eu spring participants 2013

GREAT LAKES CONSORTIUM for International Training and Development (GLC) — GLC is a collaborative effort of the Bowling Green State University, Lourdes Uni-versity, The University of Toledo, and WSOS Community Action Com-mission, Inc - Contract Agent and Manager. Established in 1999. Dr. Elizabeth Balint Project Manager Juli Bertalan, Barbara Dennis, Viktoriya Maryamova Program Coordinators GLC Toledo Office P.O. Box 352424 Toledo, OH 43635 Phone: 419-725-0440 Cell: 419-973-8007 Email: [email protected] Website: www.GLC-Teachdemocracy2.org www.gl-consortium.org Find us on

Sponsored by the U.S. Department of State, Bureau of the Educational and Cultural Affairs, Office of Citizen Exchanges, Professional Fellows Division

The Great Lakes Consortium – through WSOS Community Action Commission, Inc. – as Contract Agent and Manager – received a grant for a two-way exchange between Sep-tember 2012 and August 2014 from the U.S. Department of State for the “Building Grass-roots Democracy in Minority Communities” with at least 32 participants from four coun-tries of Europe and for 18 U.S. mentors. The overall goal of this exchange is to provide a professional development opportunity for up-and-coming and mid-level professionals to gain knowledge of the U.S. practices in citizen participation and advocacy, engaging minorities, and marginalized populations in civil society and politics, collaborating with community leaders to inform changes in legislation that make a difference in minority communities (incl. Roma, disabled, homeless) and building grassroots democracy. Foreign participants will be exposed to diverse community organizing methods for citizens in solving problems in their own communities and gain hands-on experience at both public and civil society institutions in the U.S. and a deeper understanding of U.S. society, culture and people. They will examine the relationship between civil society and government and learn U.S. practices on transparency and accountability. Through internship placements at national, state or local organizations across the U.S. they will gain knowledge and experience as well as adaptable approaches that they can implement after their return. U.S. mentors will travel for a reciprocal visit overseas. They will have an opportunity to share professional expertise and gain a deeper understanding of the societies, cultures and people of other countries. This citizen civic exchange will promote mutual understanding, create long-term professional ties, enhance the collaboration between GLC and its partners. The first delegation with a total of 19 fellows from Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania and Slova-

kia visit the U.S. from April 1 – May 11, 2013 to participate in group seminars, round-table discussions, site visits, and will have interactions with United States leaders. A tailored 3-week internship with mentoring, multicultural events, and participation in volunteer activities as well as in the Professional Fellows Congress in Washington, D.C. will be also included in the 6-week professional fellows program. Participants will prepare a 6-9 month individual and group Action Plan for follow on activities. They have various opportunities to experience the American family life and the diversity in the U.S. through staying with American host families during their internship in Little Rock (Arkansas), Chicago (Illinois), Boston (Massachusetts), St. Louis (Missouri), Man-chester (New Hampshire), Raleigh (North Carolina), Philadelphia (Pennsylvania), Char-lottesville (Virginia), Seattle (Washington). A second European delegation is expected in the U.S. from September 30 – November 9, 2013. The Out-Bound component will include at least two American mentors’ teams to travel to Europe (between June 2013 and March 2014) for up to 21 days to provide joint workshops with the alumni and on-site consultation and fieldwork, and conduct wider outreach pro-grams. U.S. and foreign participants will be involved in alumni activities through an alumni social network in each country. We will also estab-lish an online network for continued learning. This program is a collaboration between GLC and its overseas partners: CEGA in Bulgaria, Civil College Foundation in Hungary, CeRe in Romania and Center for Community Organiz-ing in Slovakia as well as the European Com-munity Organizing Network (ECON) and many U.S. partner organizations involved in the joint program and the tailored internship, and follow up mentoring activities.

“Building Grassroots Democracy in Minority Communit ies” Professional Fellows from Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania, Slovakia

in the United States, April 1 - May 11, 2013

April 2013

Milenko Milenkov Lom, Bulgaria E-mail: [email protected]

Milenko Milenkov works at the Labor Bureau in Lom, Bulgaria as a Job Media-tor. His main responsibilities include infor-mation and counseling of inactive and dis-couraged Roma people for registration at the Bureau of Labor Lom, promoting the registration and inclusion on the labor mar-ket through professional classes and train-ings and also advice and assistance to job seekers for inclusion in employment. His daily activities include labor mediation in finding jobs and training courses for unemployed Roma, correspondence with employers and so on.

Mr. Milenkov also works in two NGO’s in Lom. One of them is Commu-nity Fund Lom, where he is Member of the Board, since the establishment of the foun-dation in 2005. He is involved in the activi-ties of Community Fund Lom related to stimulation of public dialogue and participation of local resources to solve social issues. He provides support for talented children and preservation of life style and culture and works for citizens’ initiatives development and charity traditions revival in Lom region.

Mr. Milenkov is an important part of the team of the organization, who contrib-utes to the timely implementation of activi-ties and tasks in different projects of the foundation. For example he was the Project Manager of "Together in Diversity through Ages", a project financed by the Open So-ciety Foundation in Budapest. The other organization is the “Mladenovo” Founda-tion, where Mr. Milenkov is the Chairman.

in Economics and a Master’s Degree in Business Administration. Both degrees obtained at the New Bulgarian University in Sofia. Also Mr. Milenkov completed several trainings in fields of computer knowledge and literacy certificates and fundamentals in web-design, and took part in training for teamwork, project writing, project management, etc. He is fluent in English, German and Russian.

Mr. Milenkov had several reasons to apply for this fellowship, and one of them is that he might be one very good example for the young Roma from the town of Lom in Bulgaria. He wants to make change in the thinking of the young people in Lom. The young people have to be active and they have to bring the changes in the Bul-garian society.

It will be his first visit to the United States. While in the U.S., Mr. Milenkov would like to gain experience in different programs for developing talents.

After he will be back to Bulgaria, through the two organizations (The Com-munity Fund Lom and “Mladenovo” Foun-dation), and using all of the local, regional and national media as partners, Mr. Milenkov will inform the community about the best practices in the U.S. He will try to apply some of these practices in his com-munity, city and, if he has the tools, Milenko will organize a national campaign for some identified problem.

In his free time Milenko enjoys play-ing basketball, volleyball, searching the internet for new technologies, and also old audio equipments - speakers, amplifiers and so on. He is also taking care of two aquariums full with little fishes and that also is his hobby.

The organization is new, registered in Au-gust 2012. The mission of the organization is to stimulate the development of talents in Lom and in the region of Northwestern Bulgaria. Primary task for Milenko is the recognition of the foundation as an active working NGO for the development of Lom. All actions in the organization are focused on talented children and youngsters in the field of arts, education, culture, sport and dependences prevention.

In addition Mr. Milenkov is involved in the activities of the Municipality of Lom, related to social, education and cul-tural activities, and also other activities for integration of Roma people from Lom. Previously, Mr. Milenkov has worked for the Regional Governor of Montana in Bul-garia. He was responsible for the imple-mentation of policies in the ethnic and demographic issues, religious, cultural activities and education in the region.

Mr. Milenko shows perfection in organization, conducting and moderating all kind of events, including presentations, fairs, exhibitions, conferences, seminars, workshops, missions, forums, etc.

Mr. Milenkov has a Bachelor’s Degree

Participants from Bulgar ia

SPECIAL THANKS TO OUR PROJECT ADVISORS AND SUPPORTERS

David Beckwith, Cris Doby, Paul Cromwell, Chuck Hirt, James Mumm, Bill O'Brien, Greg Markus, Deb Martin, Peter Ujvagi,

Ramon Perez, Martin Nagy

“Building Grassroots Democracy in Minority Communities”

Delyana Mihneva Plovdiv, Bulgaria Email: [email protected]

Delyana Mihneva is working as a re-porter, host and editor in the first private national radio at the Bulgaria Darik Radio from 2011. She has been a volunteer in National Alliance for Volunteer Action /NAVA since 2010, and has a good experi-ence in variety of volunteer actions as eco-campaigns at schools, national exchanges for youngsters, activities for better commu-nication between youngsters and elderly people, sport activities related to Interna-tional Youth Day, Anti-AIDS campaigns, fundraising for people with rare diseases etc. As a journalist, she gives tribute to many different minority groups: Roma, LGBT, rare diseases, disabled, homeless people etc.

Ms. Mihneva is a Youth Leader and Trainer. Since she has been working for NAVA, she is a trainer of young people aged 15-29 in different spheres of non-formal education, effective communication and skills for planning of one-day and long-term initiatives and campaigns.

