1. Working Group 1 (*) meeting in York: a short report

DWorking Group 1 convened in York, UK, 2nd-4th September. The agenda was as follows: - making final decisions re the first DARE publication;

• framing the good practice publication to be issued next year;
  
• analysing possibilities for common projects;
  
• planning the strategy for the European Year of Citizenship through Education (2005).
  

As we expected, issues re the publication took up most of the time. If everything goes according to plan, the partners/members will receive in December the brochure - including:

• a general profile of DARE;
  
• the work plan for the Grundtvig 4 project;
• background as to why some members elected to join DARE - and to the challenges they face;
  
• three country-based examples on the relationship between HRE and EDC;
  
• profiles of the participating organisations;
  
• the Antwerp Declaration (June 2003).
  

Besides technical aspects such as fonts, titles, colours, photos and layout, we discussed the style of the sections on reasons, expectations and challenges - and decided to keep everything as it was, excepting any instances where the text did not comply with the topic. Such would be the case, for instance, where there was a mere description of a given NGO's activity instead of a brief analysis of why DARE mission was compatible with that NGO's goals. Some texts will hopefully be rewritten - and a native English speaker will check all materials. We believe the diversity of styles is a good thing, illustrating not a reading problem but one of the main principles of DARE philosophy: respect for one’s personal opinion and identity and the responsibility emerging from this.

Some of the WG1 members did a rough editing and the texts are to go to our colleague from Bulgaria, Daniela Kolarova, who is in charge of the publishing. In the meantime, Agnieszka Paczynska from Poland will assemble all components of the publication.

Based on the experience of developing the first publication we are trying to make our work on collecting good practice more efficient. Therefore we elected to develop a very clear template that will be filled in by everybody who wants to offer examples of good practice. We also decided that good practice should cover examples of lessons, training courses targeting various groups, and complex projects derived from the concrete practical experience of DARE network members. We thought feedback from the beneficiaries/recipients of such good practice and the reason for choosing a given example should be added to the template Wim Taelman had sent all of us last autumn. If said example is based on a consistent theory or very specific knowledge, the material should be also put in a separate box as a handout.

With a view to identifying criteria for or basic features of good practice, some of us presented concrete examples of national practice. Thus Margot Brown from UK explained how the political education of the ‘70s has evolved into a three-fold approach nowadays: citizenship education can be a separate subject, an integrated topic or a block taught over a long period. Nevertheless it comprises three types of activities: political literacy, moral and social responsibility-orientated exercises, and community projects. A discussion on the importance of knowing the learning styles of students or trainees and creating activities that address all of them occurred during the process of shaping the good practice template. Assessment was also mentioned as the way to define something like good practice, and we referred to both the products and process. Daniela informed us that her organisation (Partners Bulgaria Foundation) is developing an index of tolerance based on the concrete experience of four multiethnic communities.

Although we made no decision as to the criteria for good practice, we did mention ideas such as consistency of topic, method and goals of the practice in question and the requirement to cover all sectors of education. I suggested setting out the process of collecting good practice - as an invitation to our readers to engage in similar undertakings as well as to try to define “good” at national level through a survey of teachers, trainers, and students (of various ages) involved in HRE and EDC. The main idea was that the process can often be much more resourceful and inspirational for practitioners than the final outcomes are.

Akvile Andruliene from Lithuania volunteered to coordinate the good practice publication.
We believe that over and above the effort to put together these two books, we had to address the search for an identity for the DARE network - and this is why we need so much discussion and analysis before making any decision. Actually it is now - not at the stage when it was first legally registered - that the DARE network is coming to life.

After we had defined “common project” as a proposal developed by some DARE network members and submitted on behalf of DARE, we expressed the necessity to start this process as soon as possible for the sake of DARE's sustainability. Then we produced the following list of topics for possible common projects:

• HRE and EDC teaching, and training materials applicable in some countries;
  
• specific methods and techniques employed by HRE and EDC (such as drama for various target groups);
  
• a collection of follow-up activities or a showcase approach based on the good practice brochure to be published in 2005;
  
• the status of trainer, facilitator, mentor, etc. in various countries and even some standards for such occupations;
  
• common experience (challenges and success) of the new EU members 2 or 3 years after their accession;
  
• documentary films about specific groups, sub-cultures or customs;
  
• short HR (or the like) movies played before the main movie in a cinema;
  
• movies built on a HR&DC topic followed by public debate;
  
• surveys on various problems and concerns of teenagers around Europe;
  
• schools for children and adults promoting active citizenship.
  

Some of these ideas come from the practical experience of WG1 members - and the list is open and will be discussed in Amsterdam next December.

For 2005 (European Year of Citizenship through Education), we discovered that the situation is quite similar throughout our various countries: either the authorities are well prepared for it but not willing to establish new partnerships with NGOs (e.g. Germany) or they have not yet decided their national strategy (e.g. Romania). Thanks to two of our colleagues who are EDC national coordinators, we found out some news regarding the year. In December 2004 Bulgaria will mark the commencement of the European Year of Citizenship through Education with a conference and later they will translate the Council of Europe’s materials into Bulgarian. Norway is considering sending EDC ambassadors and running EDC pilot schools. Besides these, the Council of Europe will support the translation of the Compass manual and Jump (EDC leaflet) into many local languages and the development and distribution of an EDC kit (prepared by David Kerr). DARE is considering a dedicated day of action (Hannelore Chiout has suggested that all network members should run an activity at the same time) for EYCE 2005.

(*) Working Group 1 is the DARE Grundtvig project working group covering HRE/EDC methodology and concepts.

