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Testimonies from the Fall 2013 Professional Fellows European Delegation visiting the United States

“The most important part of this program for me was to see in practice how the community is engaged in solving the problems of a wide variety of stakeholders including parents, business, grassroots political organizations, ethnic minority organizations and faith based groups”, – Kalina Hristova, Bulgaria

“When I applied to this internship, I didn’t know what to expect from it or myself. That was a good move because I had the chance to experience the American life on my own from scratch. I’m very grateful for this great opportunity to come to the U.S. and learn about community organizing, the culture and people” – Oana Botezan, Romania

“I found this internship to be very insightful and inspiring. Through my wonderful mentors, I was reminded especially about the significance of the genuine connection with people and my experience has become mostly about the people and that the people matter the most. Power comes from the people, for the people” – Roman Tyska, Slovakia

“My experience during the trainings and the internship helped me to develop a broader understanding of the different roles and possibilities in working with people while on the other hand, I also could experience different types of organizing – Annamaria Kovacs, Hungary

Read the testimonies from all the alumni here:

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The Fall European Delegation is ready to explore Community Organizing in U.S.

The second European delegation with 19 fellows will be in  the U.S. from September 30 – November 9, 2013. They will participate in group seminars, round-table discussions, site visits, and had interactions with United States leaders. A tailored 3-week internship with mentoring, multicultural events, and participation in volunteer activities as well as in the Professional Fellows Congress in Washington, D.C. will also be included in the 6-week professional fellows program. Participants will prepare a 6-9 month  individual and group Action Plan for follow on activities. They  will have opportunities to experience the American family life and the diversity in the U.S. through staying with American host families during showbox download their internship in Little Rock (Arkansas), Chicago (Illinois), Manchester (New Hampshire), Langley Park (Maryland), Toledo (Ohio), Detroit (Michigan)  Wichita (Kansas), St. Paul (Minnesota), Philadelphia (Pennsylvania and   New York (New York).

Download in PDF – Fall European Delegation

26 alumni successfully completed their projects

During the spring/summer of 2013 the Great Lakes Consortium announced a small grant application opportunity to any of the 2012 alumni for them to complete some projects. Small grants (under $2,000 each) helped to cover expenses of the projects but alumni contributed their volunteer time, brought in additional resources and engaged others to do the same. Small grant support was also available to create training materials or other publications that are connected to this exchange program so more people can benefit from the experience. From the four countries altogether 26 of the 32 alumni submitted applications and successfully completed their projects by August 30, 2013.

They proposed and implemented a variety of activities including issue organizing, parent and/or youth organizing, training/seminar/workshops, involving disadvantaged people from urban or rural communities, with special emphasis on Roma and disabled people. As pokemon go gps signal not found a result thousands of people became familiar with com-munity organizing and many of them were youth who got very interested to continue this type of community work. In the small grant projects alumni collaborated with others who participated in different exchanges and they brought back different experience to share. Some U.S. mentors also helped the alumni in the organizing in Europe and/or preparing training materials.

Read more about the activities in the newsletter

Short picture’s story from our fellows

On 12th of April our fellows safety arrived to their fellowship placement site in 9 states at 11 hosting organizations. Read some of their first actions/meetings and impressions:

Raluca Negulescu, Romania

My first day at the Granite State Organizing Project was delightful. I met a group of fantastic Latin-American women from Nashua and we discussed about the main issues in their community. In the evening, I attended a fundraising event – the 2nd Annual Spaghetti Supper organised by Holy Cross Family Learning Center in Manchester. I met the Mayor of the city and enjoyed a Bhutanese dance show.

Raluca Negulescu

Raluca Negulescu, Romania

Martin Klus, Slovakia

I had a “sharp start” here in Little Rock and today became part of very strong state-wide initiative within Arkansas State Congress and will be famous for couple of seconds even in local TV.

Martin Klus

Martin Klus, Slovakia

Dzhevid Mahmud, Bulgaria
Csaba and Dzhevid met with senator Kennedy in Brockton, Boston during interfaith community action meeting.

dzhevid mahmud

Dzhevid & Csaba

Simona Barbu, Romania

Two very interesting meetings today in Seattle, the first one at CASA LATINA, where the Care Council meet to discuss about the national updates on the law of immigration and the activities they prepare for the next period: on the 9th of May they will put together and action called Mothers Day in order to highlight the role of the mothers in immigration.

