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Building Community by Strengthening NGOs in Panevezys

Region: Baltics, Central and Eastern Europe, Lithuania
Author: NGO Center “Parama”, Panevezys
Consortium Member: Baltic Ecological Programs Office (ECOLOGIA)
Status: Needs Funding Budget: $2640 Collected: $0 Needs: $2640
Goal: to provide community members with complete information about the variety of local non-governmental organizations which serve the region
Comment: By coordinating their public outreach activities, the local NGOs of Panevezys will also become more active in implementing local and regional projects. This step in the evolution of a viable non-governmental sector would be a significant development in the growth of democracy in this region of Lithuania.

About our organization:

Panevezys town is located in the Northern part of Lithuania. The population of the town is about 120,000 inhabitants. NGO Center “Parama” (“Support”) of Panevezys was registered in May of 2000. Core members of the Center are 7 NGOs: Society of widowhood “Svajone”, “Caritas”, Club of healthy life style “Atgaiva”, Red Cross, Association of education for adults, Association of elderly, and Society of tour guides. Altogether, 16 NGOs have joined our Center, mainly educational, health, and cultural institutions. The main activities of our Center are to help NGOs to look for funding, provide support submitting proposals, strengthen the role of NGOs in the society, and coordinate activities with local government. Photo at right: NGO Center singers and musicians pose before a performance

Goal of this project:

To increase the role of NGOs in the society by providing community members with complete information about local NGOs, and coordinating their activities implementing local and regional projects.

Methods of implementation:

There are two stages of this project, which would last for six months. [Photo, below right: Workshop on NGO capacity led by V. Ilgius, the Director of the Vilnius NGO Center.]

Stage One:

• collect data about NGOs and their activities in order to create a complete data base on active NGOs in the region ;
• organize a meeting on information exchange of the most active members of local NGOs and invite NGOs from other cities. Kaunas, Vilnius, Utena, and Mazeikiai all have strong NGO Support Centers;
• distribute and compile date from questionnaires among local residents in order to identify their knowledge level about NGOs. 300 questionnaires will be distributed for the community members starting of age 16 with the questions: Do you know what an NGO is? Can you name local NGOs you are familiar with? Do you think that NGOs are needed for the community? Do you know who are supporters of NGOs? Would you support an NGO? etc. Such data would give us better understanding of the NGOs' role in our society today. These data will be publicized in the press; having such information we can advocate more effectively for NGOs at the Municipal meetings.

Stage Two

When the data of Stage One have been compiled and analyzed, the Second Stage of the project will start. This would be a one day public event “NGOs are the strength of the society”. Participants in this event will include: Kaunas women’s employment center; Coalition of Utena Region NGOs; Mazeikiai NGO Information Center; all NGOs of Panevezys, community members, representatives of mass media. We expect few hundred people to participate. This event will consist of two parts: first part – an official, second part - cultural event. During official part representatives of different NGOs will present their NGO; possible cooperation among local NGOs and NGOs from other towns will be discussed in the groups and presented in the plenary meeting.

Expected outcomes:

• Based on contacts developed during project implementation , further cooperation will develop among regional and national NGOs. Community will be aware of NGOs role and will be involved in NGOs activities.
• Cooperation of NGOs with mass media will increase the journalists' and reporters' understanding of NGOs, and provide broad publicity for NGOs work.
• Public knowledge about NGOs will increase, and it will help to strengthen NGOs in their work on the local, regional and national levels. [Photo at right: Our NGO Center members meet with guests from Estonia]