First event in Hungary 2003

Dokumentumok

Cím:	First event in Hungary 2003
Szerző:
Ország:
A kiadás helye:
A kiadás éve:
Kiadó:
Terjedelem:
Nyelv:	angol
Tárgyszavak:	community development, project planning, Coordination Committee, subproject measuring social capital
Állomány:	Community Development Network Building in Central and Eastern Europe, Közösségfejlesztési hálózatépítés Kelet-Közép Európában
Forditas:
Megjegyzés:
Annotáció:
Leltár:
Raktári jelzet:	E

The Hungarian Association for Community Development is the coordinator of the “Community Development Network Building in Central and Eastern Europe” project. It is going to organize the first and the last international events of the project, since there were no other volunteer organizations in the future network for performing this job.
First event
November 28-30, 2003
Host organization: HACD
Venue: Hungary, Kunbábony
Theme: 1. To set up the Coordination Committee and project planning meeting
2. International seminar on measuring community development through the measurement of social capital
Project visit offered on the following subject: community economic development in the small region of the Upper-Kiskunság
Length of the event: 3 days
Participation: 20 people
1. To set up the Coordination Committee and project planning meeting
Each participating organization points out a person to participate in the coordination group.
Bulgaria:Ljubomir Lazarov, C.E.G.A. Foundation
Czech Republic:Jiri Danes, Centre for Community Organizing
Hungary: Ilona Vercseg, HACD
Romania: Mara Danaila, RACD; Zoltán Balla, SZEKE
Poland: Marta Henzler, CAL
Russia: Igor Kokarev, Citizen Foundation
Slovakia:Ingrid Bernathova, VOKA; Leo Singer, CKO
Ukraine: Vyacheslav Koval, RDA “Donbass”; Myroslava Lendel, IPA RD
Their task is to synchronize international work and the local project work done by the participating organization. The coordination committee meets at least three times during the two years of the project. The first occasion will be a project planning meeting, while we can link the second ant third occasion with regular community development activities. The second meeting will aim at performing an interim evaluation and, if necessary, at making the necessary corrections. The third meeting will aim at performing the final evaluation and at planning future steps. Besides these three sessions, the coordination committee will maintain regular e-group communication as well.
The objective of the meeting is to reach a consensus in terms of the functioning of the network, and to discuss the implementation of tasks undertaken within the framework of the project (seminars, study visits, website development, social capital project, country-activities, further fundraising).
2. International seminar on measuring community development through the measurement of social capital – call for bi- or multilateral projects
‘Social capital’ is a very fashionable and attractive new concept all over the world (see the Internet). “Within the social sciences, there is convergence towards a definition which emphasises social networks and civil norms. Social capital is considered to involve social networks and support structures, community participation, civil and political involvement, trust in people and social institutions, and norms of reciprocity’ (Scull, 2001. In The measurement of Social Capital in the UK, National Statistics)
What is exciting for us is that social capital is measurable and even measured in a bulk of different countries. This can give CD two major advantages:
1. The influence of a cd professional intervention in a local community can be measured (on a much more reliable basis than we express in figures the results) – when we start and when we leave the local community.
2. It can be an excellent tool for influencing policy-makers.
Firstly, in the UK the Home Office made a Citizenship Survey in 2001 on a national sample and it became an evidence base for the Home Office’s community policies, which address issues of social cohesion and civil renewal. Secondly, it provides a means for assessing the Home Office’s performance against targets – in the case of the Active Communities Agenda, the target of making substantial progress by 2004 towards actively involving one million more people in their communities.
So, the concept is a wide framework which legitimise community development on a very obvious way.
The HACD would like to collect experiences on the measurement of local social capital. We are doing it since years in the framework of our “community appraisal” method, but not in the way statisticians do and this is why our result cannot be compared with other countries’ results. But now – with the permission of the Home Office – we will build some of their questions into our questionnaires. The HACD is going to invite participating organizations to implement this community questionnaire in minimum of one local community in each country. After this happened, we will analyse the outcomes and we will get a more reliable
picture on our and community development influence in the region.
Project visit: community economic development in the small region of the Upper-Kiskunság
In the severely disadvantaged small region of the Upper-Kiskunság – which is located around the College - a community development process was initiated in February 1997. The Hungarian Association for Community Development employs one worker to do the work. One of the emphasis of this work is on the community economic development program, which has started in the year of 2000 and which has already considerable results that can be shared.
Methods we used:
1. Involving the prominent representatives of the local governmental, civil and business sectors from every local community of the region through personal contact. 2. Regional economic planning workshop organised 4 times, with approx. 50 participants.
3. Developing a leading project – setting up an information node in each village.
4. Training for the leaders of the information nodes.
5. Establishing a foundation for regional economic development.
6. Organising a regional economic exhibition and launching a regional newspaper.
7. Preparing and launching local job creation schemes (e.g. employing gypsies, constructing a greenhouse, raising seedlings, town embellishment, running a community centre: Internet Café, tele-centre).
The project visit is for meeting local community economic groups and to get to know more about their efforts for their own social inclusion.
28 October 2003

Dokumentumok