October, 2004

COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT IN JULY-SEPTEMBER

In July-September 2004, the CCU team worked to develop communities in both Programme oblasts. Lviv communities continued to implement their micro-projects: Sokal, Sambir and Chervonohrad finished the first quarter of their micro-projects, and started the second one; and Drohobych and Brody, which started to implement their micro-projects in July (one month later than the first three communities), have finished their first quarter. Donetsk oblast communities are now at the stage where Lviv oblast communities were in November 2003: they are developing concepts of their future micro-projects.

During the reporting period the strategy to conduct trainings in Donetsk oblast – based on the analysis of trainings in Lviv oblast – has been developed. To facilitate the full understanding of the concepts writing process among coalitions, a training block on developing log-frame has been separated from the Project Design training. This topic has been separated into a stand-alone training that will be delivered to Donetsk communities in a month after the Projed Design training. Developing the logframe is a necessary process to plan activities that would help the coalitions to understand better the process of implementing micro-projects, reaching the indicators of the Programme logframe and reaching the socially important outcomes in their communities.

LVIV OBLAST

In the reporting period communities of Lviv oblast started to implement their micro-projects. As any of the communities did not have experience of implementation of such large-scale, complex and partner projects, a lot of questions appeared in the communities from the very first days of micro-projects implementation. Most frequent questions that all five communities asked were about purchase of equipment, signing contracts with the staff, development of detailed work plans of the coalition, dissemination of information about the micro project in the community, self-monitoring and reporting. Micro projects staff received qualified consultations from Micro-Project Manager and Accountant of the Programme on all the issues mentioned above.

External micro-project planning and reporting system consists of monthly and quarterly plans and reports on implementation of micro-projects. This system provides Micro-Project Manager and all Programme staff with the information on if micro-projects are implemented according to the approved contracts and money is spent correctly. During the reporting period communities submitted three monthly reports and plans. It should be mentioned that although the quality of first monthly reports were not very high – they were not very accurate and clear – the following ones became much better. Information from monthly and quarterly plans on micro-project implementation is included into the Quarterly Programme Plan to ensure that Programme staff is aware about micro-project plans and can visit some of the events within the micro-projects.

To ensure the accurate spending of micro-project funds Iryna Belushkina, Programme Accountant, visited all five communities during the first quarter of their micro-project implementation. She checked accounting documents, talked with accountants of the micro-projects and delivered necessary consultations.

In July 2004 the CCU trainers conducted trainings on report writing in all five Lviv communities. The topics covered in the training included the basic conceptions of reports, primary financial documents, etc. The trainers also provided consultations and answered the questions from the audience. In July-August 2004 the representatives of Sokal, Chervonohrad, Sambir, Drohobych and Brodiv attended the Basics of Monitoring and Evaluation training. The participants were able to learn the basics conceptions of monitoring and evaluation and received individual consultations on introducing the monitoring and evaluation systems in their micro-projects.

During the reporting period the CCU trainers delivered several consultation requested by Lviv coalitions. On 16 July 2004 Sokal community received consultation on creating NGOs where all the steps on creating and registering NGOs were discussed. The same month the CCU trainers delivered consultations to Drohobych community on writing monthly reports on the results of micro-project activites; the consultation on this topic were delivered too. In late July the CCU delivered a consultation on preparing and conducting press conferences in the framework of Brody micro-project ‘We are One Community’. Chervonohrad micro-project manager received a consultation on preparing and organising public hearings on 10 September. As a result Lviv communities received all the necessary training necessary for the successful implementation of their micro-projects. To continue the community development in Lviv coalitions the CCU teams solitated requests for trainings and consultations to be delivered during the next quarter.

Sokal
The micro-project is carries out according to the work plan. During the reported period micro-project staff did not ask for any changes either in the work plan or in the budget. The micro-project is carried out with wide involvement of target group and local authorities representatives in its activities: representatives of the town council, district council and district administration, as well as businessmen and other NGOs representatives participated in the ceremony of opening of the Centre for Social Information. On the other hand the coalition representatives actively participate in activities of governmental institutions, for example they took part in the round table discussion “Young Family and Modernity” which was organised by Sokal District Centre for Providing Social Services to the Youth; a protocol of future joint activities was signed. The quarterly report in the micro-project implementation provides example on how deputy mayor of the town calls this micro-project “their collective project”.

