1) The Small Grants Programme
The preparatory activities of the Small Grants Programme were performed in 1999, with the following phases of work: conciliatory negotiations, looking for partners, fundraising, professional service and setting-up a donation committee. Our partners include: the Autonómia Foundation, the Welfare Service Foundation, the Ökotárs (EcoFriend) Environmental Partnership Foundation, the Civil College Foundation, the Association for Community Development in the County of Békés, the Köz-tér (Public Space) Association in the County of Baranya, the Élettér (Living Space) Association in the County of Komárom, and the Community Service in the County of Vas. Our sponsors include: the Mott Foundation, the Rockefeller Foundation, the Levi Strauss Foundation, and the Soros Foundation. Our Service of Professionals (“Network of Service Professionals”): 8 people in 7 regions, in the capital city and in the surrounding areas. Donation Committee: 1 person from the Autonómia Foundation, 1 person from the Welfare Service Foundation, 1 person from the Ökotárs (EcoFriend) Environmental Partnership Foundation, and 2 persons from the Association for Community Development. The five members of the donation committee work on a voluntary basis. The Introduction of the Programme The period ending in September 2000 was the period of introducing the programme and developing the first 7 local projects, the workers of which were given advice and training courses by the community development professionals of our service network. The funding was given out following the courses. In the first round, 10 of the 13 ideas proposed by the local people were developed into project proposals by the assisting professionals. The following 7 of these 10 proposals received funding:
Accreditation
The tuition of the subject of “community development” has been accredited:
Civil Training Courses
Our most important courses given during the past year were as follows:
Community Database In 2000 the homepage of community development in Hungary - www.kkapcsolat.hu or www.kozossegfejlesztes.hu. - was reorganised by the staff running database, and almost the full variety of the contained professional materials was made freely available to everyone (for example, all the issues, articles and case studies of the Parola are now at the disposal of students in higher-education and of those interested). In this way, the Community Database has become the most important store of professional literature for students of community development at higher-educational institutions. The staff of the Database have prepared the electronic publication titled “The Minimum You Should Know about Community Development” as well as the WEB-versions of the modules constituting the “Thinking about Democracy” project. The database organises and runs a nation-wide e-mailing list called the Civil News Network.: Civil News, Gypsy Community Centres, CEBSD, Democracy Programme Network.