Corina Leca, CRED (Romania), corinaleca222@hotmail.com

4. The IV Summer School on Human Rights in Moscow

The IV Summer School on Human Rights was held by the Presidential Human Rights Commission in the Russian Federation (Chairman - Ella Pamfilova), Moscow School of Human Rights – MSHR (Director - Anatoly Azarov), Russian State University for the Humanities (Rector - Irina Karapetianc) on August, 9-20, 2004 in Moscow, Russia.

Applications were accepted from advocates, state bodies and NGOs representatives, human rights activists, and teachers from institutes of higher education providing legal aid for the people of the Russian Federation and the Commonwealth of Independent States. More than 230 applications were received for 25 positions - and so there were nine candidates per position.

In the Program of the School «International and Russian Mechanisms of Protecting Human Rights and Freedoms» there were featured such topics as:
1. Introduction to Human Rights.
2. International and Russian Mechanisms of Protecting Human Rights and Freedoms.

Organisational and information support was provided by different organisations such as UNHCR, Council of Europe, International Committee of the Red Cross, Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the RF, Moscow Helsinki Group, the Commissioner on Human Rights in the RF, Amnesty International and others. The panel of trainers included both international and Russian experts. Participants took special enter and exit tests so as to evaluate their knowledge. Test results showed a significant increase in their knowledge (from 65% correct answers at the beginning to 89% in the end).

The originality of the MSHR Summer Schools on Human Rights is that - as to lecturers, the scientific and methodological level of problems discussed, quantity of state education institutions taking part in the School, participation from different regions of Russia and other states - there is no other such provision within the territory of the RF.

All expenses - teaching, accommodation, participants' meals and travel and the pack of special literature - were paid for by the organisers of the Summer School. The main funding was provided by the UNHCR and the Netherlands Embassy in Moscow.

Anatoly Azarov PhD, Director of the Moscow School of Human Rights, mshr@mshr.ru

7. COMPASS - now in Dutch: KOMPAS

‘KOMPAS, een handleiding voor mensenrechteneducatie met jongeren’, is the Dutch translation of COMPASS, a manual of over 400 pages on human rights education for young people published by the Council of Europe. Its translation has been supported by the Belgian Federal Administration for Foreign Affairs, by the Evens Foundation, by Triodos Fund and by JINT (Flemish coordination body for international youth work). More information on: www.vormen.org/Kompas (in Dutch!).

Unfortunately, as we are a poor organisation, we can’t offer free copies...

Wim Taelman, VORMEN vzw (Belgian Flemish Organisation for Human Rights Education), wim.taelman@vormen.org

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8. Some links on funding and fundraising for NGO’s in HRE and EDC

http://www.coe.int/T/e/Cultural_Co-peration/education/E.D.C/If_you_are_looking_for_finding/ : a webpage on the EDC website of the Council of Europe, with an overview of funding opportunities.

http://www.aedif.if.ua/ngo_res.jsp?lang=eng: a collection of informational resources for Ukrainian NGOs on facilitating NGO initiatives through funding: much information on fundraising for NGOs, and other interesting material.

http://www.fundersonline.org/ : a web tool helping to find possible funders

http://www.ngomanager.org/dcd/4_Managing_Finances/Fundraising/ : a webpage with links to various resources about fund-raising for NGOs (writing funding applications,…)

http://www.grantproposal.com/ : a site devoted to providing free resources for both advanced grant-writing consultants and inexperienced non-profit staff

http://www.balkanidea.org/manuals/index.asp : website of BINET, a Virtual Office for Youth NGOs, with links to various resources about, among others, grant proposal writing and fundraising.

http://www.ngo.at/fund.htm : Das Fundraising-Center von The World of NGOs ist ein virtuelles Zentrum zur Förderung von Dienstleistungen im Fundraising und Sponsoring. Es bietet Unterstützung und Information [Wim - was this to be left in German? Herewith in English] The fund-raising centre of The World of NGOs is a virtual centre for promoting fund-raising and sponsorship services. It provides guidance and information.

http://www.hrea.org/erc/Library/display.php?doc_id=386&category_id=23&category_type=3&group= Human Rights Education Resource book, published by HREA, with a chapter on funding for HRE. Available on-line and in pdf-format

http://www.grantstation.com/grantstation/index.asp : "Securing private grant dollars is an integral part of a healthy funding strategy for any nonprofit. Although there are thousands of grant opportunities and billions of grant dollars, finding the right funder can be a difficult and time-consuming process. GrantStation provides all the tools and resources you need to be a successful grantseeker - all in one place" (most of the information and services for members only)

http://www.grantstation.com/grantstation/Public/Funding_Strategies_px/funding_basics.asp : webpage about the basics in funding

http://europa.eu.int/comm/education/programmes/socrates/socrates_en.html : start page for the EU Socrates funding programme

http://europa.eu.int/comm/enlargement/pas/phare/index.htm : start page for the Phare programme, which applies to the accession and candidate countries from Central and Eastern Europe, and principally involves institution-building measures (with accompanying iInvestment) as well as measures designed to promote economic and social cohesion

http://www.kbs-frb.be/code/page.cfm?id_Page=156 : webpage of the King Baudouin Foundation (Belgium) with their European and international projects

Wim Taelman, VORMEN vzw (Belgian Flemish Organisation for Human Rights Education), wim.taelman@vormen.org

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9. Who is the EDC coordinator for my country?

Well, just have a look at http://www.coe.int/T/E/Cultural_Co-operation/education/E.D.C/Coordinators_corner/090_liste.asp

Contact them for information on plans for the 2005 European Year of Citizenship through Education within your country (if you didn't do this yet...).

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