Civic Europe is a multi-level enabling framework aiming to strengthen civic cohesion and active citizenship in local communities in Central, Eastern and Southern Europe. We support locally rooted organizations and projects in two ways: through the Idea Challenge on the one hand and the Capacity Building on the other.
The Idea Challenge funds and mentors up to 20 ideas per year. Eligible countries are Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Croatia, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia and Spain. The Idea Challenge winners 2021 are online now.
The Capacity Building program fosters the capacities and the ecosystems of locally rooted organizations and individuals who want to make change in their communities. It supports individuals and organizations working in the fields of civic education and civic engagement in Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland and Romania.
Desert oases are a peaceful meeting place and a crossroads of cultures. The project aims to promote inclusiveness by fostering mutual exchange between different ethnic groups, with culture as a main …
The small village is facing the challenge of growth and development in a changing world and is continuously decreasing in terms of demographics, local economic and social structures. But, even the sm…
Vukovar in Croatian means sacrifice, war memories, divided community tied up to the past. Past engulfs the present tightly as 2021 marks 30 years since the city fell.
Mindful of unhealed wounds our…
Our plan is to engage youth in the local decision-making processes and the development of the community, as well as give voice to marginalized groups in our communities. We will start by creating a y…
The goal is to equip high-schools students with the necessary actionable skills and tools to become active agents of positive change in the local community in their respective 14 small- and medium-si…
Our challenge is to engage youth in the local decision making processes and the development of the community. We want to give them a chance to actively take part in solving community challenges. We w…
Our aim is to create the Academy of dialogue as a platform to teach youth workers and teachers to use their authority wisely and to support young people in entering the dialogues and expressing their…
Engaged citizens who want to serve their communities as local representatives often know little about how local government works. They want to use their vision and goodwill in local office but they a…
The project will support the creation of a Municipal Plan for Non-Discrimination, as a public policy for the promotion of human rights and social inclusion, providing a response to tackle growing rad…
The world is racing towards carbon neutrality by 2050 to reverse climate change. We want the Youth to be the forefront in this race. Local and refugee youth in Lesvos have few opportunities to learn …
YOUNG diverCITY is a structured dialogue experience: an horizontal and inclusive space within which 300 young people, aged between 12 and 29,coming from diverse backgrounds, are able to engage with p…
W4W is about giving voice and empowering women who have experienced homelessness and are in the process of recovery. They want to support other women who are now in a homeless situation, by creating …
Rural areas of Castelló province are lacking innovative initiatives that make use and take care of their heritage and help to stop depopulation. We aim to get together the rural communities in a part…
Energy poverty is a considerable challenge in North-East Hungary. It is a topic at the intersection of various social, housing and climate policies, therefore the process of finding the right tools t…
Hear me! is all about listening. Youth’s voice will be heard and recognized for the first time and their lives will change from that time on as equal members of the community. Our goal is to break th…
Depopulation, lack of opportunities for youth, isolation and neglected commons are all challenges faced by the 7 villages involved in our project. We want to revive our communities, reconnect them an…
Roma people in the village of Napkor can only break the cycle of poverty through getting a quality education for their kids. It is crucial for them to learn to get their voice heard. Our objectives a…
In Ruse, deindustrialization has left the river detached from the city, while career and social opportunities for youth have diminished. The Danube Design Lab empowers socially excluded youth to chan…
Our Idea Challenge winners finally met in-person during the 2021 Community Meeting. What were the outcomes of our meeting? We collected and reflected on some voices of our participants.
Among the winning projects of the Idea Challenge 2020, several focus on youth empowerment in their activities. We want to share three different project ideas that are empowering youth in different contexts.
In this article we reflect on our experiences working with partners in Civic Europe Capacity Building and identify essential steps to use the power of cooperation and co-creation.
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Civic Europe is an incubator for locally rooted civic initiatives, organizations and individuals in Central, Eastern and Southern Europe realized by MitOst and Sofia Platform, funded by Stiftung Mercator.