A Citizens Advice Bureau that works within the micro-project not only provides people with necessary consultations and facilitates the procedure of citizens’ appeals to the local authorities but also contributes to strengthening of relations of NGOs within the coalition and improves their awareness about activities of each other because representatives of all members of the coalition deliver volunteer consultations in the CAB by turn according to the schedule and have to communicate with each other as soon as possible to make their consultations more effective. It is interesting that people who come to the CAB for consultations also share their opinion on what should be changed in the town and how to affect solution of one or another problem. Representatives of the target group, members of Sokal Association of Disabled People, participate in volunteer activities within the micro-project.

The coalition submitted their quarterly report with one-week delay (on 17 September) and it misses many supporting documents. Currently the coalition is reworking their report. It is expected that the report will be approved and the second funds transfer will take place in early October.

Sambir
The micro-project is being implemented according to the work plan. During the reporting period micro-project staff did not ask for any modifications either in the work plan or in the budget. Micro-project actively cooperates with local businesses, governmental institution and local authorities. Thus in the reporting period a number of round table discussions were conducted with Sambir employers, representatives of the state employment centre and local authorities. As a result of these discussions, it was suggested to jointly develop a concept on solving the employment problems in the city; staff of the micro-project received suggestions for future activities within the micro-project, including activities of the Youth Employment Centre and development of the City Statute; in October it is planned to sign agreement on cooperation of the micro-project with the state employment centre. In their quarterly report, the micro-project implementers provide an example of success story: director of the Sambir Forestry, who is a member of the Association of Employers – created when the micro-project was designed – received his first experience of communication with the state employment centre at one of these round table discussions and after the round table two unemployed young people received jobs in the forestry.

The CCU team received the micro-project’s quarterly report for the first quarter in time on time and, after providing some additional explanations, approved it. On 30 September the second funds-transfer for the micro-project implementation was done to the base organisation.

Chervonohrad
This micro-project is implemented with some slight deviations from the work plan: citizens advice bureau and initiative group on development of the City Statue started working with a significant delay. These deviations were caused by inner problems in the management of the micro-project as these people had never before worked in such partner projects and did not understand that success of the project depends on coordinated work of all the coalition members. Programme representatives: CCU Programme Manager, Micro-project Manager, Regional Coordinator and local experts several times visited this community during the reporting period and were able to mitigate situation partially. Now the Programme staff takes measures to prevent appearing of situations like this in future.

Meanwhile even the first days of CAB’s activity demonstrated that volunteer work of coalition members in CAB makes the coalition more solid and different organisations become more interested in the work of each other. It is expected that in the next quarter the coalition will have one more partner – an NGO “Youth Initiative Centre” which will be responsible for publication of a newspaper within the micro-project.

The micro-project actively involves volunteer work of the target group in its activities: volunteers disseminate questionnaires, make interviews for the survey, prepare material for publications, etc. One young unemployed girl works on the preparation of radio programme within the project and thanks to the micro-project she was included into the list of people to be employed in the Department of Internal Politics of the Chervonohrad Executive Committee (what is this?). Still many representatives of the target group do not completely understand the content of the micro-project and a lot of work is to be done in this field.

The coalition submited its quarterly report in time to the CCU. Though, it was not clear enough and some supporting documents were missing. The report was reworked and resubmitted. It is expected that in the beginning of October all missing documents will be received and the second funds-transfer will be done.

Drohobych
The micro-project is carried out according to the work plan. There are first success stories on providing support to the target group and there are some examples of the target group activisation: a group of young people to work with orphans within the micro-project has already been formed. The coalition actively cooperated with local authorities: they were invited to the presentation of the micro-project; representatives of the governmental institutions are regularly contacted to resolve the problems of those people who come to the Consulting Centre of the micro-project.

It is expected to receive the first quarterly report on implementation of the micro-project in Drohobych in the middle of October.

