spring2013_europenewsletter_finalpost
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GREAT LAKES CONSORTIUM
for International Training andDevelopment (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 352424Toledo, OH 43635
Phone: 419-725-0440
Cell: 419-973-8007
Email:
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 CulturalAffairs, 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, 201
to participate in group seminars, round-tab
discussions, site visits, and will hav
interactions with United States leaders.
tailored 3-week internship with mentorin
multicultural events, and participation i
volunteer activities as well as in th
Professional Fellows Congress in Washington
D.C. will be also included in the 6-wee
professional fellows program. Participants wiprepare a 6-9 month individual and grou
Action Plan for follow on activities. They hav
various opportunities to experience th
American family life and the diversity in th
U.S. through staying with American ho
families during their internship in Little Roc
(Arkansas), Chicago (Illinois), Bosto
(Massachusetts), St. Louis (Missouri), Man
chester (New Hampshire), Raleigh (Nort
Carolina), Philadelphia (Pennsylvania), Cha
lottesville (Virginia), Seattle (Washington).
A second European delegation is expectedi
the U.S. from September 30 November
2013.
The Out-Bound component will include
least two American mentors teams to travel t
Europe (between June 2013 and March 2014
for up to 21 days to provide joint workshop
with the alumni and on-site consultation an
fieldwork, and conduct wider outreach pro
grams.
U.S. and foreign participants will be involve
in alumni activities through an alumni soci
network in each country. We will also establish an online network for continued learning
This program is a collaboration between GL
and its overseas partners: CEGA in Bulgari
Civil College Foundation in Hungary, CeRe i
Romania and Center for Community Organi
ing in Slovakia as well as the European Com
munity Organizing Network (ECON) an
many U.S. partner organizations involved i
the joint program and the tailored internship
and follow up mentoring activities.
Building Grassroots Democracy in Minority Communities
Professional Fellows from Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania, Slovakia
in the United States, April 1 - May 11, 2013
April2013
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Milenko MilenkovLom, BulgariaE-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 withemployers and so on.
Mr. Milenkov also works in two
NGOs 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 Masters Degree i
Business Administration. Both degree
obtained at the New Bulgarian Universit
in Sofia. Also Mr. Milenkov complete
several trainings in fields of computeknowledge and literacy certificates an
fundamentals in web-design, and took pa
in training for teamwork, project writing
project management, etc. He is fluent i
English, German and Russian.
Mr. Milenkov had several reasons t
apply for this fellowship, and one of them
is that he might be one very good examp
for the young Roma from the town of Lom
in Bulgaria. He wants to make change i
the thinking of the young people in Lom
The young people have to be active an
they have to bring the changes in the Bugarian society.
It will be his first visit to the Unite
States. While in the U.S., Mr. Milenko
would like to gain experience in differen
programs for developing talents.
After he will be back to Bulgari
through the two organizations (The Com
munity Fund Lom and Mladenovo Foun
dation), and using all of the local, region
and national media as partners, M
Milenkov will inform the community abou
the best practices in the U.S. He will try t
apply some of these practices in his com
munity, city and, if he has the toolMilenko will organize a national campaig
for some identified problem.
In his free time Milenko enjoys play
ing basketball, volleyball, searching th
internet for new technologies, and also ol
audio equipments - speakers, amplifier
and so on. He is also taking care of tw
aquariums full with little fishes and tha
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 therecognition 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 Bachelors Degree
Participants from Bulgaria
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
Page 2 Building Grassroots Democracy in Minority Communities
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Delyana MihnevaPlovdiv, 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 tomany 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
Bachelors Degree in Political Science
wants to find out how community group
work with the media and the media's in
volvement in social justice issues. Recentl
in Bulgaria the social side of media face
more obvious than few years ago and th
should be used to raise social consciou
ness and empathy in society.
Ms. Mihneva would like to train peo
ple from different communities in order t
work together, define problems and see
for solutions and wants to find out ho
things work in American society is it ju
a matter of law or there is something i
addition. She would like to learn successfu
social practices and how to implemen
them in Bulgaria.
Delyana would also like to learn t
prioritize tasks more clearly, to work mor
effectively with different minority groupto participate more actively in decisio
making process during a project, to lear
how community organizing works throug
field work. She would like to get mor
information about organizing groups b
interest, how to motivate people to figh
for their rights and to pursue their aims.
