The site is under construction. Please be patient until all content is available again and expanded.

 

Why community organizing?

The Community-Organizing-Leadership Program is based on the methodology of community organizing, which is a democratically-governed long-term process by which people are brought together to act in their common self-interest to identify community problems and solutions, and to take action by engaging existing power structures to make those solutions a reality. The essence of community organizing is to enable local communities to influence local and regional decision-making and decision-makers and thus to take their own matters in their hands. Community organizing empowers people by actively involving them in the solution of their own problems: mapping and sharing these, identifying the powers that be and engaging with them through consultations and advocacy, but even taking up conflicts if needed achieve their common goals.

 

Why Ökotárs?

By supporting community initiatives, the Hungarian Environmental Partnership Foundation aims at contributing to the development of a democratic, sustainable and equitable society and an institutional system based on citizen participation. During the past two decades our foundation has initiated and managed a number of various grant programs, always emphasizing that financial support must be accompanied by knowhow and skills development in order to enhance the conscientious and sustainable use of the resources provided. Through its newest program, Ökotárs, an organization with 20 years of experience in grantmaking and capacity building of NGOs aims at contributing to the revitalization of civic community life in the countryside. 

 

The Community-Organizing-Leadership Program

During the past decade the life of Hungarian CSOs changed markedly not least thanks to the financial support provided by the various European Union funds. Parallel with this their public image and support has changed, too, but not necessarily for the better: only few „big” cases could raise public attention towards the work of NGOs, but otherwise their social embeddedness remained weak. At the same time, the cohesion and the integrity of the communities from which CSOs themselves come has deteriorated as well. Citizens lost their motivation, and in general fewer and fewer organizations and individuals participate actively in the life and development of their communities.

In order for civil society organizations to function efficiently and to fulfill their missions, they need to have strong constituencies and ties to the smaller and bigger community they work in: they should have active, mobile people behind and around them who are ready to participate in the work for the common good either with their time, with their voice (through speaking up for the cause) or with their money. In contrast with this, we see it often in Hungary that NGOs are operated by small groups of professional and deeply committed persons. In order to make an impact they would need to rebuild, broaden and strengthen their constituencies – and we aim to contribute to this through our own means.

We launched our programme with this goal: to support community initiatives in Hungary. In spring 2016 we published an open call seeking organizations and communities that want to build their advocacy and mobilization capacities, and to exercise effective public control over the institutions, authorities and businesses. We expect that the participating 10-12 civic organizations and groups will become able to learn and use the tools of community organizing through training, mentoring and consultations and thus to improve the quality of their life, the state of their environs as well as to identify and solve local problems and issues.

Through our programme we provide the tools organizing to the involved communities

• to discover common needs;
• to explore community opportunities;
• to build advocacy;
• to plan common actions;
• to win cases.

In the long run, our programme aims at vitalizing and fertilizing the NGO sector in countryside Hungary, so as to enable the organizations/groups to become actors and partners not only on the local, but also on the regional and national level thereby creating vibrant civic communities that can play a key role in democratic development.

About the communities During our first open call in 2016 we involved 12 CSOs and grassroots, self-governed and not profit based informal groups of citizens from settlements with fewer than 10,000 inhabitants, committed to change and to participate in the one-and-half year long learning process.

 

 

Success stories
"Welcome to Gyál. Brought your flashlights and hiking boots with you?" During the action series entitled "neither lamp nor pavement" the local community raised awareness of the inhabitants according the deficiencies of the public lighting and pavements of the city. A public debate was held in a city forum and a community research was organized. Many public data interest request was occurred and after many months and a long letter exchange with the authorities finally the city clerk found the community complaints legitimate and made a written promise to launch the repair works.
Gyöngyöspata - Right for health According to the law if a disease breaks out, the local authorities can provide the necessary vaccination for free in order to overcome the illness and to avoid further infections among the affected population. Unfortunately sometimes the bureaucracy is blocking the access of the marginalized peoples to the services. Successful campaign have been launched in the settlement to put pressure on the local government and the territorial authority of the National Public Health and Medical Officer Service (ÁNTSZ) to provide vaccinations for free.
Őr - Succeeded One of the very first campaigns of the community in Őr aimed the harmonization of the long-distance bus and train schedules. The direct transfer was not resolved between train and bus in the train station in Mátészalka city by the authorities. Therefore the inhabitants of three neighboring villages (Őr, Jármi és Vaja) had to wait for hours long to the bus after evening train arrived.
Bódvaszilas - The cars stucks in the potholes The street connecting the settlement to the railroad becoming more and more impassable. At good times the dust occure problem, at bad weather the accumulated water and mud in potholes. The locals involved the the surrounding settlements and required the eradication of the bad conditions.
Pécsbánya - Lacking renovation since 35 years The local kindergarten waited for renovations works for thirty-five years, in the meantime everything has dilapidated on the building and even its survival has become doubtful. A group of local women initiated a cooperation aiming the rescue of the kindergarten.
Mátraverebély - Park instead of ruins The building of the former movie theater was previously a wellknow community place. During years the area has become a segregated part of the village, the building has partly collapsed and now is a life-threatening ruin. The locals raise attention to the problem and furthermore to want to achieve the demolition of the ruins and to reach the utilization of the area by reflecting community needs.
Results 2500+ involved inhabitants 1200+ interviews 20+ involved settlements 15 local actions, campaigns (ongoing or closed) 12 directly involved communities 12 trained community organizers 10 new local leaders	Summaries Brief summary of the experience with programs aiming at supporting communities.The writings were completed in cooperation with the Heinrich Böll Stiftung e.V. On the way to community organizing - Brief summary of the experience with programs aiming at supporting communities The results of community organizing

 

Further information: kozossegszervezes@okotars.hu, +36 1/411-3505