Ms. Mihneva graduated with her Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science

wants to find out how community groups work with the media and the media's in-volvement in social justice issues. Recently in Bulgaria the social side of media face is more obvious than few years ago and that should be used to raise social conscious-ness and empathy in society.

Ms. Mihneva would like to train peo-ple from different communities in order to work together, define problems and seek for solutions and wants to find out how things work in American society – is it just a matter of law or there is something in addition. She would like to learn successful social practices and how to implement them in Bulgaria.

Delyana would also like to learn to prioritize tasks more clearly, to work more effectively with different minority groups, to participate more actively in decision making process during a project, to learn how community organizing works through field work. She would like to get more information about organizing groups by interest, how to motivate people to fight for their rights and to pursue their aims.

In her free time Ms. Mihneva likes outdoor activities, reading, dancing and karaoke. Delyana is interested in multicul-tural communication, peace journalism and conflict management.

from the Sofia University St. Kliment Oh-rydsky in 2003. Delyana knows English and Russian, and speaks a bit of Spanish, Italian and Dutch. She has participated in some international trainings in Italy, Ro-mania, Turkey based on European Union Youth in Action program.

Ms. Mihneva currently is involved in LTTC in Budapest, Hungary focused on raising awareness of diversity based on gender, sex, nationality, social and marital status, age etc. Also defining and decon-structing stereotypes and creating new pro-jects related to Social Justice Topics.

Ms. Mihneva is interested in Roma inclusion and exploration of society readi-ness to Roma integration and early leaving school prevention. As a journalist, she

Dzhevid Mahmud Dobrich, Bulgaria Email: [email protected]

Dzhevid Mahmud has been working until recently at the European Roma Rights Centre (ERRC), an organization based in Budapest, Hungary, combating anti-Romani racism and human rights abuse of Roma through strategic litigation advo-cacy, human rights education, research, and policy development.

At the ERRC Mr. Mahmud held the position of Legal Fellow as his task in-cluded assisting in developing and imple-menting legal strategy, handling selected cases, drafting amicus curiae briefs and legal submissions to domestic and interna-tional tribunals, working with lawyers, judges, human rights organizations and other relevant institutions. He was in-volved in legislative and policy review and drafting, advocacy and lobbying, providing appropriate substantive input into research reports, donor reports and funding propos-als. Mr. Mahmud has been a Roma activist since the beginning of 2000, when becom-

Hungary. During his student years, Mr. Mahmud participated in the Roma Access Program which aims at preparing young promising Roma for entering quality inter-national post-graduate studies. His second Master’s degree in Law was completed at the Varna Free University in Bulgaria.

In addition in 2008, Mr. Mahmud won an internship with the European Commis-sion situated in Brussels, Belgium, spon-sored by the Open Society Institute Roma Initiatives. He speaks fluently in English, Turkish, Russian, and Bulgarian. The com-munity where Mr. Mahmud is interested in organizing is geographically situated in the North/East of Bulgaria consisted of Chris-tian and Muslim Roma, who face everyday exclusion, discrimination, poverty, unem-ployment and lacks access to services and goods.

Mr. Mahmud has never visited U.S.A. before, yet has been always interested in getting to know more on minority commu-nity organizing and its ways of implemen-tation in the setting of Eastern Europe.

In his free time Dzhevid enjoys study-ing Romani culture from around Europe and practicing sports.

ing a Member of the Board of the Student Society for the Development of Interethnic Dialogue in Bulgaria, an organization with the mission to accomplish complete social-educational cycle for the young Roma, including popularization of education, dis-semination of information on competitions, scholarships, qualification courses, appren-ticeships and carrying out pre-university application preparation. Since then Dzhe-vid is actively involved in different initia-tives related to Roma in Europe.

Mr. Mahmud has acquired Master’s degree in Public Policy at the Central European University (CEU) in Budapest,

Professional Fellows Program in the U.S. (April 1 - May 11, 2013)

Hajnalka Kiss Budapest, Hungary E-mail: [email protected]

Hajnalka Kiss works at a Photography School. She organizes photo exhibitions, deals with students and teachers, she is in charge of organizing events, responsible for fundraising and project management, and looks after the Foundations’ everyday life. There was always something in com-mon to organizing: Ms. Kiss started the projects finding out what is the demand of people; found the resources, co-workers and kept the contact with partners and sponsors. Ms. Kiss finds monitoring and feedback very important to guarantee the quality of any project.

In the last 20 years she coordinated short and long term educational projects: trainings, seminars and conferences. She has been a participant in several interna-tional programs as coach and trainer (Youth in Action, Salto, EUROMED).

Ms. Kiss still coordinates a project in her free time, called Social Transport. This project tries to bridge gaps between major-ity and minority groups like Roma and non-Roma. Within this project there was a social ad shooting opportunity for film students about minority people’s life. The topic was inclusion. The short film clips

were taken to secondary schools and used as inspiration, a non-formal educational instrument encouraging dialogue, support-ing integration. These works are also screened at festivals, events and cinemas: www.socialtransport.net

In 2007 in Cambodia through Global Education Network Ms. Kiss worked 3 months for a Health Sector Reform Pro-gram. Her task was monitoring the process concluding focus group discussions and interviews in the field of providers and client’s rights and duties. In 2009 in Canada she has spent 4 months in Montreal with an exchange program at McGill University. She visited the Faculty of Management, studied Managing of Globalization, HR, Managing of Organiza-tional Teams and Leadership. During her stay there, Ms. Kiss was very busy with the

life of immigrant people from Hungary. They left their country because of the 1st, and 2nd World War, or the revolution in 1956. She was so lucky that they opened up for her.

Ms. Kiss holds a Diploma in Social Sciences, Economics and Organizational Development. She graduated with her Master’s Degree in Sociology and Eco-nomics from the Corvinus University in Budapest in 2009. After finishing her stud-ies she worked for small foundations as Project Manager.

Within the frame of this fellowship program, Ms. Kiss wishes to learn more about community organizing, methods and strategies for motivating volunteers at NGOs, learn about different projects aim-ing to assist minorities especially projects focusing on young people.

Ms. Kiss would like to visit organiza-tions, both governmental and nongovern-mental that deal with issues related to eth-nic minorities. She meets the problem of racism and xenophobia every day and she would like to gain experience on how to treat the question of minorities.

In her free time Ms. Kiss enjoys trav-elling, taking photographs, watching good films and discussing interesting stories. Hajnalka enjoys being and working in the international environment.

Participants from Hungary

Georgi Georgiev Lom, Bulgaria Email: [email protected]

Georgi Georgiev has been the founder and member of the Managing Council of the “Roma Integration Center” – Lom (RIC) since October 2012. The objectives of RIC Association are to improve the quality of life in Roma neighborhoods, improve the level of education amongst children and youth and help eliminate dis-crimination. Before that he worked ac-tively with young people from the Roma community in Lom, and has been a youth leader at the local church named “Sinai” for the past 8 years.

Mr. Georgiev founded RIC because he wanted to change the Roma neighborhood and reduce the school drop-out for Roma children, provide more opportunities for

ness Administration. Georgi is actively looking to create

contacts with NGOs outside of Bulgaria in order to obtain and share experience in rebuilding an entire community.

Mr. Georgiev would like to develop partnerships with these U.S. organizations, which will bring access to new experi-ences, opportunities to work with new part-ners, and large-scale initiatives which will help people. He would like to learn how to better motivate young people so they want more out of their life, have higher expecta-tions and be able to achieve them, by al-lowing themselves to dream and work.

In his free time Mr. Georgiev likes to practice his hobbies: playing basketball, as well as volleyball and soccer. Georgi also enjoys going to the gym and writing comic book scripts.

the young to socialize and learn new useful skills and discover their true potential. Also Mr. Georgiev manages a TV program at a newly established Gypsy TV channel in Sofia. He is interested in the field of journalism.

Mr. Georgiev graduated from the New Bulgarian University of Bulgaria in 2005, obtaining his Bachelor’s Degree in Busi-


Anita Vodal Budapest, Hungary E-mail: [email protected]

Anita Vodal has been a Trainee Law-yer at the Roma Program of the Hungarian Civil Liberties Union (HCLU) since April 2012. She advises and assists on legal mat-ters in connection with legal empowerment activities. She supervises the management of all legal documentation for the legal team. Ms. Vodal is responsible for the as-sistance in performance of legal issues, the assistance in negotiating terms and condi-tions on national and international cases.