In her free time Ms. Mihneva like
outdoor activities, reading, dancing an
karaoke. Delyana is interested in multicu
tural communication, peace journalism an
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 UnionYouth 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 MahmudDobrich, 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 ofRoma 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 anddrafting, 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, M
Mahmud participated in the Roma Acces
Program which aims at preparing youn
promising Roma for entering quality inte
national post-graduate studies. His secon
Masters degree in Law was completed
the Varna Free University in Bulgaria.
In addition in 2008, Mr. Mahmud wo
an internship with the European Commi
sion situated in Brussels, Belgium, sponsored by the Open Society Institute Rom
Initiatives. He speaks fluently in English
Turkish, Russian, and Bulgarian. The com
munity where Mr. Mahmud is interested i
organizing is geographically situated in th
North/East of Bulgaria consisted of Chri
tian and Muslim Roma, who face everyda
exclusion, discrimination, poverty, unem
ployment and lacks access to services an
goods.
Mr. Mahmud has never visited U.S.A
before, yet has been always interested i
getting to know more on minority community 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 Europ
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 Masters
degree in Public Policy at the Central
European University (CEU) in Budapest,
Professional Fellows Program in the U.S. (April 1 - May 11, 2013) Page
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Hajnalka KissBudapest, 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 peoples 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 3months 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
clients 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 1s
and 2nd World War, or the revolution i
1956. She was so lucky that they opene
up for her.
Ms. Kiss holds a Diploma in Socia
Sciences, Economics and Organization
Development. She graduated with heMasters Degree in Sociology and Eco
nomics from the Corvinus University i
Budapest in 2009. After finishing her stud
ies she worked for small foundations a
Project Manager.
Within the frame of this fellowshi
program, Ms. Kiss wishes to learn mor
about community organizing, methods an
strategies for motivating volunteers
NGOs, learn about different projects aim
ing to assist minorities especially projec
focusing on young people.
Ms. Kiss would like to visit organizations, both governmental and nongovern
mental that deal with issues related to eth
nic minorities. She meets the problem o
racism and xenophobia every day and sh
would like to gain experience on how t
treat the question of minorities.
In her free time Ms. Kiss enjoys trav
elling, taking photographs, watching goo
films and discussing interesting storie
Hajnalka enjoys being and working in th
international environment.
Participants from Hungary
Georgi GeorgievLom, 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 objectivesof 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 crea
contacts with NGOs outside of Bulgaria i
order to obtain and share experience i
rebuilding an entire community.
Mr. Georgiev would like to develo
partnerships with these U.S. organization
which will bring access to new exper
ences, opportunities to work with new parners, and large-scale initiatives which wi
help people. He would like to learn how t
better motivate young people so they wan
more out of their life, have higher expecta
tions and be able to achieve them, by a
lowing themselves to dream and work.
In his free time Mr. Georgiev likes t
practice his hobbies: playing basketball, a
well as volleyball and soccer. Georgi als
enjoys going to the gym and writing comi
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 Bachelors Degree in Busi-
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Anita VodalBudapest, 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 HCLUs
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.
HCLUs 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 trainin
activities, they work towards ensuring hig
-quality and rights-based asylum proce
dures both in Hungary and the EU.
Ms. Vodal graduated as a Lawye
from the University of Szeged in 2010, an
wrote her thesis on statelessness. Befor
that, Anita worked for a year as volunteeat Belgian Youth Organization (JAVVA
in Brussels, where she was in charge of
European project.
Ms. Vodal organized internation
voluntary camps and discussions in orde
to raise awareness about tolerance, antidi
crimination and an open-minded attitud
towards others. She speaks English, Frenc
and Italian.
Ms. Vodal considers this fellowship t
be a great opportunity to acquire know
edge on community organizing method
and practical tools, and learn a new ap
proach of working with minority group
She is keen to see how American NGO
work and what kinds of difficulties the
face in working with minority groups. M
Vodal is ready to talk more in detail abou
the HCLUs network of legal support sta
tions, which is a unique structure even i
Hungary.