Brody
The micro-project is carried out according to the plan. Concerning this community it should be mentioned the during the first three months of the micro-project implementation the coalition became really united and the level of management, including the quality of reports and plans, is improving day-by-day. A wider community is attracted to the solution of problems of disabled people: students of the vocational school assist in creation of a playground and ramp, formation of the working group on “the city without boarders” programme started earlier than it was planned, and the initiator of this creation is local authorities not only the micro-project staff.

The first quarterly report on implementation of the Brody micro-project is expected to be submitted in the middle of October.

DONETSK OBLAST

On 30 July the CCU team conducted an informational session in the office of Donetsk Regional Coordinator where a call for ideas was announced for the five communities of Donetsk oblast: Artemivsk, Telmanove, Torez, Vuhledar and Yenakieve, four to five people from each community participated in it (including local coordinators). CCU Programme Director and Micro-Project Manager explained the role of concept papers in the process of micro-project development, reasons for using a non-competitive approach to the micro-project submission. It was described how the process of micro-project designing took place in Lviv oblast. Participants received the form for concept papers submission and instruction to it. Later these two documents were disseminated wider in the communities.

During August and the beginning of September a process of the Donetsk communities took efforts to form coalitions and write concept papers. This was accompanied by regular consultations and mentoring of Olga Demidiva, Strategic Programme Consultant in the Donetsk oblast.

On the 13th of September 2004, eleven concept papers were received:
3 – from Artemivsk,
1 – from Telmanove,
2 – from Torez,
4 – from Vuhledar, and
1 – from Yenakieve
The DU SMT reviewed the concepts on 20 of September. It was agreed that all concept papers comply with the technical requirements of the Programme, but none of them could be developed into the micro-project without reworking. It was decided to recommend to the communities to take one of the concept papers (the best one) as a base and to rework it with the integration of the best ideas from the other concept papers from this community. It was also recommended to demonstrate how the authors of the concept papers plan to involve the target group into the planning and management of their future micro-projects.

The CCU expects to receive reworked concept papers on 7 October and the next SMT meeting on their reviewing is planned for 8 October.

The trainings in Donetsk communities started with the training on successful work in partnerships and effective communication. Communities of Vuhledar and Yenakieve received this training on 28-30 June and Artemivsk, Telmanovo and Torez on 1-3 July. This training was developed basing on the experience of buidling coalitions in Lviv oblast. After the trainings the participants were able to conduct the first meeting of initiative group (role playing game with an emagined scenarious, jak tse po ludski skazaty). The game was followed the detail anyalysis of potential risks that may have negative impacts on the micro-projects.

In order to improve the knowledge of local communities on mechanisms of working with communities the CCU conducted a training called ‘Toolbox of Working with Communities’ on 2-7 August 2004. As a result of the training the organisations, which participated in the training, made the first steps to establishing partner relations among them and local authorities representatives. In addition to planned trainings and consultations the Strategic Programme Consultant in Donetsk oblast delivers additional consultations on request.

PR Component, Donetsk

During the reporting period the regular exchange of information between the Programme, local coordinators, and Programme participants was established and contact lists for information dissemination in communities were prepared. The information on Donetsk communities gathered during this period will be published in the next issue of Our Community and on the Programme web site.

Four communities (Vuhledar, Yenakieve, Telmanove and Torez) published materials on the start of the Programme in Donetsk oblast. One of the specifics of the outreach activities in the region is the creation of so-called “corners” (small exhibition stands) with the information about the Programme in public places and civil organisations. This is rather an innovative, and effective outreach element produced by local coordinators. Specifically, in Telmanove such corners have been created in the base organisation, rayon library, rayon centre of culture and town council. All communities are also planning to present the Programme in offices of local authorities.

Every Friday, local coordinator in Yenakieve delivered short releases about the development of the community on the local radio. As a result of her efforts, the number of activists interested in the future micro-project increased; organisations that firstly refused to collaborate, for example Department of Social Services for Family and Youth of local authorities, returned to the coalition.

The local coordinators in Donetsk communities conduct regular meetings with representatives of local mass media to share the information on the creation of coalitions and development of concepts. After a recent meeting of the local coordinator in Telmanove with the head editor of Nova Nyva newspaper (New Field) it was agreed to publish information about the Programme free of charge .