GEYC has joined the program THE:PLACE, created in the framework of a Mercator Foundation funding and coordinated by ALDA - European Association for Local Democracy, in partnership with MAD - Mekanda Adalet Derneǧi.
THE:PLACE - Turkey Hand in hand with Europe: Programme for Local Authorities and Civil society Exchange aims to build up lasting Turkey - European Union networks of Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) that work on local issues, promoting an exchange aimed to increase their capacity to create meaningful impact in their respective areas of work.
THE:PLACE programme aims to favour the empowerment of Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) and Local Authorities (LAs) as actors of local development, through specific capacity building, peer learning and joint cooperation on co-designed common projects. The programme seeks to create quadrilateral partnerships composed of 1 CSO based in Turkey associated with 1 LA + 1 CSO based in the EU associated with 1 LA.
From February 2022 to October 2023, the programme will bring together the participating CSOs:
- Firstly through a match-making phase so each participating CSO can find its potential EU/Turkish counterpart.
- Then, through intensive coaching in Istanbul and an online learning program to increase their thematic (urban development, social issues, climate change, digital participation, disaster prevention, participatory budgeting, local democracy and decentralised cooperation) and technical (project development, field visit, etc.) skills.
- Finally, financial support may be awarded to partnerships created within the programme, integrating a local authority from each country in order to carry out a competence exchange project triggering achievements at the local level.
The GEYC team just returned from Istanbul, where we took part in the intensive coaching event, so stay tuned for more news on this project!