The Associations of the Disabled in the towns of Belica and Yakoruda are in search of ways to integrate their members to the society. The project founded a Center for Education and Help of the invalids from Belica and Yakoruda. There, they had a chance to receive training in working with computers and office-technique. The project proved that in favorable conditions, the disabled could learn, create, have fun and gain professional skills. That makes them not only competitive at the labour market, but also more sterling members of the society.
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The main goal of the project was to overcome the social isolation of disabled people. The project activities have offered them the opportunity to develop computer, organizational and administrative skills, and have given them chances for professional realization. Disabled people have taken part in the Municipal Administration work. They provided information and services at the Citizen Services Center. This allowed them to put the acquired skills to practice and prove themselves as good workers and executives.
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Public discussions of commercial services in the neighborhoods of the Municipality of Dobrich City started in the beginning of year 2000 and lasted up to six months within the Trade, Tourism, and Services and Public Relations municipal departments. The discussion covered the two largest outlying and two of the inside neighborhoods, where the construction plans provided for building shopping centers.
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Citizen participation creates prerequisites for making joint decisions about problems in the community and attaining common goals by utilizing the existing resources, sharing responsibility and the understanding that this is our problem, not only the problem of municipal authorities . This practice provides for incorporating and using the opinion and ideas of a wider circle of people. Citizens focus their attention on the general situation in the municipality, not only on their individual needs.
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The goal of the Community Forum is to facilitate the discussion of important problems concerning local development with broad citizen participation, and to formulate projects to be implemented at local and regional level. A basic recommendation for its work is to stimulate direct citizen participation in the development and implementation of these projects. Research conducted so far (e.g. UNDP's Human Development Report) show that it is far more effective if ideas are generated and specified by citizens in a debate with local authorities and other key actors in the community. The end result of such effort is the consolidation of citizen participation in the decision-making process and mobilization of local resources for sustainable development.
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The results of the project entitled Stimulating Women s Participation in Local Government , funded by USAID through FLGR, successfully concluded in February 2000, show that the topic developed is of outstanding use and significance, and provide a good start for focused activity of the Forum Clubs throughout the country.
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The Youth Self-Government Day in the Municipality of Elena provided the graduates of the Ivan Momchilov High School the opportunity to get an idea not only about the structure and the functioning of the municipal administration. It allowed them to face the problems that the mayor s team and the municipal experts have to solve every day. This makes young people realize the responsibility that every municipal official has in solving these problems. The practice came up also as a response to students wish to get involved in solving issues that are important to the future of their home town.
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The Constituent Admission Room established by the Challenges Foundation allows the Sofia citizens to get information on the activities of members of parliament, on the current work of the National Assembly, as well as access to bills, opinions and proposals. On the other hand, the citizens can express their opinions, make proposals and evaluate members of parliament s performance, compare their opinions, participate in public debates and create new shared responsibility rules for constituents and elected officials.
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The Concord Women s Society s goal is to re-establish the Bulgarian Renaissance tradition of charity and mutual assistance. The Society has activities aimed at supporting lonely people and children in need. It also supports the restoration of Svishtov s cultural traditions. To fund its projects, the Society relies on the contributions of interested citizens as well as on cooperation with, and support from, the local authorities and other institutions.
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The Elena Tribune is a municipal newspaper. It aspires to provide impartial coverage of important events in public life and to be useful to its readers both by meeting their information needs and by being a forum for their creative abilities and citizen views.
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