In her free time, Ms. Vodal rides he
bike, adores contemporary dance, whic
she has been pursuing as a hobby since sh
was eleven. Anita is fond of all kinds o
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 JakabKistelek, HungaryE-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 youthand 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 Terzia Drug Rehabilita-
tion Centre. He attended different kinds of
short-term training programs including: (1
ROMED European Training Program fo
Mediators working with Roma commun
ties organized by Council of Europe, an
(2) Equal Treatment Authority Figh
against discrimination project organized b
Equal Treatment Authority.
This is his first trip to the Unite
States. Mr. Jakab is interested in how
NGOs work in the U.S., how to involv
people from the minority community to bactive. He believes this six weeks fellow
ship in the U.S. can improve his skills an
competencies such as team building, inte
cultural communication, community orga
nizing, and English language.
Mr. Jakab would like to learn method
and strategies which can be useful in Hun
gary. He wants to visit NGOs workin
with minorities and disadvantaged peop
especially focusing on youth.
In his free time Mr. Jakab likes play
ing the guitar and watching movies.
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Timea Eva KovacsDebrecen, HungaryE-mail:
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 t
work with are migrants, refugees and ad
dicted people.
Ms. Kovacs has a Bachelors degree i
Social Work from the University of Debre
cen. After graduation she started workinat Menedek Hungarian Association fo
Migrants at Debrecen Refugee Camp. I
2008 she participated in the Erasmus Pro
gram studying for one semester at the Un
versity College Cork in Ireland. In 201
Ms. Kovacs began her Masters program i
Social Policy majoring in Employmen
Policy in the same institution. Her nativ
language is Hungarian, but also fluentl
speaks Romanian and English.
Ms. Kovacs travels regularly to Roman
and Slovakia. This is her first visit to th
U.S., and she is looking forward to learn
ing new methods and sharing experiencon how to work with people in minorit
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 theCordelia 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 SzikraBudapest, Hungary
E-mail: [email protected]
Csaba Szikra, as a Freelance
Intercultural Trainer, collaborates with
different NGOs and institutions. He is a
community worker in the Glaser JakabMemorial 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 Jzsefvros (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 Committees Community
experience with homeless peopl
alcoholics and drug addicts, and also h
worked for the Menedek Hungaria
Association for Migrants. Csaba manage
a summer camp for refugee teens and kid
and in his multi-ethnic neighborhood he
always focusing on these groups too.
Mr. Szikra has a Bachelors Degree i
Social Work, and he specialized in youtwork. In 2009, he began his Master
studies in Intercultural Psychology an
Education at the Etvs Lorand University
Mr. Szikra is working on his thesis abou
the multi-cultural environment o
Jzsefvros. Csaba fluently speaks Englis
and German.
Mr. Szikra is visiting the United State
for the first time. He expects to learn mor
about the minorities and cross-cultur
topics in America in order to involve th
locally applicable good practices into h
community organizing methods i
Jzsefvros.
Mr. Szikras favorite free tim
activities are travelling and sports such a
horseback riding and krav-maga, an
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. Szikras
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
Page 6 Building Grassroots Democracy in Minority Communities
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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
NegulescuBucharest, 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 mod
(project MIMoSA Migrants Inclusio
Model of Sports for All coordinated by th
Italian Union Sports for All).
Ms. Negulescu has a Bachelors Degree in Political Science from the Unive
sity of Bucharest. In 2008 she received a
Erasmus grant based on academic exce
lence, and she studied at the University o
Bologna for one semester. Raluca also ha
a certification in project management, an
completed trainings on the financial man
agement of structural funds, communica
tion, organizational analysis and leade
ship.
Ms. Negulescus field experience i
ghetto type communities and, in particula
in Ferentari neighborhood is strongly related to her professional interest to identif
efficient mechanisms to authentically con
nect grassroots issues to policy makin
level. In Romania, the Roma are the mo
marginal and discriminated ethnic grou
and target of racism and negative attitude
The persistence of this situation resides no
only in the inappropriate policies discon
nected from grassroots issues but also i
the lack of knowledge of the Roma com
munity members over their rights.
During the fellowship experience i
the U.S., Ms. Negulescu would like tlearn new methods on how to empowe
people in minority communities and to se
and understand the innovative approache
of the hosting organization. Also, she
very interested to learn more on commu
nity organizing and on developing loc
advocacy plans.
