At the end of February 2025, the first information meetings were held for the 46 civil society organizations supported by the INSPIRE Fund.
The meetings were held in a flexible format on three different dates – February 17, 20, and 21 – in order to ensure that all funded organizations, including those outside Sofia, could participate.
They gave participants the opportunity to get to know each other, present their organizations and projects, and exchange ideas and good practices. This marked the beginning of the building of a community of active civil society organizations united by the mission to reduce violence against and between children.
During the meetings, the organizations also received detailed explanations about project implementation, reporting, publicity, and visualization requirements, as well as answers to specific questions.
The training program for capacity building of civil society organizations was also presented, in which the supported organizations will participate in the coming months. The program will be implemented by the National Network for Children and will cover a variety of topics, from communications and fundraising to strategic planning based on children’s rights.
Emphasis was placed on the use of the electronic platform for communication and document submission, and additional instructions for working with it were provided.
More about the INSPIRE Fund
The INSPIRE Fund supports a total of 46 Bulgarian civil society organizations and community centers in implementing projects aimed at reducing violence against children and empowering victims of violence.
Thirty-three of the projects are aimed at tackling the problem at the local level. The remaining thirteen organizations will work at the national level.
The projects will be implemented in over 150 settlements across the country and will reach more than 500,000 people. Activities will start in early 2025, and the funded organizations are expected to complete their work in 2027.
More about the INSPIRE project
The INSPIRE Fund is part of the INSPIRE project: Improving national support for the prevention, intervention, and response to violence against children and empowering victims. The project is implemented by the Workshop for Civic Initiatives Foundation (WCIF) and the National Network for Children (NNC). The project has a duration of three years, during which the CIIF is solely responsible for providing project funding, while the NCC is responsible for building the capacity of organizations. The INSPIRE project is co-financed by the European Union.
You can learn more about the funded projects here.