modified Tuesday, 18 October 2011

Goal and objectives

The issue tackled by the project Partnership for the Community was the lack of the capacity of organizations providing social services to convince public institutions to finance these kind of services. The goal of this project was to increase the capacity of NGOs that are providing social services to pressure the authorities to allocate more resources to social services provided by NGOs and to contract public-private partnerships.

The three objectives of the project were:

1. Building advocacy competences and abilities for 7 NGOs to militate for being recognized as social services providers by public authorities.
2. The involvement of 7 NGOs providing social services in advocacy activities for contracting social services and public-private partnerships
3. Creating and promoting a collection of 4 case studies on advocacy, as a method to represent citizen’s interests which benefit from social services and recognizing the role of 4 NGOs as social services providers by public authorities.

Partners

"Pentru Voi" Foundation, "Support the Children" Association

Activities

• we developed a study that contains an analysis of success stories of financial support for social services from public budgets;
• a debate regarding the laws and instruments that support the funding of social services by the authorities was organized;
• an advocacy course and a PR course witch was meant to improve the public relations skills and the advocacy skills of the beneficiary organizations were organized;
• 8 local advocacy campaigns were conducted by the organizations benefiting from this project;
• we provided assistance and advice on organizing 8 local advocacy campaigns to the selected non-governmental organizations;
• a seminar to discuss the strong points and weak points of the local campaigns was organized;
• a training in fundraising followed the seminar on strong points;
• we developed a collection of case studies containing four of the most interesting and successful advocacy campaigns and a “lessons learned” section.

Results

The 8 organizations have conducted their advocacy campaigns during a period of approximately 8 months with the assistance and help of CeRe and its partners. According to their interest and capacity the purpose of each local campaign was established by the organizations. We assisted them in every step of the campaign. More then 1000 persons were involved in the local advocacy campaigns and 36 advocacy activities were developed.

All of the organizations have organized public events and initiated discussions and meetings with the local public authorities. Besides that there were used petitions, signature campaigns, workshops, interventions in the local council meetings, etc. Most of the campaigns have been successful, the organizations accomplishing their campaign purpose. Some of the campaigns will be continued even after the ending of the project, CeRe continuing to offer assistance to the organizations. Four of the most successful advocacy campaigns were documented and described in a collection of case studies “The story becomes reality – through advocacy campaigns for social services”, that offers useful information on advocacy from a theoretical and practical perspective.

In their advocacy campaigns the beneficiary organizations fought for:

1. Saint Damian Association from Iasi – The achievement with public funds of a mobile health service for the elderly in the rural area;
2. Antiparkinson Association from Deva – The development from public funds of a public psychologist service, called “The Public Psychologist
3. ACCES Association from Oltenia, Craiova – Building a local NGO network aiming to develop a social service strategy in Craiova, based on public-private partnership.
4. Sun-light Association from Iernut, Mures – Obtaining public funds to hire a physical therapist in the day center for people with disabilities administered by the association.
5. INOCENTI Foundation, Bistrita - Allocation of funds for the NGOs by The Bistrita-Nasaud County Council, through the mechanism of the Law 350/2005
6. Veritas Foundation, Sighisoara - Making a long term partnership with the local city hall and attracting supporters from the local community to form a council of administration and to provide financial sustainability of the social services offered by the organization
7. The Sporting Club Association of People With Disabilities from Galati – Obtaining public funds for the equipment of an ocupational therapy center for people with disabilities.
8. Bethania Foundation from Cluj-Napoca - Signing a partnership with the city hall of Cluj-Napoca, allowing financial cover needed for the cost of the treatment for 40 children with disabilities.

This project was financed by the Governments of Iceland, the Principality of Liechtenstein and Norway, through the European Economic Area Financial Mechanism and the Open Society Institute. The content of this material does not necessarily represent the official position of the EEA Financial Mechanism. For official information regarding the EEA Financial Mechanism and the Norwegian Cooperation Programme, please visit www.eeagrants.org.