Participants from Romania
Professional Fellows Program in the U.S. (April 1 - May 11, 2013) Page
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Ioana PetracheBucharest, 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 countrys 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 forcommunity members. Ms. Petrache also
worked as a researcher on assessing a rural
communitys 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 villageof 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 Buchare
neighborhood area since September 201
For Ms. Petrache community organizing i
Bucharest proves to be especially challeng
ing, but undoubtedly useful.
Ms. Petrache has a Bachelors Degre
from the Academy of Economic Science i
Bucharest. She says that grassroots work
her favorite type of work. This also ex
plains Ioanas decision to start a new fielof study, anthropology, at the University o
Bucharest, Faculty of Sociology and Soci
Work, in 2012. Her previous studies are i
business administration.
This will be Ms. Petraches first trip t
the United States, and she is especiall
curious about how a culture that she ha
seen depicted so often in the media look
and feels in real life.
Ioana looks forward to meeting organ
izers and community organizations, learn
ing more about how to build an initiativ
group into a long term community organzation, and how can community organiza
tions empower minorities and bridge soci
trust gaps.
What Ms. Petrache likes most are ex
plorations of all sorts, nature - includin
humans, games, her friends and spring.
Simona BarbuIlfov 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, an
has experience and abilities in organizin
events and in project management. Simonhas been trained as an evaluator for th
professional competences of the Rom
health mediators, and she obtained a
evaluator certificate recognized by the Na
tional Council of Professional Training fo
the Adults in Romania in 2008.
Ms. Barbu is also co-author of tw
studies in the field of access to health o
the Roma population and the status o
health of the Roma in Romania, publishe
by Romani CRISS in 2009, and 2011.
This is her first trip to the U.S., an
Ms. Barbu looks forward to exchang
know-how with the other fellows, discovethe free American spirit and would like t
learn more about outside of the box wa
of thinking. Simona is interested in findin
out more about the organizing process o
minorities in America, methods of empow
ering the representatives of the minoritie
to stand for their rights and to learn mor
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 goo
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 Bachelors Degree in
Sociology from the Faculty of Sociology
and Social Assistance at the University of
Bucharest in Romania. Currently she is the
1st year Masters 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-
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Ruxandra BorcaPetrosani, 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 inBucharest. 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 worke
with Hungarian historian Andrea Varg
under the supervision of the representatio
of the European Commission in Buchares
Together, they have edited a newspaper o
recent history topics to be disseminated i
schools: The Freedom Archive. The pro
ject forms part of a bigger project that in
tends to educate and inform people wh
cannot access formal education. Also, thehave collaborated on a project on the top
of refugees Borders Revisited, an exhib
tion of refugees of the WWII.
Ms. Borca holds the BAs degree i
Foreign Languages at the Spanish an
English department of the University o
Bucharest. At the present time, Ruxandr
is enrolling at the Master`s program i
American Cultural Studies at the Unive
sity of Bucharest. She is fluent in Spanis
and English, and has a good understandin
of Italian and Hungarian.
Ms. Borca has travelled intensively tEurope and Asia, but this is her first trip t
the United States. She would like to lear
how community organizing is done in th
U.S. migrant communities, how to identif
their problems, involve members of th
community in the decision-making proces
and make sustainable changes in the m
nority community.
In her free time, Ruxandra enjoys mu
sic, travelling, writing, she also like
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-
Professional Fellows Program in the U.S. (April 1 - May 11, 2013) Page
Silvia UrsuBucharest, 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 peoplewith 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 trainin
course powered by the Internation
Advertising Association. Taking int
account all the tips learnt, Ms. Urs
pitched a project for disabled people at th
Restart Romania Gala, supported by th
U.S. Embassy, and won a grant for th
project. Ms. Ursu is fluent in speakin
English and French and she starte
learning Spanish.
Ms. Ursu has never been in the Unite
States before, but always wanted to. Wheshe was in college, she had a huge passio
on American Pop Art, from Jasper Johns t
Andy Warhol. While in the U.S., Silvi
would like to gaine the knowledge i
involving directly people with disabilitie
in gaining some practical skills for doin
so and also she is interested to find mor
about the American model for buildin
grassroots democracy and participation.
