Democratic citizenship and human rights education

The Unsung Hero Dialogues – Promoting Solidarity and Diversity through Awareness and Policy Reform

Start & End Date: 01.04.2020 – 30.09.2021
Participating Countries: Estonia, Germany, Greece, Italy, Portugal, Romania
Project Partners: CULTURE GOES EUROPE (CGE) – Soziokulturelle Initiative Erfurt e.V. (coordinator), Democracy and Human Rights Education in Europe (DARE) Network, Jaan Tonissoni Instituut MTU, Associazione Promozione Sociale LaFenice Associazione Sportiva, Institutul Intercultural Timisoara, UMAR – Uniao de Mulheres Alarnativae Resposta Assiociacao,United Societies of Balkans Astiki Etaireia.

Grant: Europe for Citizens
Number of Participants: 1.065 (incl. survey)

Key Action: Europe for Citizens, Strand 2: Democratic Engagement and Civic Participation
Grant Amount: 148.930 EUR

The project «The Unsung Hero Dialogues – Promoting Solidarity and Diversity through Awareness and Policy Reform» aims to increase awareness among European public of the importance of civic engagement in social and political discourse, as well as increase the competence of NGOs, as one of and freedoms. To achieve these objectives the project will focus on 1) increasing attention on the economically unstable position of young activists, working in small-sized NGOs 2) empowering young activists to advocate their rights through collective actions by creating a local and international networking among small CSOs within Europe and building a direct dialogue with policy makers. 3) increasing awareness of the importance of civil society by making an international campaign promoting European values and the importance of civic education to a wider public.

CGE Erfurt e.V. and its partners in Estonia, Germany, Greece, Italy, Portugal, Romania, including the transnational European DARE network will implement a total of 46 events (42 local and 4 international events) with the involvement of 175 direct participants in each country from April 2020 to September 2021. The project will start with conducting a professional survey in order to receive a statistical data on the economic situation of civil society in the EU. After the survey the Autumn School for young activists will be organized with the aim of promoting the value of civil society including the development of promotional campaigns by its participants. In parallel, each partner organization will conduct 4 local meetings of CSWs to share their ideas and discuss issues and challenges in CS activists’ work and create policy recommendations. Those policy proposals will be combined by the project consortium into policy recommendations on the European level and presented to the public during its final event.

  • Kickoff Meeting in Erfurt, GER (04.2020)
  • Survey on the Economic Situation of Civil Society Workers & small-scale NGOs (05-09.2020)
  • Autumn School in Mühlhausen, GER (10.2020)
  • 4 local meetings between civil society organisations and decision makers aimed at policy reform in all participating countries (09.2020 – 06.2021)
  • 3 local events to promote the value of civic education to the broader public in all participating countries (09.2020 – 06.2021)
  • Final event in Erfurt, GER (08.2021).