In January 2020, the NGO “Modern Format” launched its “Community Voices” project aimed at strengthening the institutional and organizational capacity of civil society organizations (CSOs) in small communities in three regions of Ukraine. Geography of project implementation: Zhytomyr, Vinnytsia and Khmelnytskyi regions.
This project is a non-government organization “Modern Format” carries out in cooperation with the Vinnytsia Regional Human Rights Organization “Spring of Hope” and Khmelnytsky NGO “Podilska Legal League” with the support from the National Endowment for Democracy.
Fifteen CSOs were selected to participate in the project on a competitive basis. An external assessment of organizational capacity was conducted for all CSOs participating in the project. Based on the results of the external assessment, several meetings and consultations were held with each organization, which resulted in plans for the institutional and organizational development of each CSO. What’s next? The work of the CSO is focused on the implementation of plans for organizational development as well as the implementation of community initiatives.
“We are interested in strengthening the internal potential of each organization participating in the project. For this purpose, we provide advisory and mentoring support to the project participants. From our work experience “Modern Format” we know that the development of internal potential directly proportionally affects the effective and sustainable activities of the organization, including the achievement of social change in the community,” said Viktoria Kuzmenko, coordinator of the “Community Voices” project and project manager of the NGO”Modern Format”.
One of the important tasks of the “Community Voices” project is to develop the professional competencies of local CSO representatives in small communities, including by involving them in training events.