Later on, in the Industrial district (aka China Town) we had the opportunity to participate at the meeting of the coalition for preparing May Day in Seattle, a totally different concept that what we usually celebrate in Romania. May Day is the Immigrant’s Day and will be celebrated by marching on the main important boulevards of the city and organizing the members of the immigrant communities to participate.

Together with Kovács Tímea Éva , we’ll be peace keepers during the march on the 1st of May! We are looking forward to it!

simona barbu

Simona & Timea

Miroslav Ragac, Slovakia

Very successful day today! Our S.A.G.E group (Survivor Advocacy Group Empowered) met with several members of the Illinois House of Representatives in Springfield and they got their support and commitment to vote for SB 1872!!! Well done girls!!!

Miroslav Ragac

Miroslav Ragac, Slovakia

Profile of the first delegation visiting U.S. -19 fellows from Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania and Slovakia

The first delegation with a total of 19 fellows from Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania and Slovakia visit the U.S. from April 1 – May 11, 2013 to participate in group seminars, round-table discussions, site visits, and will have interactions with United States leaders. A tailored 3-week internship with mentoring, multicultural events, and participation in volunteer activities as well as in the Professional Fellows Congress in Washington, D.C. will be also included in the 6-week professional fellows program.

Participants will prepare a 6-9 month individual and group Action Plan for follow on activities. They have various opportunities to experience the American family life and the diversity in the U.S. through staying with American host families during their internship in Little Rock (Arkansas), Chicago (Illinois), Boston (Massachusetts), St. Louis (Missouri), Manchester (New Hampshire), Raleigh (North Carolina), Philadelphia (Pennsylvania), Charlottesville (Virginia), Seattle (Washington).

A second European delegation is expected in the U.S. from September 30 – November 9, 2013.

The Out-Bound component will include at least two American mentors’ teams to travel to Europe (between June 2013 and March 2014) for up to 21 days to provide joint workshops with the alumni and on-site consultation and fieldwork, and conduct wider outreach programs.

U.S. and foreign participants will be involved in alumni activities through an alumni social network in each country. We will also establish an online network for continued learning. This program is a collaboration between GLC and its overseas partners: CEGA in Bulgaria, Civil College Foundation in Hungary, CeRe in Romania and Center for Community Organizing in Slovakia as well as the European Community Organizing Network (ECON) and many U.S. partner organizations involved in the joint program and the tailored internship, and follow up mentoring activities.

Building Grassroots Democracy in Minority Communities is a project of Great Lakes Consortium – through WSOS Community Action Commission, Inc. – as Contract Agent and Manager – granted for a two-way exchange between September 2012 and August 2014 from the U.S.
Department of State.

US Mentors

A third U.S. mentor group in Europe

US MentorsA third U.S. Mentor group with 8 participants will travel to Europe from January 25-February 15, 2013. The U.S. participants of this exchange will have an opportunity to share professional expertise and gain a deeper understanding of the societies, cultures and people of other countries.

They will participate in workshops, seminars organized by the alumni of this program and contribute with presentations, discussions and mentoring.

They will also visit public and civil society organizations working with the alumni in implementing projects in minority communities and provide them on-site consultations.

We hope that community organizing will start and will have success stories in many communities in 2013.

 

US mentors in Europe

New! Opportunities for U.S. organizations to participate as U.S. mentors in the European – U.S. community organizers exchange

US mentors in EuropeNew! Opportunities for U.S. organizations to participate as U.S. mentors in the European – U.S. community organizers exchange (Deadline is extended and we still take applications in January 2013!

Organizations and individuals who are actively involved in the legislative process and/or policy-making through their work in government, civic education organizations, citizen advocacy groups, community activists, or  community organizers who work with minority populations are invited to apply for participation as a local hosting organization in any parts of  the U.S. and/or U.S. mentor interested to travel overseas.

We encourage professionals and their organization to submit their application for participating in an exchange program with participants from four Central and Eastern European countries.

Read more– Announcement for U.S. mentors
Read more – Application for U.S. mentors

Deadline: 31st January