On 20-23 June, the member organizations of the Inter-Regional Coalition to Deal with Issues of Children with Disabilities participated in the series of capacity development series organized in the scope of the Capacity building of Inter-Regional Coalition to Deal with Issues of Children with Disabilities sub grant project implemented in the framework of the EU funded “Commitment to Constructive Dialogue” Project. The training which was held in Gyumri City covered the following topics:
- “Project Management: Models of Network Activities »
- Public Relations: Communication & Visibility »
- “Social Entrepreneurship”
- “Public Finance Management and Control”.
In the first part, the participants got acquainted with the structure of program proposals, the nuances of writing competitive proposals, and then touched upon the stages of project management, the need for monitoring and evaluation. The participants also got acquainted with the networking models, especially with the organization of public discussion of the town hall methodology, which is perhaps one of the most effective and practical forms for the research of public opinion.
Representatives of the present CSOs touched upon one of the most important sections: the public relations, which today is not accessible to all NGOs and not everyone has sufficient resources (both human and financial) to communicate and to ensure their visibility properly. The participants got acquainted with public relations, its components, tools for visibility, as well as discussed the peculiarities of public relations in the field of civil society. They received helpful advice that, in many cases, was revealed on the examples of CSOs involved.
Social entrepreneurship is an economic activity that pursues a social purpose and is aimed at social change. The SE allows civil society organizations to provide financial sustainability on the one hand and at the same time address issues of public concern. The Coalition member organizations received both theoretical and practical knowledge from the development of social entrepreneurship projects to business management and tried to build business models based on their own ideas.
“In this period, this is one of the most important topics is for us, the CSOs, as the government is actively involved in involving non-governmental organizations in the discussion of the Medium Term Expenditure Framework an Applications for Budget. This is an unexpected phenomenon, and since it will be continuous, we all need to be furnished with corresponding knowledge to be able to participate in these processes and assist the state bodies in developing and implementing more useful programs,” trainer Gharib Harutyunyan, President of “Compass Research, Education and Consulting Center” NGO said. The participants got acquainted with the nature of public finance, the peculiarities of its management and control, the social and economic budget concepts.
At the end of the working meeting the members of the coalition also discussed the further activities of the coalition, the directions of the work. In the course of the meeting, the Coalition Financing (Co-financing) and Fundraising Plan was approved as well.”
Armavir Development Center NGO is implementing the “Capacity Development of the Inter-Community Coalition Dealing with Issues of Children with Disabilities” project in the scope of the EU funded “Commitment to Constructive Dialogue” project implemented by a consortium of NGOs led by the Armenian Lawyers’ Association.