In her spare time, Silvia likes to rid
her bike, to read books (most of th
communication and multimedia books) an
also to find peoples 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 Masters
Degree in Communication and Arts from
the University of Bucharest.
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Participants from Slovakia
Daniela BatovaBratislava, Slovakia
E-mail: [email protected]
Daniela Batova is working as a ProjectManager 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 ofRoma 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 livingconditions.
Ms. Batova graduated with Masters
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 Th
Transparency International Slovakia an
volunteered in NGO Scouting Slovakia
where she was actively involved in a
activities tackling the protection an
enhancement of the environmenprevention from the addictions, soci
activities, and work with children an
disabled people/communities. She als
took part in some activities of NGO calle
Independent Youth Organization an
dedicated mainly to campaign for health
lifestyle without alcohol and drugs fo
young people.
Ms. Batova has never been in the U.S
before. From this fellowship exchange sh
expects to gain skills and experience i
community organizing. She looks forwar
to see the work of the U.S. NGOs and thway, and how they work with minorit
communities to lead them to activ
citizenship and awareness of their ow
rights and duties.
In her free time, Ms. Batova enjoy
reading, mainly detective books, visitin
the course of Irish dance. She like
cooking traditional and special recipes.
Maros ChmelikZvolen, SlovakiaE-mail:
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 communitywould be involved with only a little help
and support from others.
Mr. Chmelik has a Bachelors Degree
in Political Science, and a Masters 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 a
a Spanish teacher in Institute of Language
and Education. Maros is fluent in Englis
and Spanish and has a good knowledge o
French.
This will be his first trip to the Unite
States. While in the U.S., Mr. Chmeli
would like to learn how to motivate youn
people from Roma minorities to study an
work. He would like to see some example
of good practices in communit
organizing, to gain experiences in this fiel
and how to apply new skills into his work
In addition, Mr. Chmelik would like t
exchange professional experiences wit
young managers from Europe and U.S.Aand to transfer new ideas to Slovakia. Als
he expects to improve his leadership
networking and language skills.
In his free time, Mr. Chmelik
interested in traveling, doing all kinds o
sports activities, spending time with h
two dogs and tasting high-quality wine
while listening to jazz music. His mai
hobbies are socializing, hiking, reading an
watching good movies.
Page 10 Building Grassroots Democracy in Minority Communities
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Martin KlusBanska 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 we
as on Comparative Public Policies; one o
the main topics within these fields is als
minority policy issue studied from diffe
ent perspectives.
Mr. Klus has rich traveling exper
ence. He has already been in the U.S. twic
as a Work and Travel program partic
pant, and twice as a Researcher at the Unversity of California Berkeley.
His fifth visit to the U.S. is aimed t
take part in grassroots democracy building
communication, mobilization and variou
kinds of event organization focused o
minority and university issues in the U.S
and Central Europe (particularly Slovakia
and write a complex comparative paper o
the subject. As an active volunteer of di
ferent NGOs, Mr. Klus would like to pre
pare special training for these NGOs vo
unteers based on the knowledge obtaine
during the fellowship program in the U.SHe is also interested in the opportunity t
make contacts with professional organiza
tions of teachers, students and researche
especially on the university level as well a
with politicians and public administrator
on various levels.
In his free time, Mr. Klus is occupie
with various sports activities like skiin
running, swimming, cycling and bowlin
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 RagacBanska 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
Bansk 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 Doln Kubn,
Slovakia with specialization in Social and
Legal Work and then he has remained true
to social work. His professional prortfoli
includes work with people with physic
and mental disablilities, with the homeles
or the elderly.
Five years of living and working i
United Kingdom for PHSS (Peterboroug
HIV Support Services) gave Miroslav a
opportunity to work with people livin
with HIV and AIDS, and help them wit
their reintegration into society.
Mr. Ragac has no previous experienc
travelling to the United States. Therefor
face to face contact, hands on outreac
work and using community organizin
practices as a problem solving method i
the community or neighborhoods wit
different backgrounds, cultures and issue
interest him the most during visiting th
United States.
Mr. Ragac enjoys travelling, meetin
new people, learning new cultures, cuisine
and history. He also enjoys maintaining h
personal fitness in the gym and by cycling
jogging, swimming, trekking and hiking.
