Interregional Meeting Sofia

The Citicess Family organized a live meeting, to take another big step towards our goal: change the social policies of the cities to be able to help the most vulnerable citizens more effectively.

We have received a very warm welcome from team Sofia Municipality. Having a good atmosphere is essential for developing the project and to exchange experiences. The first day of the meeting started with a message from Svetlana Angelova, Director of the Social Activities and Integration of Persons with Disabilities Directorate and Project Manager, followed by an inspiring speech by Maria Goncheva, Director of the European Policies, Programs and Tourism Directorate at Sofia Municipality.

After catching up with the daily project and financial management, the first thematic tasks were introduced by the Heerlen team. They presented the Policy Improvement Pathway, a methodology which can help the cities plan and achieve impactful policy change in their cities. The partners discussed and shared their plans for the first 4 of the 8 steps.

 

The second day started with the study visits, which led to two institutions: Family Centre "Direction" - Concordia Foundation Bulgaria and The Health and Social Development Foundation (HESED).

In the Family Centre "Direction" people in need receive support for up to 6 months. They can come independently and receive general services as needed. They can also be referred by the Child Protection Department or the municipality and then receive services as prescribed.

 

Through individual and group work, a sustainable environment is created for personal development and to improve family relationships. Priority in the work is the prevention of school drop-out, social isolation and neglect, as well as active work with parents. Basic needs of food, clothing and footwear, health and dental care, building hygiene habits are covered. The main aim of the Centre's work is to build children's confidence and support parents in caring for their families.

The Health and Social Development Foundation (HESED) is Located in a Roma neighbourhood, it addresses the lannual needs of over 300 children in need of early childhood care and hundreds of youth in need of developing their social skills and key competencies for a more successful start in the job market. The mission of HESED is to promote opportunities for personal and community development, health and social well-being, and to create and promote effective approaches for successful integration of socially excluded communities.

 

The Foundation develops and implements successful models of early childhood development, health promotion and integrated services that break the cycle of poverty and social exclusion. The Center's proximity to where people live creates social and psychological comfort for those who participate. All services are offered according to the needs and abilities of the users - programs for children and mothers in the morning and for youth and adults in the afternoon and evening. Trained assistants who work in the centres participate in various social, health and educational activities.

In the afternoon Eva Bunbury led a Stakeholder Involvement Session where she focused on the public speaking skills of the participants: on the workshop everyone could improve their speaking skills by trying to summarize their experineces of the study visits to their imagined stakeholders. This session was followed by the Communication Team Workshop where partners could work on communicating their Good Practices which they collected in the project.

 

The last day was for the CITICESS Masterclasses organized by Team Sofia and Galati. The first very eventful Masterclass focused on the topic of Stakeholders and was led by Prof. Dr. Denitsa Gorchilova and Dr.Violeta Toncheva-Zlatkova from the University of National and World Economy (UNWE). After some icebreaker tasks and a presentation of the academic background of the topic  the teams worked on identifying an imaginary project's stakeholders of an even more imaginary situation and the teams presented their ideas. The Masterclass contained many valuable take-home messages and the participants could acquire a deeper knowledge about stakeholders.

The topic of the second Masterclass was successful communication on projects, and it focused on projects with a major social impact. The partnership could learn more about how to communicate  effectively to responsible institutions, stakeholders and target groups. It was also finished by teamwork, participants developed their own communication strategy to their imagined or real project.

The second Interregional Meeting of CITICESS was held in the beautiful city of Sofia. After the workshops were finished, the partners had plenty of opportunities to discuss more about their projects which is also a very important aspect of these live meetings.

Thank you again for the hosting team for organizing such a nice meeting, see you next time in Heerlen!