The main target group of the HCLU’s Roma Program is those living in deep pov-erty; primarily the overrepresented Roma population. The aim of this program is to help the enforcement of their rights and interests to become more efficient and take a stand against discrimination based on ethnic background and deep poverty; therefore strive to provide the stakeholders themselves, as well as their communities, with the necessary knowledge and aware-ness of their rights. HCLU is conducting fieldwork in Northern Hungary and setting up legal support stations in a growing num-ber of settlements in order to provide free legal aid to as many people as possible. HCLU’s Roma Program thus takes legal tools to communities that live in complete isolation and are therefore devoid of any possibility to enforce their rights.

(such as refugees or stateless persons). Through their legal counseling and training activities, they work towards ensuring high-quality and rights-based asylum proce-dures both in Hungary and the EU.

Ms. Vodal graduated as a Lawyer from the University of Szeged in 2010, and wrote her thesis on statelessness. Before that, Anita worked for a year as volunteer at Belgian Youth Organization (JAVVA) in Brussels, where she was in charge of a European project.

Ms. Vodal organized international voluntary camps and discussions in order to raise awareness about tolerance, antidis-crimination and an open-minded attitude towards others. She speaks English, French and Italian.

Ms. Vodal considers this fellowship to be a great opportunity to acquire knowl-edge on community organizing methods and practical tools, and learn a new ap-proach of working with minority groups. She is keen to see how American NGOs work and what kinds of difficulties they face in working with minority groups. Ms. Vodal is ready to talk more in detail about the HCLU’s network of legal support sta-tions, which is a unique structure even in Hungary.

In her free time, Ms. Vodal rides her bike, adores contemporary dance, which she has been pursuing as a hobby since she was eleven. Anita is fond of all kinds of sweets.

Ms. Vodal has always been sensitive to minority issues; especially in Hungary where these matters are serious unsolved problems. HCLU is an ideal workplace for her, as she is involved in significant legal cases before both international and national courts. Ms. Vodal had the opportunity to represent the HCLU in the annual confer-ence of OSCE in October 2012 and held a presentation on violence against Roma people in Hungary.

Prior to the HCLU, Ms. Vodal worked for almost two years as Project Coordina-tor at the Refugee Program of the Hungar-ian Helsinki Committee (HHC) on a pro-ject funded by the European Union.

Ms. Vodal was in charge of the imple-mentation of a European project that in-volved three international partner organiza-tions. The HHC provides free legal assis-tance to asylum seekers arriving in Hun-gary and strives to ensure access to asylum for those in need of international protection

Laszlo Oliver Jakab Kistelek, Hungary E-mail: [email protected]

Laszlo Oliver Jakab is working as trainee at Southern Great Plains Region Social Research Association. His work focuses on the disadvantaged children. He is member of ternYPE – International Roma Youth Network – Network of youth and youth associations, which creates space for young people to become active citizens through empowerment, mobiliza-tion, self-organization and participation. The ternYPE believes in the common ef-forts by creating trust, and mutual respect between Roma and non-Roma youth.

Since 2010 Mr. Jakab is a student at Romaversitas Foundation. The Romaver-sitas is the training and scholarship pro-gram of Roma youngsters in higher educa-tion. The Romaversitas Foundation has

been acting as a Funder of university and college students for fourteen years.

Romaversitas not only gives scholar-ships and various services, but also tries to create space for vibrant social life.

Mr. Jakab graduated from The Univer-sity of Szeged as Social Worker. At the university, he was trainee in Szeged at the Dr. Farkasinszky Terézia Drug Rehabilita-tion Centre. He attended different kinds of

short-term training programs including: (1) ROMED – European Training Program for Mediators – working with Roma communi-ties organized by Council of Europe, and (2) Equal Treatment Authority – Fight against discrimination project organized by Equal Treatment Authority.

This is his first trip to the United States. Mr. Jakab is interested in how NGOs work in the U.S., how to involve people from the minority community to be active. He believes this six weeks fellow-ship in the U.S. can improve his skills and competencies such as team building, inter-cultural communication, community orga-nizing, and English language.

Mr. Jakab would like to learn methods and strategies which can be useful in Hun-gary. He wants to visit NGOs working with minorities and disadvantaged people especially focusing on youth.

In his free time Mr. Jakab likes play-ing the guitar and watching movies.


Timea Eva Kovacs Debrecen, Hungary E-mail: [email protected]

Timea Eva Kovacs is a Social worker at the Hungarian Baptist Aid “The Happy Garden” - Residential Home Care for Men with Addictions, which is a so-called Half-way House, which provides a link between the therapeutic community and independ-ent life. Ms. Kovacs’ job is to help the inte-gration/reintegration of 14 addicted men by providing counseling to maintain their ab-stinence, useful programs to spend their free time, help them in job seeking or get-ting the appropriate social service needed, etc. In addition to her work, she is doing voluntary work at a refugee camp. She is also a volunteer at the “Eletfa” Support Service Association, which has started community organizing activities in seven villages with significant Roma population

Hungary. Her favorite target groups to work with are migrants, refugees and ad-dicted people.

Ms. Kovacs has a Bachelor’s degree in Social Work from the University of Debre-cen. After graduation she started working at “Menedek” – Hungarian Association for Migrants at Debrecen Refugee Camp. In 2008 she participated in the Erasmus Pro-gram studying for one semester at the Uni-versity College Cork in Ireland. In 2010 Ms. Kovacs began her Master’s program in Social Policy majoring in Employment Policy in the same institution. Her native language is Hungarian, but also fluently speaks Romanian and English.

Ms. Kovacs travels regularly to Romania and Slovakia. This is her first visit to the U.S., and she is looking forward to learn-ing new methods and sharing experience on how to work with people in minority communities especially in the rural areas.

In her free time Timea loves biking, hik-ing, spending time with her friends.

in Northern Hungary. Ms. Kovacs was born and raised in Ro-

mania as a member of the Hungarian mi-nority. Her family immigrated to Hungary in 2002. She has worked as a social worker for 3 years. She began as a volunteer in 2008 during her university years at the Cordelia Foundation for the Rehabilitation of Torture Victims. That was the first time she got in contact with the refugees living in the second largest integration camp in

THANK YOU FOR YOUR SUPPORT TO DAVID GUSTAFSON, PROGRAM OFFICER

AT THE U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE!

Csaba Szikra Budapest, Hungary E-mail: [email protected]

Csaba Szikra, as a Freelance Intercultural Trainer, collaborates with different NGO’s and institutions. He is a community worker in the Glaser Jakab Memorial Foundation, where he is responsible for the intercultural programs in the Jewish and non-Jewish population. Mr. Szikra helps to organize events for the interfaith discussion, and he guides special interactive tours in a slummy but traditionally multi-cultural neighborhood of Budapest: the Józsefváros (Josephs-town). By the JMPoint for Jewish Community Public Benefit Foundation (JMPoint Foundation) Csaba is involved in the informal education program on festivals basically on the Sziget Festival.

The JMPoint Foundation shares the cultural values of the Jewish culture – not only among Jewish young people. By the Balint House (American Jewish Distribution Committee’s Community

experience with homeless people, alcoholics and drug addicts, and also he worked for the “Menedek” Hungarian Association for Migrants. Csaba managed a summer camp for refugee teens and kids and in his multi-ethnic neighborhood he is always focusing on these groups too.

Mr. Szikra has a Bachelor’s Degree in Social Work, and he specialized in youth work. In 2009, he began his Master’s studies in Intercultural Psychology and Education at the Eötvös Lorand University. Mr. Szikra is working on his thesis about the multi-cultural environment of Józsefváros. Csaba fluently speaks English and German.

Mr. Szikra is visiting the United States for the first time. He expects to learn more about the minorities and cross-cultural topics in America in order to involve the locally applicable good practices into his community organizing methods in Józsefváros.

Mr. Szikra’s favorite free time activities are travelling and sports such as horseback riding and krav-maga, and socializing.

House), Mr. Szikra has been teaching in the KravJunior program: a unique combination for learning self-defense, playing games and also getting disciplined.

KravJunior contributes to multi-culture through organizing multi-ethnic and multi-religion groups. Mr. Szikra’s students are Christian, Jewish, Muslim and Buddhist children and teens with Roma, Hungarian, Vietnamese, Georgian, French, American and/or other background.

Besides his activities as a trainer, Mr. Szikra participated in many projects as a social worker. He has more than 8 years of


THANK YOU TO ALL THE DRIVERS, ESCORTS AND OTHER VOLUNTEERS

ASSISTING IN THIS PROGRAM ACROSS THE UNITED STATES AND OVERSEAS!

THANK YOU TO THE UNITED STATES EMBASSIES

IN BULGARIA, HUNGARY, ROMANIA AND SLOVAKIA FOR YOUR ASSISTANCE AND SUPPORT!