Professional Fellows Program in the U.S. (April 1 - May 11, 2013) Page 1
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Dr. Monika VaskovicovaBanska 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 trustedpartner 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, sh
received a Prince2 Certificate of th
internationally recognized proje
management methodology.
Dr. Vaskovicova attended variou
courses including non-formal learning an
regional marketing, active citizenshi
building and creation of social enterpris
principles. She speaks fluently English an
German.Dr. Vaskovicova has been in th
United States several times. Once, sh
visited as a participant of the Work
Travel program, and then she had a
internship in a private immigration la
office in Florida where she looked int
finding the appropriate law for asylees an
immigrants in the U.S.
Within this fellowship program D
Vaskovicova wishes to experience th
community collaboration in the Unite
States, the role, function and motivation
tools of the leaders in the community anthe principles of the informational system
and channels in terms of providin
effective information to the loc
communities. Monika likes turnin
impossible into possible, because sh
believes that everything is possible, it ju
takes a little BIT (Belief, Imaginatio
Time).
In her rare free time Dr. Vaskovicov
likes running, going to the fields collectin
herbs. She also is fond of music like
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 socialistregime.
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:
Page 12 Building Grassroots Democracy in Minority Communities
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)
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Monday, April 1
Detroit, MI/Maumee, OH1:30PM: 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 nights4:30PM: 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, OH8:30AM: 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 Nagy5:00-5:30PM: Reflections hour
6:00PM: Dinner in the hotel
7:00PM: (Optional) Shopping or time
to rest
Wednesday, April 3
Detroit, MI8:00AM: 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 toSolve Community Problems by Bill
OBrien, Director of HTC11:45AM: 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 meetingplace 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 OBrien
and Detroit partners for reflections and
dinner;
Discussion questions:- How do you see these concepts heard
today applying to the work youre 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, OH9:00AM-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
BulgariaDelyana Mihneva:
We Act, We Organize
Dzhevid Mahmud: 10 Million Rom= 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 Partnenot a target group
Csaba Szikra: Tikkun Olam Buda
pest - A Cross-Cultural Project in thDistrict 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 PowerfulRuxandra Borca:
Diversity is the Spice of Life
Silvia Elena Ursu:
Together, One Voice
Simona Barbu: The Roma: Nothin
for Them, Without Them
Slovakia:Daniela Batova: Social Inclusion o
Roma Communities up to 2020
Maros Chmelik: Giving the Rom
community from Zvolen the Opportunity to Help Themselves
Martin Klus: Grassroots Democrac
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!
Professional Fellows Program in the U.S. (April 1 - May 11, 2013) Page 1
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* Itinerary as of April 1, 2013 subject to change without further notice
Page 14 Building Grassroots Democracy in Minority Communities
- 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 andhow 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 youre 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, OH8:30AM: 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 & communityorganizing with elected leaders and
community organizers from Toledo,and City or County representatives.
Meeting with: Congresswoman Marcy
Kaptur, Wade Kapszukiewicz12:30-2:00PM: Lunch
2:30-4:30PM: Artists and social jus-
tice discussion
Facilitator: Martin Nagy
Covered topic: Creative solutions toreduce the impact of unemployment
with tourism, crafts, engaging youth in
democracy, fundraising, etc.
4:30-5:00PM: Reflections hourDiscussion questions:
- How do you see these concepts ap-
plying to the work youre 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, OH10:00AM: 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 Chicagofrom 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, ILTraining 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, ILTraining day 2 at the Whitehall Hotel
(105 East Delaware Place, Salon III)
9:00-10:30AM: V. World As It I
World as You Want It to Be by E
Shurna (CHH)
10:30-10:45AM: Break
10:45AM-12:1PM: VI. Power an
Power Analysis by Hannah Gelde(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, Messagin
and Actions - Jim Field (CCH)
4:15-4:30PM: Debriefing
4:30-5:00PM: Preparation for stayin
with host families by Elizabet
Balint
6:00PM: Enjoy Chicago, sightseeingdinner on your own
Wednesday, April 10
Chicago, IL8:15AM: Departing from hotel to th
training site
Training day 3 at Chicago Coalition fo
the Homeless (70 East Lake Street, 3r
Floor Conference Room)
9:00-10:30AM: IX. Grass Roots Fundraising by Jeff Pinzino (NPA)
10:30-10:45AM: Break10:45AM-1:00PM: X. Popular Educa
tion Methodology by Kara Bende
and Saskia Harak (JASCC)1:00- 1:45PM: Lunch on your own
1:45-3:15PM: XI. Path to Power th
Magic Schematic by Josh Hoy
(ICIRR)
3:15-3:30PM: Break
3:30-5:00PM: Evaluation of the 3-da
training and discussion how to us
these materials in community organiz
ing field activities in EuropewitNancy Aardema (LSNA) & ActioPlanning with Elizabeth Balint an
Martin Nagy
6:00PM: Joint dinner and discussio
of the Chicago program
Thursday, April 11
Travel da8:00-11:00AM: Check-out from th
ITINERARY*
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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 23-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 DayDeparture 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 IIHow 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 groupreport 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 ofthe 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 activitieswith 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 Cros
Currents Foundation
Session ICultural differences betwee
your country and the United States?
