“Sustainable Organizations for a Strong Community”: local civil sector for welfare of all citizens of Raška

Project “Sustainable Organizations for a Strong Community” officially began with the kick-off meeting in Raška, aiming to strengthen capacities of civil sector in this municipality. Partners and members of the project team in its extended composition gathered to divide tasks in detail and specify further steps, from which the first will be the initial training for 24 members from 12 citizens’ organisations from Raška municipality.

Project will last until July 2021 with the focus on enabling interested organizations to participate in local processes of relevance, create various services for their target groups and start using funds from national, regional and international sources.

Project is divided into several phases and the first is dedicated to knowledge and information transfer in order to ensure sustainability of civil society organizations, from day-to-day operation to preparation of project proposals based on members’ ideas and needs of target groups, as well as on how to contribute to greater visibility of organizations’ work. During four modules planned, selected participants will learn, gain practical knowledge and useful advices on how to conduct their future work in the civil sector.

In continuation of the process, participants are expected to transfer acquired knowledge to colleagues in organizations they are coming from, but also to start shaping some of the current ideas into project proposal with which they would apply for support.

All ideas in the form of project proposals will be presented at the final event, the Project Ideas’ Fair, to potential donors and other stakeholders, as well as to the colleagues from civil sector and general public.

We will do our best in finding necessary support for those that reflect best needs of the citizens of Raška and contribute to improvement of life quality of various population categories through new services and activities for citizens of this municipality.

At the long-term level, by raising the capacities of local civil society organizations, our goal is to point out the importance of partnership between organizations and local self-governments, but also the important role that organizations can have in detecting and addressing the needs and challenges of local community.

Project “Sustainable Associations for a Strong Community” is implemented by Development Center for Youth in partnership with the Children’s Association of the Municipality of Raška. The initiative is part of a broader project “Accountable Public Finance Management Platform” implemented by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and funded by the Government of Sweden in cooperation with the Municipality of Raška.