Raluca Mariana Negulescu Bucharest, Romania E-mail: [email protected]

Raluca Mariana Negulescu has been working as a Policy Officer and Project Manager at the Policy Center for Roma and Minorities Foundation since 2009, when she started to collaborate as a volun-teer. Raluca develops and coordinates pro-grams focused on challenging negative attitudes towards Roma and grassroots projects aiming to stimulate active citizen-ship among people living in marginal Roma communities from ghetto type areas. On spring 2010, Ms. Negulescu started to work in one of the worst ghetto type areas in Bucharest – Aleea Livezilor in Ferentari neighborhood.

Through the European campaign RE-ACT (Responsibility, Empowerment, Ac-tivism, Citizenship, and Transparency) that she coordinated between June 2010 and December 2011, the Policy Center team created a platform that links grassroots level to local and national representatives, as well as to the European policy makers. Ms. Negulescu is very proud to contribute to the development of the Alternative Edu-cation Club (a safe haven for Roma and non-Roma children in Ferentari that offers them life and educational alternatives and the main project of the foundation).

Prior to her collaboration with Policy Center, Ms. Negulescu volunteered in other NGOs and think tanks: “Nu ma uita”

Association (Barlad), the Association of Political Science Students in the University of Bucharest, LMT Club – Third Millen-nium Leaders Club, the Institute for the Investigation of Communism Crimes and the Black Sea Trust for Regional Coopera-tion (a project of the German Marshall Fund of the United States). Currently she voluntarily organizes activities for the chil-dren in the “Day and Night Shelter for Street Children” in Ferentari.

Ms. Negulescu is also interested in academic research on the topic of ethnic minorities, antidiscrimination policies and European institutional mechanisms. In the past years she contributed to the Shadow reports on Romania for the European Net-work against Racism in Europe (ENAR), covering issues such as racism related dis-crimination in criminal justice, political and legal developments in anti-racism and anti-discrimination, policing and ethnic profiling, racist violence and crime.

In 2010 Ms. Negulescu co-authored the report Racist Violence in Romania. In 2011-2012 she contributed to the elabora-

tion of the Methodology Guide Social In-clusion through Sports: a possible model (project MIMoSA – Migrants’ Inclusion Model of Sports for All coordinated by the Italian Union Sports for All).

Ms. Negulescu has a Bachelor’s De-gree in Political Science from the Univer-sity of Bucharest. In 2008 she received an Erasmus grant based on academic excel-lence, and she studied at the University of Bologna for one semester. Raluca also has a certification in project management, and completed trainings on the financial man-agement of structural funds, communica-tion, organizational analysis and leader-ship.

Ms. Negulescu’s field experience in ghetto type communities and, in particular, in Ferentari neighborhood is strongly re-lated to her professional interest to identify efficient mechanisms to authentically con-nect grassroots issues to policy making level. In Romania, the Roma are the most marginal and discriminated ethnic group and target of racism and negative attitudes. The persistence of this situation resides not only in the inappropriate policies discon-nected from grassroots issues but also in the lack of knowledge of the Roma com-munity members over their rights.

During the fellowship experience in the U.S., Ms. Negulescu would like to learn new methods on how to empower people in minority communities and to see and understand the innovative approaches of the hosting organization. Also, she is very interested to learn more on commu-nity organizing and on developing local advocacy plans.

Participants from Romania


Ioana Petrache Bucharest, Romania E-mail: [email protected]

Ioana Petrache works both as a com-munity development facilitator and a com-munity organizer. At this moment she is working with three citizen initiative groups – two of them are located in Southern Ro-manian villages, and the third is a neighborhood in the country’s capital. Her involvement with the community initiative groups in these villages is 3 years long.

Ms. Petrache started grassroots work in 2009 with PACT Foundation, an NGO that targets rural and small urban areas in Southern Romania. Since then, she has worked on various projects. Some of them involved forming community development initiative groups, others dealt with empow-ering already formed community organiza-tions or groups, and developing skills for community members. Ms. Petrache also worked as a researcher on assessing a rural community’s potential for supporting the development of agricultural social entre-preneurship projects. Through this work she has had several experiences of working with ethnic and religious minorities.

Ms. Petrache facilitated the formation of these initiative groups during a 2010-2012 community-organization building program of PACT Foundation. One of the initiative groups has subscribed as an asso-ciation and has been implementing several community projects since. It represents Roma Pentecostals in the village of Span-tov. The other initiative group is represen-tative of Romanian Orthodox in the village of Facaeni.

Field experience in rural Romania, made Ms. Petrache curious about doing bottom-up work in Bucharest, where she lives. She was also interested in trying community organizing. This is how she started her collaboration with CeRe. Ioana

has been organizing in a Bucharest neighborhood area since September 2011. For Ms. Petrache community organizing in Bucharest proves to be especially challeng-ing, but undoubtedly useful.

Ms. Petrache has a Bachelor’s Degree from the Academy of Economic Science in Bucharest. She says that grassroots work is her favorite type of work. This also ex-plains Ioana’s decision to start a new field of study, anthropology, at the University of Bucharest, Faculty of Sociology and Social Work, in 2012. Her previous studies are in business administration.

This will be Ms. Petrache’s first trip to the United States, and she is especially curious about how a culture that she has seen depicted so often in the media looks and feels in real life.

Ioana looks forward to meeting organ-izers and community organizations, learn-ing more about how to build an initiative group into a long term community organi-zation, and how can community organiza-tions empower minorities and bridge social trust gaps.

What Ms. Petrache likes most are ex-plorations of all sorts, nature - including humans, games, her friends and spring.

Simona Barbu Ilfov County, Romania E-mail: [email protected]

Simona Barbu is an activist for human rights, working for one of the oldest Roma nongovernmental organization in Romania, for 5 years now. During this period she has worked within Romani CRISS organiza-tion with the purpose to promote human rights of the Roma minority and improve the access of the Roma in Romania to health services and educational institutions. In the past two years Ms. Barbu has worked on projects meant to enlarge and improve the access to education of the Roma children, and she coordinated activi-ties implemented in 22 schools from Ro-mania. Her work is combining advocating and promoting human rights and equal access for the Roma communities in all areas of life, project management and also work in the community, organizing and participating at meetings with the members of the Roma community and accompany-ing them when needed, to address different services or institutions. At the same time, Ms. Barbu has been a volunteer for the Association of Health Mediators, a Roma

munication skills, has a developed team spirit, perseverance, and seriousness, and has experience and abilities in organizing events and in project management. Simona has been trained as an evaluator for the professional competences of the Roma health mediators, and she obtained an evaluator certificate recognized by the Na-tional Council of Professional Training for the Adults in Romania in 2008.

Ms. Barbu is also co-author of two studies in the field of access to health of the Roma population and the status of health of the Roma in Romania, published by Romani CRISS in 2009, and 2011.

This is her first trip to the U.S., and Ms. Barbu looks forward to exchange know-how with the other fellows, discover the free American spirit and would like to learn more about “outside of the box” way of thinking. Simona is interested in finding out more about the organizing process of minorities in America, methods of empow-ering the representatives of the minorities to stand for their rights and to learn more about advocating for public policies.

She loves to travel, read, listen to mu-sic, take photos or draw. Favorite “sports” are salsa and bacchante, but enjoys a good soccer match of her favorite team.

women association initiated in 2010, help-ing them to develop organizational support for activities and capacity building plans of the association and also for the members individually.

Ms. Barbu has a Bachelor’s Degree in Sociology from the Faculty of Sociology and Social Assistance at the University of Bucharest in Romania. Currently she is the 1st year Master’s student within the Uni-versity of Bucharest, UNESCO Depart-ment majoring in Intercultural and Inter-religious exchange, and specialization in Intercultural Management.

Ms. Barbu is an organized person. She is able to complete the tasks that she im-plements and coordinates, has good com-


Ruxandra Borca Petrosani, Romania E-mail: [email protected]

Ruxandra Borca is writer and youth worker. She works as a Youth Program Coordinator at Spice of Life Youth Center, a nongovernmental organization she has founded in 2012 after she returned from her voluntary service in Serbia in April of the same year. Ms. Borca organizes train-ings and seminars for the young, informing them on the international opportunities they have. She is in tight contact with the migrant community in Cluj Napoca, work-ing on advocacy campaigns for the social integration of migrants.

Ms. Borca has been an active local and international volunteer since her time in high school. During her student years, she volunteered at the Forum for Refugees in Bucharest. For the last two years, Ms. Borca has been working abroad as a volun-teer in Serbia and Jordan, promoting diver-sity in conflict areas.

