the RYMD organisation, has a major impact on the local NGO sector. The necessity of implementing such a project derives from the fact that in Bacau, most of NGOs do not have good strategies to select and train volunteers, and, at the same time, they do not have an efficient communication environment Therefore, this leads to a poor development of organisations and an insignificant presence of their activities in the mass-media. The project objectives accentuate the capacity of NGOs to manage their relation with volunteers, target audience and mass-media, as well as advertising voluntary activities among 1300 citizens. The project addresses the mentioned challenges through specific activities, like organizing workshops, advertising campaigns, creating a website that gets together both NGOs and volunteers from Bacau. The beneficiaries and target groups are non-governmental organisations and their members, current and potential volunteers, youth from rural areas. Among the expected results we can state the development of an online platform and informing the citizens about the existing NGOs.
Summary of project results
Most organisations from Bacau County don’t have strategies for the selection and training of volunteers and have no means of effective communication with different stakeholders, which leads to a poor development and a low visibility of their activities. Thus, the project aimed to support the organisations from Bacau in attracting volunteers and learning proper communication and effective management tools on how to engage with other associations and with local authorities. To achieve this objective, the promoter undertook actions that involved the organisations and volunteers from Bacau County. One of the main outcomes of the project is
www.beestrong.ro website, the first platform that brings together non-governmental organisations and volunteers in the county. Until the end of the project more than 460 volunteers, 35 organisations and over 9,000 unique users accessed the platform. Connected to this platform, a series of activities were organised to promote volunteering in Bacau County, such as: presentations regarding the benefits of volunteering in county’s high schools, a Living Library on preconceptions regarding volunteering, 3 volunteering activities on environment protection and urban awareness, nonformal education activities with children from 3 rural schools. Other activities focused on providing training for NGO representatives in their areas of interest, such as communication, volunteer management and development of partnerships between organisations. In the framework of the project, the”NGOs from Bacau” Catalogue was released - a document that presents the NGOs activity in Bacau county and that was shared among high schools in the county. The project’s aim - to highlight the size of the NGO sector and the impact that it has on the local community - was achieved by developing the “NGOs Power in Bacau” Research Report. Based on the findings arising from the research, the promoter developed a series of recommendations for improving cooperation between Bacau organisations and representatives of local authorities. The report was presented at the "NGOs Power in Bacau" roundtable, organised at the end of the project. At the event, the impact of the nongovernmental sector in Bacau County was discussed and a series of meetings between members of NGOs from Bacau on various topics of interest were established. Also, the promoter launched a series of recommendations for local authorities in terms of managing their relationship with local NGOs.
Summary of bilateral results