Consultative meeting of participants on the project “Extraordinary work in extraordinary situation”

Target groups require attention and care in any situation, and continuity in the work of civil society organizations is necessary – this is one of the main conclusions from the online consultative meeting of participants and project team. Gathering followed the realization of workshops conducted by participants of the project “Extraordinary work in extraordinary situation” in order to summarize the impressions from the whole process, especially after work on the local level.

As the activities were adapted to the specific circumstances due to the COVID-19 pandemic during many online workshops, this was also an inevitable topic. Young people pointed out mostly that during the months of total imprisonment they were confused, had no one to turn to and felt abandoned. Regardless of various contents that were offered to them on the Internet, they believe that they did not have or did not know whom to turn to for information/solutions to the problems they encountered. This is especially relevant for young workers, because they were also one of the target groups covered by the workshops of our participants.

Conclusion is therefore one and clear – civil society organizations must be resourceful even when others are less so, which completely coincided with the premise from which it started when the project proposal was prepared.

During the process, 24 members of 12 civil society organizations from various fields of activity were empowered to make the work of their associations sustainable even during extraordinary circumstances. They reached another 180 young people through workshops, while the promotional campaign reached hundreds of thousands of their peers from different groups, as well as the general population.

Project was implemented from October 2020 to January 2021 with the support of the European Youth Foundation of the Council of Europe.