Ruxandra has participated as a youth worker in several projects developed by the European Commission`s Youth in Ac-tion program in Romania and abroad, where she facilitated training sessions for youth workers on several topics: social inclusion, volunteering, mentoring, facili-tating for NGO workers.

media. Previously, Ms. Borca has worked with Hungarian historian Andrea Varga under the supervision of the representation of the European Commission in Bucharest. Together, they have edited a newspaper on recent history topics to be disseminated in schools: “The Freedom Archive”. The pro-ject forms part of a bigger project that in-tends to educate and inform people who cannot access formal education. Also, they have collaborated on a project on the topic of refugees – Borders Revisited, an exhibi-tion of refugees of the WWII.

Ms. Borca holds the BA’s degree in Foreign Languages at the Spanish and English department of the University of Bucharest. At the present time, Ruxandra is enrolling at the Master`s program in American Cultural Studies at the Univer-sity of Bucharest. She is fluent in Spanish and English, and has a good understanding of Italian and Hungarian.

Ms. Borca has travelled intensively to Europe and Asia, but this is her first trip to the United States. She would like to learn how community organizing is done in the U.S. migrant communities, how to identify their problems, involve members of the community in the decision-making process and make sustainable changes in the mi-nority community.

In her free time, Ruxandra enjoys mu-sic, travelling, writing, she also likes meeting new people.

Deeply committed to the topic of in-tercultural dialogue and gender issues, Ms. Borca has conducted research on her own while being abroad, writing several articles on the condition of women in Muslim countries. Her interest in empowerment of women and human rights is also testified by a research she is doing at the present moment on sexual rights of women in communism with a grant offered by Litera-turhaus Berlin and Herta Muller.

After coming back from Jordan in July 2012, Ms. Borca has started collaborating as a journalist with the Intercultural Insti-tute of Timisoara. Here she met representa-tives of the migrant communities in Roma-nia and started working on the Migrant in Intercultural Romania project which prime goal is to enable the integration of migrants in the Romanian society, and diminish the rate of discrimination and stereotypical images of migrants created by the mass-


Silvia Ursu Bucharest, Romania E-mail: [email protected]

Silvia Ursu has been working for two years as a Communication Coordinator at Romanian NGO, National Organization of Disabled People Federation (NODPF) in Romania, founded in 1995, The aim of NODPF is to promote the rights of people with disability, offering them direct services, on one hand and also, on the other hand, doing lobby and advocacy for their rights. Ms. Ursu started working in NGOs first as a volunteer, during high school, and after that she kept being involved in social projects. Ms. Ursu is interested in communication, raising funds and how to promote social projects with zero budget. Also, after doing a web research on some campaigns, Silvia discovered some activation methods within a community. Then, she started to search

Also, she took a 6 months training course powered by the International Advertising Association. Taking into account all the tips learnt, Ms. Ursu pitched a project for disabled people at the Restart Romania Gala, supported by the U.S. Embassy, and won a grant for the project. Ms. Ursu is fluent in speaking English and French and she started learning Spanish.

Ms. Ursu has never been in the United States before, but always wanted to. When she was in college, she had a huge passion on American Pop Art, from Jasper Johns to Andy Warhol. While in the U.S., Silvia would like to gaine the knowledge in involving directly people with disabilities, in gaining some practical skills for doing so and also she is interested to find more about the American model for building grassroots democracy and participation.

In her spare time, Silvia likes to ride her bike, to read books (most of the communication and multimedia books) and also to find people’s stories.

about the topic and got information about community organizing. Now she thinks that community organizing is one of the healthier ways to involve the beneficiaries in a project. She is hoping to see disabled people in Romania speak by themselves and for their rights.

Ms. Ursu followed the classes of the Faculty of Communication and Public Relations, and also she has a Master’s Degree in Communication and Arts from the University of Bucharest.

Participants from Slovakia

Daniela Batova Bratislava, Slovakia E-mail: [email protected]

Daniela Batova is working as a Project Manager in the Office of the Slovak Government Pleni-potentiary for Roma Communities, an advisory body to the government on the issues of Roma communities in Slovakia. The office performs the tasks aimed to addressing the problems of Roma communities and improvement of their situation and their integration into society, particularly in the development, implementation and coordination of policies and effective implementation of systematic measures aimed at prevention of social exclusion of Roma communities.

Ms. Batova is mainly responsible for the areas of housing conditions, social infrastructure and approach to job market of marginalized Roma community. This community is characterized by poor housing conditions, low employment rate and level of employability, low education

and discrimination, but also passivity and distrust in state authorities. Ms. Batova would like to gain some experience how to lead the members of community to become active in solution of their problems and responsible for their lives and living conditions.

Ms. Batova graduated with Master‘s Degree in European Studies from the Faculty of Social and Economic Sciences at the Comenius University in Bratislava. During the university time she was as Erasmus student in University of Coimbra in Portugal. As a student, Daniela worked

as a Project Assistant in NGO called “The Transparency International Slovakia” and volunteered in NGO “Scouting Slovakia”, where she was actively involved in all activities tackling the protection and enhancement of the environment, prevention from the addictions, social activities, and work with children and disabled people/communities. She also took part in some activities of NGO called “Independent Youth Organization” and dedicated mainly to campaign for healthy lifestyle without alcohol and drugs for young people.

Ms. Batova has never been in the U.S. before. From this fellowship exchange she expects to gain skills and experience in community organizing. She looks forward to see the work of the U.S. NGOs and the way, and how they work with minority communities to lead them to active citizenship and awareness of their own rights and duties.

In her free time, Ms. Batova enjoys reading, mainly detective books, visiting the course of Irish dance. She likes cooking traditional and special recipes.

Maros Chmelik Zvolen, Slovakia E-mail: [email protected]

Maros Chmelik currently works as a Project Manager in Education Center for Non-Profit Organizations (CVNO), where he provides consultation services to Roma NGOs and leaders in the areas of education, analysis, problem identification, search for a solution, capacity building, creation of concepts and strategies, fund-raising, advocacy, etc. In addition, Mr. Chmelik helps to NGOs working with Roma population in process of preparing applications for receiving grants. Maros states: “Our role is to advise them what program or what type of program has proved itself efficient and therefore suitable to be financed in the future”.

Mr. Chmelik would like to work more with young leaders of Roma minority. As he states: “Young leaders are more willing to change the current system. Their ideas are based on courage and modern

opinions”. He would like to be able to establish sustainable projects where mainly young leaders of Roma community would be involved with only a little help and support from others.

Mr. Chmelik has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science, and a Master’s Degree in Cultural Anthropology. Both Degrees were obtained from the Westbohemian University of Pilsen – Czech Republic. As a student Mr. Chmelik worked as volunteer for Erasmus department in his Alma Mater – Westbohemian University of Pilsen in Czech Republic.

Also Mr. Chmelik works part-time as a Spanish teacher in Institute of Languages and Education. Maros is fluent in English and Spanish and has a good knowledge of French.

This will be his first trip to the United States. While in the U.S., Mr. Chmelik would like to learn how to motivate young people from Roma minorities to study and work. He would like to see some examples of good practices in community organizing, to gain experiences in this field and how to apply new skills into his work. In addition, Mr. Chmelik would like to exchange professional experiences with young managers from Europe and U.S.A. and to transfer new ideas to Slovakia. Also he expects to improve his leadership, networking and language skills.

In his free time, Mr. Chmelik is interested in traveling, doing all kinds of sports activities, spending time with his two dogs and tasting high-quality wines while listening to jazz music. His main hobbies are socializing, hiking, reading and watching good movies.


Martin Klus Banska Bystrica, Slovakia E-mail: [email protected]

Martin Klus is a Lecturer at the Fac-ulty of Social Sciences University of SS. Cyril and Methodius in Trnava, Slovakia, where he runs courses on Public Policy and Political Sciences Issues.

Mr. Klus actively participated in re-search projects with e. g. University of California Berkeley (USA), Charles Uni-versity Prague (Czech Republic) and Corvinus Society for Foreign Affairs and Culture in Budapest (Hungary). During his academic career he also actively partici-pated at international conferences, semi-nars, workshops and teaching nobilities, published monographs, university text-books and papers, some of them specifi-cally oriented on minority or/and grass-roots democracy topics.

