Civil Society & Inclusive Governance

The 3-year project seeks to improve public space and its use in Mostar through mobilising citizens and supporting citizen-led initiatives that contribute to the shared civic, cultural and economic life of the city. The project also aims to support citizens and local authorities to effectively use new skills, tools and mechanisms to address priorities in an inclusive, gender-sensitive, participatory and systematic manner.

“Amplifying Local Voices for Equitable Development” (ALVED) is a British government-funded project running from September 2020 through March 2023. The project is implemented in five municipalities in Kosovo and four in Serbia by a consortium made up of Peaceful Change initiative (PCi), a UK-registered charity, People in Need, and NGO Aktiv and Peer Educators Network (PEN), two Kosovo-based civil society organizations. The overriding objective of the project is to ensure that citizens in Kosovo are better able to empathise with one another’s perspectives, play active civic roles in society, and celebrate diversity. Through a focus on participatory social service planning, the project engages the expertise of the project consortium members with civil society and municipal representatives to ensure that high-quality social services are available to all. Grassroots civil society actors are offered capacity-building opportunities as well as funding for local initiatives that aim to improve cooperation between local authorities and residents. This project also pays special attention to the needs and concerns of young people, focusing on harnessing the potential of this vital demographic by investing in the development of knowledge and skills relevant for effectively engaging with their communities.

The aim of this project is fulfilment of the rights to equal education, of children and adolescents with special needs and those coming from vulnerable communities such as Roma, Ashkali and Egyptian in Kosovo (6-14 years of age), through engagement of national and local level actors in the formal education system in order to build capacities and create an enabling environment for inclusive education (IE). The project focuses on the development of teachers’ capacities through IE training by sharing innovative methodologies that can be used to assist children with special needs. Also, another important pillar of the project is the Internship Program where interns coming from the education background such as psychology, speech therapy, pedagogy and teaching assistance support and assist children with special needs and from vulnerable communities. Finally, the project is continuously building the capacities of its local partner CSOs, The Ideas Partnership and Autizmi Flet, for the purposes of ensuring sustainability and the continuation of the IE training in Kosovo.

The project “My Work – Economic Opportunities for Persons with Disabilities” aims to improve economic opportunities for persons with disabilities in eight selected cities in BiH. This will be achieved by empowering PwDs to be competitive in the open labor market and by offering concrete assistance in creating earning opportunities. The project will also raise public awareness by pointing out that the right to work is one of the basic human rights.
The project will be implemented in eight cities across Bosnia and Herzegovina and at least 70 PwDs will be empowered to be competitive in the open labor market, and receive practical training and support for specific occupations that are in line with their abilities, desires, and affinities.
Selected trained supported employment counselors will provide support to PwDs during an active job search, as well as job preparation, and during the execution of jobs and tasks until independence. Furthermore, the project will empower companies and enterprises that will potentially employ PwDs, in addition to concrete empowerment and professional training.

This EU-funded project supports the transformation of the Demir Kapija Special Institution (DKSI) into a resource center for persons with intellectual disabilities (PwID). Other activities include the resettlement of 45 beneficiaries into nine (9) independent living houses, developing community-based services for people with intellectual disabilities, and helping in the creation of self-advocacy groups for promoting the deinstitutionalization process. Additionally, DKSI staff will be trained in developing personal plans for clients and for the new ways of working with PwIDs.