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Annual Report 2006

Community Initiatives Partnership Program

The aim of the program is to develop cross-border cooperation of non-governmental organizations from Poland and Germany with the organizations of our Eastern neighbors: Belarus, Ukraine and Russia (Kaliningrad District). In 2004-2005 the Program was limited to the cooperation with organizations from Kaliningrad District. In 2006 its outreach was expanded to include Belarus and Ukraine. The Program is run in cooperation with Robert Bosch Foundation. Our partner in Ukraine is PAUCI Foundation from Kyiv.

In 2006, we offered grants for the implementation of trilateral cooperation projects that serve to support local and regional community initiatives in Ukraine, Belarus and Kaliningrad District, integrate these initiatives into transboundary cooperation and promote model social activities aimed to improve quality of life in the Kaliningrad District and enhance civic activity and public life engagement in Ukraine and Belarus. The grants were awarded on a competitive basis, with an international jury of experts from the countries of program's operations supervising the two-tier application assessment procedure. The applicants — partner organizations from at least three countries — developed jointly a letter of intent which presented the project's concept and contained short profiles of all organizations involved in its implementation. The authors of most interesting concepts were invited to take part in trilateral seminars that took place in September 2006 in Nasutowo (for partners from Poland, Germany and Ukraine) and Rynia (for partners from Poland, Germany, Belatus and Kaliningrad District). At these meetings they discussed and elaborated their projects, using advice of external experts and Batory and Bosch Foundations' program coordinators. Full proposals submitted by the organizations accepted to the second stage of the competition were 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 Poland-Germany-Ukraine competition 57 letters of intent were submitted, 16 of them were accepted to the second stage. From among 15 that submitted full proposals 8 were selected for funding. In Poland-Germany-Belarus competition out of 8 letters of intent 6 qualified to the second stage with the Jury selecting eventually 4 for funding. The implementation of projects awarded will start in 2007.

As part of six projects implemented in 2006 from grants awarded in the second edition of Poland-Germany-Kaliningrad District competition, several hundred young people from the Kaliningrad District got involved in voluntary work for the benefit of their communities. A particularly important element of the projects carried out that year was promotion of voluntarism, still underdeveloped in the Kaliningrad District. For many young people this was the first experience of this type of activity. In several schools in the District volunteer centers were established which will continue to operate also after the projects' completion.

Join in

— Four days in Poland, six in Kaliningrad, nineteen people and uncountable impressions — that is how Martin Adams, one of five German volunteers, sums up Join in project. The goal of the project, designed as a series of happenings in the streets of three Kaliningrad District's cities, was to promote voluntarism. A group of 15 experienced volunteers from Poland, Germany and Kaliningrad District decided to convey in a an unconventional way the idea of voluntary work and why it is worth to engage in the work for the benefit of others. In the first part of the project a group of volunteers met in Olsztyn to work, under the supervision of a professional drama instructor, on pantomima performance — the center of the happening. The performance was to tell the story of transformation which undergo both the person who is helped and the helper himself. On the fourth day the group came to Kaliningrad District and embarked on a six day tour to present their happening. Volunteers visited three cities: Cherniahovsk, Svetlogorsk and Kaliningrad. They acted out different pantomima scenes winding up the performance with a live banner: „Volunteers — join in!” Although passers-by treated young artists with slight detachment, there were some, especially young, who got interested and came to the group to ask for a leaflet and more information. Organizers hope that the project contributed not only to promotion of the idea of voluntary works among the citizens of the District but also encourages others to use the potential of happening and street performance as an effective tool in civic campaigns. Time will show if they were right.

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

Program costs

Grants: PLN 244 474,37
Seminars, consultations, meetings: PLN 108 151,67
Operational costs: PLN 116 250,16
TOTAL: PLN 468 876,20

Grants

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