Also Mr. Klus is acting as Political Analysts cooperating especially with Na-tional radio and television RTVS, News channel TA3 and nationwide newspapers like “Hospodarske Noviny” and “Pravda”. He is active “blogger” within Slovak eco-nomic weekly - eTrend. Furthermore, Mr. Klus is very active as a volunteer in vari-ous NGOs in Slovakia - such as “Banskobystricky Okraslovaci Spolok”, the main aim of which is community-

Currently, Mr. Klus focuses on Euro-pean Studies, Public Policy issues as well as on Comparative Public Policies; one of the main topics within these fields is also minority policy issue studied from differ-ent perspectives.

Mr. Klus has rich traveling experi-ence. He has already been in the U.S. twice as a “Work and Travel” program partici-pant, and twice as a Researcher at the Uni-versity of California Berkeley.

His fifth visit to the U.S. is aimed to take part in grassroots democracy building, communication, mobilization and various kinds of event organization focused on minority and university issues in the U.S., and Central Europe (particularly Slovakia), and write a complex comparative paper on the subject. As an active volunteer of dif-ferent NGOs, Mr. Klus would like to pre-pare special training for these NGOs vol-unteers based on the knowledge obtained during the fellowship program in the U.S. He is also interested in the opportunity to make contacts with professional organiza-tions of teachers, students and researchers especially on the university level as well as with politicians and public administrators on various levels.

In his free time, Mr. Klus is occupied with various sports activities like skiing, running, swimming, cycling and bowling. He likes documentary movies and facto-graphic books and magazines.

building and community cleaning and beautification activities; Turkish - Slovak Alliance for Education and Development (TSAFED), which focuses on NGO diplo-macy; Aliancia Nezavislych (Alliance of Independent) – with community and civic society building activities; and at last (but not least), he is a volunteer of the Non-Governmental Organization “Welcome to Slovakia, N.O.”, which focuses on commu-nity tourist industry and youth activities. Within this organization, Mr. Klus partici-pated in various youth seminars and train-ing focused also on minority issues across Europe and in Georgia (former USSR).

Mr. Klus graduated in Political Sci-ences in 2003 and International Affairs and Diplomacy in 2004 from the Molde Uni-versity College in Norway. During aca-demic year 2005/2006 he was granted a Norwegian Government Scholarship.

Miroslav Ragac Banska Bystrica, Slovakia E-mail: [email protected]

Miroslav Ragac is currently working for Interantional Organization for Migration (IOM) in Zvolen as a Project Assistant since 2010. His main role incudes integration of the migrants to Slovak Republic and providing assistance to the migrant during the resettlement period. Miroslav provides necessary assistance that is taking the form of one or more of the following services: employment search and placement assistance, vocational trainings, housing placement, medical assistance, language training, social and cultural orientation, assist the migrant to obtain the various documents etc.

In 2008 Mr. Ragac started his work for Center for Community Organizing in Banská Bystrica directed by Chuck Hirt. His more than two years of experience with community organizing gave him a lot

of practical skills and knowledge when assisting with several larger and smaller successful campaigns. As a community organizer and project assistant working with different communities he believes, that the outreach work is one of the most important part of any social work that helps people and minorities to overcome their problems.

In 2001 Mr. Ragac finished his higher education in Social Work in Dolný Kubín, Slovakia with specialization in Social and Legal Work and then he has remained true

to social work. His professional prortfolio includes work with people with physical and mental disablilities, with the homeless or the elderly.

Five years of living and working in United Kingdom for PHSS (Peterborough HIV Support Services) gave Miroslav an opportunity to work with people living with HIV and AIDS, and help them with their reintegration into society.

Mr. Ragac has no previous experience travelling to the United States. Therefore face to face contact, hands on outreach work and using community organizing practices as a problem solving method in the community or neighborhoods with different backgrounds, cultures and issues interest him the most during visiting the United States.

Mr. Ragac enjoys travelling, meeting new people, learning new cultures, cuisines and history. He also enjoys maintaining his personal fitness in the gym and by cycling, jogging, swimming, trekking and hiking.


Dr. Monika Vaskovicova Banska Bystrica, Slovakia E-mail: [email protected]

Monika Vaskovicova is working as Director, Project and Financial Manager at the Agency for Development of Gemer region in Hnusta, south of Slovakia. She established her agency in 2008 and ever since she is together with her team and volunteers working for the community.

The agency was established with the aim of initiation, realization and coordina-tion of strategic activities for multilateral and dynamic development of Gemer re-gion. Dr. Vaskovicova is preparing and managing innovative projects in order to obtain financial support for the schools, municipalities, community centres and minorities in the whole Gemer region. Since 2008 the agency became a trusted partner for development of Gemer region, and viewed as an umbrella organization not only for partners within the region, but also on the international level.

Dr. Vaskovicova is through creative projects, trying to move the development of Gemer region forward, mainly by pointing out the multicultural aspect of the region and helping minorities to to be included into educational process by using special educational tools. She and her team developed and copy-righted a non-formal

Continuing Education. In 2012, she received a Prince2 Certificate of the internationally recognized project management methodology.

Dr. Vaskovicova attended various courses including non-formal learning and regional marketing, active citizenship building and creation of social enterprise principles. She speaks fluently English and German.

Dr. Vaskovicova has been in the United States several times. Once, she visited as a participant of the Work & Travel program, and then she had an internship in a private immigration law office in Florida where she looked into finding the appropriate law for asylees and immigrants in the U.S.

Within this fellowship program Dr. Vaskovicova wishes to experience the community collaboration in the United States, the role, function and motivational tools of the leaders in the community and the principles of the informational system and channels in terms of providing effective information to the local communities. Monika likes turning impossible into possible, because she believes that everything is possible, it just takes a little BIT (Belief, Imagination, Time).

In her rare free time Dr. Vaskovicova likes running, going to the fields collecting herbs. She also is fond of music – likes listening classic rock and jazz.

learning tool – historical multicultural game GemerNation(R). In addition, Dr. Vaskovicova is a Project and Financial Manager for another educational project – the creation of Museum of Socialist Curiosities. By using some non-formal learning approaches the young generation should understand, and appreciate, and use the rights and freedoms they have nowadays as compared to the past socialist regime.

Also Ms. Vaskovicova is an active volunteer in three NGOs working with young Roma people and children with cancer as a pro-bono Project Manager, Lawyer and Facilitator.

Dr. Vaskovicova holds a Ph.D. in Law (JUDr.) from Faculty of Law, Comenius University in Slovakia. Also she holds the Diploma in Introduction to English Law and the Law of The European Union from the University of Cambridge, Institute of

OUR SPECIAL THANKS TO OUR U.S. PARTNERS AND INTERNSHIP HOSTING ORGANIZATIONS:


Action North Carolina (Charlotte, North Carolina) Action United (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) Alliance for a Just Society (Seattle, Washington) Arkansas Public Policy Panel (Little Rock, Arkansas) Chicago Coalition for the Homeless (Chicago, Illinois) Granite State Organizing Project (Manchester, New Hampshire) Logan Square Neighborhood Association & Illinois Coalition for Immigrants and Refugee Rights (Chicago, Illinois) Massachusetts Communities Action Network & Organizing and Leadership Training Center (Boston, Massachusetts) Missourian Organizing for Reform and Empowerment (St. Louis, Missouri) Paraquad (St. Louis, Missouri) Virginia Organizing (Charlottesville, Virginia)

ITINERARY *

Monday, April 1 Detroit, MI/Maumee, OH

1:30PM: Arrival at Detroit airport, Welcome by Elizabeth Balint and Mar-tin Nagy; drive to hotel in Maumee 4:00PM: Check-in to hotel for 6 nights 4:30PM: Pick-up GLC Orientation materials and supplies for finishing posters; finish the posters before dinner 6:00PM: Joint dinner out of the hotel 8:00PM: Return to hotel Tuesday, April 2

Maumee, OH 8:30AM: Set up the Poster Show by participants in the meeting room of the hotel 9:00AM: GLC Orientation with Eliza-beth Balint 10:00-10:30AM: Distribute allowances – by Terri Laeng (WSOS) 10:30-12:30PM: Getting to know you – Poster Show and discussion in small groups Facilitators: Ramon Perez, Cris Doby, Dave Beckwith, Martin Nagy Discussion questions: - What inspires you? - Why do you want to work with mi-norities? - Best ideas from our work to solve problems with minorities? 12:30-2:00PM: Lunch in the hotel; Selecting the two best posters to pre-sent at the State Department in May 2:00-3:30PM: Brief Overview of the Community Organizing – Cris Doby 3:30-5:00PM: Joint Session – discus-sion on experience learned from the Poster session in small groups Facilitators: Ramon Perez, Cris Doby, Dave Beckwith, Martin Nagy 5:00-5:30PM: Reflections’ hour 6:00PM: Dinner in the hotel 7:00PM: (Optional) Shopping or time to rest Wednesday, April 3