Session II How is community orga
nizing funded and how is this differenfrom the experience in your country?
Discussion topics:
- Funding community organizing baseon your internship experience (grant
membership, grassroots fundraising)
- How cultural differences will have a
impact on possible funding.
- Resources available/needed for implementing follow on activities
12:00-1:30PM: Lunch on your own
1:30-4:30PM: Evaluation of the pro
gram with Elizabeth Balint and JuBertalan and finishing the testimonia
video clips;
5:00PM: Early dinner on your own
7:00PM: Joint Farewell Celebration
presentation program completion ce
tificates; group photo
Location: Ken Grossinger and his wif
Michelines home in Georgetown
Wednesday, May 8
Washington, D.C.
Congress, 1 da11:00AM: Check-out of the downtow
hotel with all luggage
11:15AM: Depart to the hotel of th
Professional Fellows Congress site an
check-in for 3 nights; Lunch on you
own
12:00-5:30PM: Ongoing - Congres
Registration (2nd floor); Early dinne
on your own
6:00-8:30PM: Orientation and Ne
working of the Congress in the Bal
room6:30PM: World Learning Welcome
by Dr. Peter Simpson, World Learning
6:40PM: Professional Fellows Pro
gram Overview by Ms. Caro
Herrera, U.S. Department of Stat
Professional Fellows Division
7:00PM: Orientation Information bMr. Adam Meier, U.S. Department o
State Professional Fellows Division
7:20PM: Introduction of Distinguishe
Alumni
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7:45PM: Icebreaker Activity intro-
duced by Dr. Patricia Harrison, World
Learning
8:30PM: Refreshments at the foyerand casual conversation.
Thursday, May 9
Washington D.C.
Congress Conference, Day 27:30-9:00AM: 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 andEmbassy 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 Generation4. Funding for Development
5. Political Messaging and Speech-writing
6. Social Entrepreneurship
7. Community Mapping8. 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 36:45-7:30AM: 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 Presentations: Three Things in Three Minutes
3:15-3:30PM: Break to prepare foPoster Show.
3:30-6:30PM: Poster Show Session
6:30PM: Dinner at the Hotel.
Evening: (Possible) Networking an
Dancing Event at the Hotel.
Saturday, May 11
Washington D.C.
Congress Closing, Day 7:30-9:00AM: Breakfast at hotel
9:00-10:15AM: Alumni Panel an
Outbound Planning Session: PFAlumni, DOS Alumni Outreach an
others will share best practices.
10:15-11:00AM: Farewell Session
10:15-10:30AM: Alumni Outreac
Representative, U.S. Department o
State.
10:30-10:45AM: Remarks by M
Adam Meier, U.S. Department of Stat
10:45-11:00AM: Evaluations and Ce
tificates by Dr. Peter Simpson, Worl
Learning.
11:00AM-12:00Noon: Check-out fromhotel; travel to the airport with th
group or on your own.
Have a safe trip back home!
* Itinerary as of April 1, 2013 subject to change without further notice
Page 16 Building Grassroots Democracy in Minority Communities
Special Thanks to the U.S. Mentors, their organizationsand 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 Bates, 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); Rachie 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 & Dana Wallace, Sarah Durbin from Missouri (MO);
Sarah Jane Knoy & Kevin Kintner, Kathy Urie from New