“The words society and nation fade away in recent years in Bulgaria. We turn into a sum of people. Therefore it is very important to learn to live together in a real community, ” said the Deputy Chair of the National Assembly Mr. Yanaki Stoilov to the participants in the third module of the Programme for active civic participation and leadership skills development for young Roma. Mr. Stoilov was a special guest in the training, which took place between 5 and 8 November in Veliko Tarnovo.
As an emphasis in the programme were public policies development and project writing. Mr. Dian Atanasov, who is prosecutor from the District Prosecutor’s Office in Sevlievo, delivered a lecture on the basic civil rights and duties, stipulated in the Bulgarian Constitution, on the separation of powers and on the fundamental functions of state institutions. Political scientist Ms. Angelinka Markovska talked about the process of policy making at national and local level. The Program Director of the “Transparency” Association presented data from the local elections 2015 monitoring. Ms. Dobrinka Krasteva, who is Director of “Programming of EU funds” in the administration of the Council of Ministers, spoke about opportunities for European financing of integration policies. Ms. Kremena Grigorova, Head of “Regional Monitoring and Control” in the Ministry of Labour and Social Policy explained the basic rules for projects writing. The political scientist Mr. Goran Stojkovski delivered a lecture on stakeholder analysis and advocacy campaigns building. Ms. Daniela Tassevska, who is Dean of the Philosophy Faculty at the University of Veliko Tarnovo, spoke about negotiations. The TV journalist Mr. Boyko Vassilev discussed with the participants the rules for working with the media and participation in a television interview.
18 youths had training tasks on stakeholder analysis, writing of the projects writing, public speaking, persuasive communication and negotiation skills, etc. The youths were introduced to the team of mentors who have the task in the next three months to assist the participants in writing their individual project proposals.
The Programme for active civic participation and leadership skills development for young Roma is part of the project “Encouraging civic participation of young Roma”, implemented by the Association “New Road” and the Bulgarian School of Politics “Dimitry Panitza” and is funded by Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein in the framework of the NGO Programme under the European Economic Area Financial Mechanism.