Detroit, MI 8:00AM: Departing from the hotel and drive to Detroit 9:30AM: Welcome at the Harriet Tub-

man Center; Introduction of the dele-gation and the Detroit partners 10:00-11:30AM: “Building a Powerful Community Organizing Program to Solve Community Problems” – by Bill O’Brien, Director of HTC 11:45AM: Departing to Capucin Kitchen for lunch with Greg Markus, Professor at the University of Michi-gan, teaching community organizing in Ann Arbor, and volunteer leaders of the Detroit Action Commonwealth (1264 Meldrum St. Detroit, MI) 12:45PM: Visit Solanus Center; Presentation and discussion with DAC leaders; learning about success stories and methods in homeless organizing. 3:00-6:00PM: Travel to the meeting place of the Youth Voice Leadership to meet with: Kayla Mason, Lead Organ-izer of Youth Voice and student volun-teers, who are leading the different chapters of Youth Voice in Detroit supported by HTC; learn about the Youth Voice activities 6:00PM: Travel to Krakus Polish Res-taurant in Detroit with Bill O’Brien and Detroit partners for reflections and dinner; Discussion questions: - How do you see these concepts heard today applying to the work you’re do-ing? - What changes would you need to make in order to implement some orga-nizing elements into your work? 8:00PM: Travel back to the hotel in Maumee 9:00PM: Drop off at the hotel Thursday, April 4

Maumee, OH 9:00AM-12:30PM: Discussion of the short field experience in community organizing in Europe in small groups Facilitators: Dave Beckwith, Cris Doby, Ramon Perez, Adam Keck Topics to cover: - Listening: door-to-door, one on one, home meetings, etc. - How to select leaders and prepare for their role in the first community meet-ings,

Posters’ Titles

Bulgaria Delyana Mihneva:

“We Act, We Organize” Dzhevid Mahmud: “10 Million Roma = 10 Million Different Stories” Georgi Georgiev:

“Together We Can Do More” Milenko Milenkov:

“Together in Diversity”

Hungary: Anita Vodal: “Hungarian Civil Liber-ties Union - Roma Program Partner, not a target group” Csaba Szikra: “Tikkun Olam Buda-pest - A Cross-Cultural Project in the District 8” Hajnalka Kiss: “Social Transport” Laszlo Oliver Jakab:

“All in One Society” Timea Eve Kovacs:

“In Community We Trust”

Romania: Ioana Petrache: “BE THE CHANGE inspired by Mahatma Gandhi” Raluca Negulescu:

“Powerless to Powerful” Ruxandra Borca:

“Diversity is the Spice of Life” Silvia Elena Ursu:

“Together, One Voice” Simona Barbu: “The Roma: Nothing for Them, Without Them”

Slovakia: Daniela Batova: “Social Inclusion of Roma Communities up to 2020” Maros Chmelik: “Giving the Roma community from Zvolen the Opportu-nity to Help Themselves” Martin Klus: “Grassroots Democracy Building within Community and Aca-demic Environment” Miroslav Ragac:

“Successful Integration = Self-Sufficiency and Independence”

Monika Vaskovicova: “RegiON OFF the Duty? Bring it ON,

it is your RegiON!”


* Itinerary as of April 1, 2013 — subject to change without further notice


- How to prepare for community meet-ing, media involvement etc. - Identifying issues, the top 3 issues 12:30-2:00PM: Lunch in the hotel Facilitators will do an assessment and prepare for experience learned and how to improve in each area 2:00-5:00PM: Joint mentoring session with facilitators to improve experience 5:00-5:30PM: Reflections’ hour Covered topics: - How do you see these concepts ap-plying to the work you’re doing? - What changes would you need to make in order to implement some orga-nizing elements into your work? 6:00PM: Dinner at the hotel 7:00PM: (Optional) Shopping Friday, April 5

Toledo, OH 8:30AM: Departure from the hotel (passport is needed to enter to the Gov-ernment Center) 9:00AM: Visit the One Government Center in downtown Toledo 8th floor 9:30AM-12:30PM: Panel discussion on grassroots democracy & community organizing with elected leaders and community organizers from Toledo, and City or County representatives. Meeting with: Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur, Wade Kapszukiewicz 12:30-2:00PM: Lunch 2:30-4:30PM: “Artists and social jus-tice” discussion Facilitator: Martin Nagy Covered topic: Creative solutions to reduce the impact of unemployment with tourism, crafts, engaging youth in democracy, fundraising, etc. 4:30-5:00PM: Reflections’ hour Discussion questions: - How do you see these concepts ap-plying to the work you’re doing? - What changes would you need to make in order to implement some orga-nizing elements into your work? 5:00-5:30PM: Program assessment with Elizabeth Balint in preparation of the Chicago trip

6:00PM: Joint dinner 8:00PM: Visit the Toledo Museum of Art “Its Friday” activities with Martin Nagy (art and music) 10:00PM: Return to the hotel Saturday, April 6

Toledo, OH 10:00AM: Departing from the hotel; Sightseeing (Optional) - Toledo Zoo and/or shopping 5:00PM: Return to the hotel 7:00PM: (Optional) Enjoy a dinner and the nightlife of Toledo Sunday, April 7

Chicago, IL 8:00AM: Leaving by bus to Chicago from the hotel (with all luggage) 1:00PM: Arrive in Chicago; Sightsee-ing in downtown Chicago (as weather permits) Millennium Park, Navy Pier 5:00PM: Check-in to hotel for 4 nights 7:00PM: Dinner Monday, April 8

Chicago, IL Training day 1 at the Whitehall Hotel (105 East Delaware Place, Salon III) 9:00-9:30AM: I. Overview of Training & Ice Breaker – by Jim Field 9:30-11:00 AM: II. History and Princi-ples of Organizing – by Jim Field 11:00-11:15 AM: Break 11:15AM-12:45PM: III. Relationship Building – by Jim Picchetti 12:45-1:45PM: Lunch on your own 1:45-3:15PM: IV. Effective Meetings – by Rachel Ramirez 3:15-4:30PM: Debriefing and program assessment 4:30-5:00PM: Preparation for individ-ual travel to internship sites – with Elizabeth Balint 6:00PM: Enjoy Chicago, dinner on your own Tuesday, April 9

Chicago, IL Training day 2 at the Whitehall Hotel (105 East Delaware Place, Salon III)

9:00-10:30AM: V. World As It Is/World as You Want It to Be – by Ed Shurna (CHH) 10:30-10:45AM: Break 10:45AM-12:1PM: VI. Power and Power Analysis – by Hannah Gelder (LAC) 12:15-1:00 PM: Lunch on your own 1:00-2:30 PM: VII. Cutting an Issue – Wayne Richard (CCH) 2:30-2:45PM: Break 2:45-4:15PM: VIII. Media, Messaging and Actions - Jim Field (CCH) 4:15-4:30PM: Debriefing 4:30-5:00PM: Preparation for staying with host families – by Elizabeth Balint 6:00PM: Enjoy Chicago, sightseeing, dinner on your own Wednesday, April 10

Chicago, IL 8:15AM: Departing from hotel to the training site Training day 3 at Chicago Coalition for the Homeless (70 East Lake Street, 3rd Floor Conference Room) 9:00-10:30AM: IX. Grass Roots Fund-raising – by Jeff Pinzino (NPA) 10:30-10:45AM: Break 10:45AM-1:00PM: X. Popular Educa-tion Methodology – by Kara Bender and Saskia Harak (JASCC) 1:00- 1:45PM: Lunch on your own 1:45-3:15PM: XI. Path to Power – the Magic Schematic – by Josh Hoyt (ICIRR) 3:15-3:30PM: Break 3:30-5:00PM: Evaluation of the 3-day training and discussion how to use these materials in community organiz-ing field activities in Europe—with Nancy Aardema (LSNA) & Action Planning with Elizabeth Balint and Martin Nagy 6:00PM: Joint dinner and discussion of the Chicago program Thursday, April 11

Travel day 8:00-11:00AM: Check-out from the

ITINERARY *

hotel; travel to internship site for 3 weeks (the transportation to the airport, and/or to the host family have to be arranged on your own in advance) April 11 – May 2

3-week Internship Tailored 3-week internship experience at the 11 U.S. hosting organizations in 9 states across the United States Thursday, May 2

Travel Day Departure from the internship site and travel to Washington, D.C.; travel on your own to the downtown hotel and check-in for 6 nights 7:00PM: Meet at the hotel lobby; joint dinner; planning for the weekend with Elizabeth Balint Friday, May 3

Washington D.C. 9:00AM: Depart to Center for Com-munity Change conference room (1536 U Street, NW, Washington, D.C. 20009) 9:30-12:00Noon: Discussion of the fellowship experience based on the field diary – overview of ECON (European Community Organizing Network) and how ECON can help implementing your action plans with Juli Bertalan, Friends of ECON U.S. Field Coordinator Session I “What have you learned about the work of community organiz-ing and how might you apply this in your country & your field project?” Reports on individual and group action plans & summaries by countries for the next 6-9 months Session II “How does your host organi-zation work with minority communi-ties and those in poverty?” 12:00-1:30PM: Lunch on your own 1:30-3:30PM: Individual and group report on planning of the Summer 2013 U.S. Mentors visit to Europe Evening: Enjoy Washington D.C. night views; (Optional) travel to New York on your own

Saturday, May 4 Washington D.C.

