Fundacja im. Stefana Batorego

Community Initiatives Partnership Program

In 2004, in cooperation with the German Robert Bosch Foundation, we began to implement the grant program aimed to expand cooperation among NGOs from Poland, Germany and the Kaliningrad District. Within the program we support tripartite cooperation projects that serve to develop local community initiatives in the District and to integrate these initiatives into transboundary cooperation that contribute to improved quality of life in this westernmost part of Russia. Grants are disbursed in a two-stage procedure: at first, organizations from the three countries present letters of intent, then selected organizations are invited to submit full proposals. These are assessed by an international panel made up of experts from Poland, Germany and the Kaliningrad District as well as program officers of both funding partners.

In the Program's first pilot edition, the international expert committee decided to fund 8 projects which were implemented in 2005 (see grant list). In the second edition 19 letters of intent were sent, 11 of them were accepted to the second stage. Organizations that qualified for the second stage of this competition were invited to a three-day seminar held in Rynia, near Warsaw. The meeting included lectures on planning and implementation of international projects, intensive work sessions on project proposals and individual consultations with Robert Bosch and Batory Foundations’ staff. Out of 9 proposals submitted in the second stage, the international expert committee chose to fund 6 projects to be implemented in 2006.

In 2005, we also conducted a monitoring of the Program. Study visits and interviews with coordinators and partner organizations of the projects carried out in the competition’s first edition allowed us to identify basic problems encountered by the organizations during projects’ implementation. These included: difficulties to maintain equal engagement of all three project parties, poor quality of the Kaliningrad District postal service, high costs of telephone communication between partners with a concurrent limited access to low-cost communication, significant costs of money transfer services, poor knowledge about living conditions in the Kaliningrad District among Polish and German partners.

The Program was financed by grants from the Open Society Institute and the Robert Bosch Foundation.

Program costs

Grants:		PLN 337 829,93
Meetings:		PLN 50 864,57
Operational costs:		PLN 39 048,16
TOTAL:		PLN 427 742,66

Grants

Social Communication Foundation Warsaw	Partners: AIDS-Zentrum, Rostock and Centre of Counteracting HIV/AIDS in Kaliningrad Merry Ferry – trilateral Polish-German-Russian transboundary information campaign to prevent HIV/AIDS in Kaliningrad District and in ferries on the Baltic Sea	PLN 40 100
Rodowo Foundation Sorkwity	Partners: Volkssolidaritaet, Bad Doberan /Rostock-Land e.V. and Centre of Supporting Social Initiatives in Kaliningrad School of youth leaders – trainings in managing and financing small projects and microgrants for implementation of projects developed by the youth leaders from Kaliningrad District	PLN 38 836
Friedrich Wilhelm University Student Self-Government Bonn	Partners: Jagiellonian University Student Self-Government, Cracow and Student Self-Government of Baltic Academy in Kaliningrad International network of student activity – experience sharing among student organizations on involving students in academic education policy	PLN 48 062,73
Słubice Music Society Association Słubice	Partners: Mediationstelle e.V., Frankfurt/Oder and YMCA-Jantar, Kaliningrad COOLture of conflict – trainings of school mediators in Kaliningrad and exchange of experiences on mediation between organizations from Kaliningrad District, Poland and Germany	PLN 60 150
Third Age University Association Gorzów Wielkopolski	Partners: Jahresringe Landesverband e.V. and Echo Wajny, Kaliningrad Transfer of experiences in organizing self-help for elderly and handicapped people – establishing cooperation among organizations from Poland, Germany and Kaliningrad District	PLN 32 080
Association to Support European Union Integration Jelenia Góra	Partners: Backpacker – Bautzen e.V., Bautzen and AEGEE Kaliningrad Backpackers in Kaliningrad – developing a concept of house of meetings for inhabitants of Kaliningrad District and tourists – expanding up-to-date Polish-German experiences to cooperation with youth organization from Kaliningrad	PLN 24 060
East Democratic Society Foundation Warsaw	Partners: Deutsch-Russischer Austausch e.V. and Foundation for Democratic Development of Gusiew Polish and German volunteers in Kaliningrad District – activities for the development of voluntary movement in Kaliningrad District	PLN 44 110
Brandenburg Sport Association, Youth Section Potsdam	Partners: The Point Association, Wrocław and Kaliningrad Regional Centre of Civic and Patriotic Youth Education, Kaliningrad Street football for tolerance – international street football games in Kaliningrad District	PLN 50 431,20