Enjoy sightseeing in Washington D.C. (Optional) Opportunity to have a day-trip to New York on your own Sunday, May 5

Washington D.C. Sightseeing continues; free time Monday, May 6

Washington D.C. 9:00AM: Depart to Center for Com-munity Change conference room (1536 U Street, NW, Washington, D.C. 20009) 9:30AM-12:00Noon: Discussion of the fellowship experience based on the field diary Meeting with: Cathy Woodson, Vir-ginia Organizing Session I “How are citizen organiza-tions built, structured, grown and sus-tained?” Focus on leadership development 12:00-1:30PM: Lunch on your own 1:30-3:00PM: Session II “How does the organization deal with issues of transparency and visibility?” 3:15-4:15PM: Session III “What the U.S. mentors find interesting during their trip to Europe?” – by Cathy Woodson (member of the Summer 2012 delegation; share her Outbound experience and suggestions) 4:30-5:00PM: Preparation for the Con-gress – review of Congress activities with Elizabeth Balint 6:00PM: Dinner on your own Evening: Free time to enjoy the night in Washington, Tuesday, May 7

Washington, D.C. 8:30AM: Depart to the meeting loca-tion at the Stewart R. Mott Foundation (122 Maryland Ave. NE, Washington, D.C. 20002) 9:00AM-12:00Noon: Discussion of fellowship experience based on the field diary Meeting with: Ken Grossinger Co-

founder and Chairman of the Cross-Currents Foundation Session I “Cultural differences between your country and the United States?” Session II “How is community orga-nizing funded and how is this different from the experience in your country?” Discussion topics: - Funding community organizing based on your internship experience (grants, membership, grassroots fundraising) - How cultural differences will have an impact on possible funding. - Resources available/needed for im-plementing follow on activities 12:00-1:30PM: Lunch on your own 1:30-4:30PM: Evaluation of the pro-gram with Elizabeth Balint and Juli Bertalan and finishing the testimonial video clips; 5:00PM: Early dinner on your own 7:00PM: Joint Farewell Celebration; presentation program completion cer-tificates; group photo Location: Ken Grossinger and his wife Micheline’s home in Georgetown Wednesday, May 8

Washington, D.C. – Congress, 1 day

11:00AM: Check-out of the downtown hotel with all luggage 11:15AM: Depart to the hotel of the Professional Fellows Congress site and check-in for 3 nights; Lunch on your own 12:00-5:30PM: Ongoing - Congress Registration (2nd floor); Early dinner on your own 6:00-8:30PM: Orientation and Net-working of the Congress in the Ball-room 6:30PM: World Learning Welcome – by Dr. Peter Simpson, World Learning 6:40PM: Professional Fellows Pro-gram Overview – by Ms. Carol Herrera, U.S. Department of State, Professional Fellows Division 7:00PM: Orientation Information – by Mr. Adam Meier, U.S. Department of State Professional Fellows Division 7:20PM: Introduction of Distinguished Alumni

ITINERARY *


ITINERARY *

7:45PM: Icebreaker Activity intro-duced by Dr. Patricia Harrison, World Learning 8:30PM: Refreshments at the foyer and casual conversation. Thursday, May 9

Washington D.C. – Congress Conference, Day 2

7:30-9:00AM: Breakfast 9:00-10:15AM: Opening Plenary in the Grand Ballroom. 9:00-9:10AM: State Department Wel-come – by Mr. Michael Stanton, Chief, Professional Fellows Division, Office of Citizen Exchanges, Bureau of Edu-cational and Cultural Affairs, U.S. De-partment of State. 9:10-9:15AM: Introduction of Keynote Speaker – by Dr. Peter Simpson, World Learning. 9:15-10:00AM: Keynote Address 10:00-10:15AM: Short Break 10:15AM: Return to Ballroom for Ex-planation of Fellowship Experience Exercise. 10:15AM-12:00PM: Fellowship Ex-perience Small Group Exercise 12:00-1:45PM: Citizen Diplomacy Lunch with Local Ambassadors and Embassy staff in the Ballroom; Welcome to Diplomats and Fellows 1:45-3:15PM: Skill-Building Work-shops:

1. Coalition Building 2. Strategic Planning for Your Organi-

zation 3. Media for the Next Generation– 4. Funding for Development 5. Political Messaging and Speech-

writing 6. Social Entrepreneurship 7. Community Mapping 8. Grassroots Activism 3:15- 3:45PM: Break 3:45-5:15PM: Skill Building Work-shops (Sessions will be repeated with the same moderators). 5:15 - 5:30PM: Group photo taken by Photographer Ralph Blessing. 5:30-6:30PM: Dinner in the Hotel. Evening: Free time Friday, May 10

Washington D.C. – Congress Conference, Day 3

6:45-7:30AM: Breakfast at hotel 7:45AM: Departure for Department of State (DOS) by board buses; bring your passport to enter). 8:15-9:00AM: Arrival at DOS; Secu-rity Screening at DOS. 9:00-9:30AM: Distinguished Alumni Award Presentations. 9:30-11:00AM: Regional Briefings with Q & A 11:00AM-12:45PM: Return to the ho-tel by board buses for lunch.

12:45-2:15PM: Open Space Activity, break. 2:30PM: Return to Ballroom. 2:30-3:15PM: Open Space Presenta-tions: Three Things in Three Minutes 3:15-3:30PM: Break to prepare for Poster Show. 3:30-6:30PM: Poster Show Session 6:30PM: Dinner at the Hotel. Evening: (Possible) Networking and Dancing Event at the Hotel. Saturday, May 11

Washington D.C. – Congress Closing, Day 4

7:30-9:00AM: Breakfast at hotel 9:00-10:15AM: Alumni Panel and Outbound Planning Session: PFP Alumni, DOS Alumni Outreach and others will share best practices. 10:15-11:00AM: Farewell Session 10:15-10:30AM: Alumni Outreach Representative, U.S. Department of State. 10:30-10:45AM: Remarks – by Mr. Adam Meier, U.S. Department of State 10:45-11:00AM: Evaluations and Cer-tificates – by Dr. Peter Simpson, World Learning. 11:00AM-12:00Noon: Check-out from hotel; travel to the airport with the group or on your own.

Have a safe trip back home!

* Itinerary as of April 1, 2013 — subject to change without further notice


Special Thanks to the U.S. Mentors, their organizations and all U.S. host families for welcoming the European fellows

and working with them in the U.S. in April 2013:

Dominik & Georgia Mjartan, Barbara Miles & Hank Bat es, Debbie & Bill Goolsby from Arkansas (AR); Joanna Brown & Joshua Hoyt, Laurene Heybach, Jaquie Algee, Jim Field & Rachel Ramirez, Richard

Goldstein & Julie O'Brien from Illinois (IL); Rachi e Lewis (Moishe Kavod House), Sheila Decter, Beverly Ann Rock, Ann Grady from Massachusetts (MA) ; Tom & Carol Braford, Kathy & Julio

Zegarra Ballons, Dana Gray & Jerry Basye, Brian & D ana Wallace, Sarah Durbin from Missouri (MO); Sarah Jane Knoy & Kevin Kintner, Kathy Urie from Ne w Hampshire (NH); Pay McCoy from North

Carolina (NC); Bruce Dorpalen & Keelin Berry from P ennsylvania (PA); Jane Foster, Helen Plaisance from Virginia (VA); Sol Bey & Tash Skorupa from Was hington (WA); Craig Robbins & Jill Reese,

Lew Finfer, Jeff Ordower, Joe Szakos & Cathy Woodso n, Neil Sealy and Bill Kopsky!

eu spring participants 2013

Documents

professional fellows

professional fellows

professional expertise

development glc glc

community leaders

department of state

longterm professional

civil society institutions