Projects

 Year 2006:

 "Academy for social policy - 2006" project

 Problem: During year 2004 we started a project called "Academy for social policy". It was planned to be a constant annual form of training of new politicians, which should correspond to the social expectations of the society. It was based on the results and conclusions of the pilot project called "For professionalism in politics and encouragement of the civil participation", implemented by the Institute during year 2003. They showed that:

The authority of the Bulgarian politicians is very low; the people are expecting from them a different kind of responsibility, different kind of honesty, different kind of attitude when standing up for the civil interests; this threatens the successful development of the legitimate democracy political system and leads to the intervention of non-public actors in the political process.

The methodology and the trainings' content, implemented by the Institute's team, cause great interest. They are effective and lead to the formation of workable new knowledge and skills, as well as to the formation of new, positive adjustments in the young politicians, that have successfully finished the course.

 Leaded by those reasons, as a result of the implementation of the "Academy for social policy" project, supported by the "Open society" Institute, 38 young politicians were trained. Most of them were from small and medium municipalities from the whole country. The monitoring during the trainings, as well as the made tests for incoming and outgoing level of the participants showed that the informal education is one of the basic ways for the establishment of new moral in the new political elite. This gives the reason for the team of the Institute using the gained experience to continue its work during year 2005. The team will use some new elements that proved to be efficient during the last trainings.

 "Academy for social policy" project became also popular among the experts of the Institute. They proposed and delivered awards to the brightest participants.

 Aim: Practically the aim is to establish new generation of politics-this not means that we intent to make age limitations or substitution of people. We are willing to establish a new approach in the realization of the social engagements and in the standing out of the public interests- more responsible, professional, reasonable and realistic.

 Effect: Acquiring of new and necessary knowledge and skills by politicians from the Bulgarian left and formation of adjustments for partnership and responsibility in them.

 Target groups: Young politicians up to 40 years old from the basic social-democratic parties- Bulgarian socialist party, United labour bloc, "Social-democrats" political movement, Bulgarian social-democrats party, Movement for social humanism and Bulgarian social-democracy. The ambition of the team is to be able each year to include in the trainings' course representatives from all the state districts, as more than half of them are from municipalities smaller than the Municipal centers.

 Implementation period: The total duration of the project is one year- it is going to start February, year 2005 and will end January, year 2006 including. The training year of the trainees is 8 months- from April to November year 2005.

 Expected results:

Successfully accomplishment of the full training course of the two groups(one from North and one from South Bulgaria) having at least 17 participants each and having representatives from each administrative district.

Initiating of joint appearances and public debates on the political process, public interests, politics and the policies in the state including all the project participants, trained till the present moment.

 Indicators concerning the achievement of the expected results and solving of problems:

Number of the trained young politicians;

Feed-backs of the participants;

Expert rating of the written works of the participants;

Successful start of the joint public appearances and cooperation between the all trainees trained during the last 3 years by the Institute.

Establishment of a network for social partnership between different state municipalities.

Media coverage.

 PROGRAMME SEPERATED ON TRAINING MODULES– year 2004.

 First training module

 "Politics and democracy. Political systems. Political process. Civil society. Political analyses" – 3 days.

 First day

 Political systems. Political ideologies.

 Politics and democracy. Civil society.

 Second day

 Political parties and movements.

 Political process. Actors in the political process.

 Public interest. Politics and policies.

 Political analyses. Work with political information.

 Third day

 Political analyses. Documents in politics.

 Political and election speech.

 Lecturers' team:

 Associate Professor Dobrin Kanev, PhD

 Associate ProfessorAntoney Todorov, PhD

 Associate Professor Goran Goranov,PhD

 PhD Borjana Bujashka

 Second training module

 "Political communication. Communication, public behaviour, media work. Teams and leadership" – 4 days

 First day

 Effective communication with feed-back.

 Effective listening

 Effective listening and effective speaking

 Second day

 Political communication– messages and information

 Political communication– public behaviour

 Methods for political impact

 Methods and democracy.

 Third day

 Sorts of media. Media planning.

 Work with media

 Media behaviour

 Comparison groups-teams.

 Fourth day

 Roles in team. Team development.

 Leadership. Styles and approaches

 Lecturers' team:

 Associate Professor Tatjana Burudjieva, PhD

 Dobroslav Dobrev

 Ivo Hristov

 Ivelin Nikolov

 Third training module

 “Organizational management. Working meetings.Conflicts.Negotiations. Arguments. Political debates” – 4 days

 First day

 Working meetings. Models for informative decision taking

 Problem formulation. Group and personal problem solving.

 Second day

 Conflict cycle

 Unreal conflicts

 Conflict circle. Real conflicts

 Ways of conflict solving

 Third day

 Mediation

 Negotiations– sorts and approaches

 Attitudes for cooperation

 Fourth day

 Political argumentation. Debates

 Political debates

 Lecturers’ team:

 Ani Marinova

 Ventzislav Panchev

 Plamen Bakalov

 Reneta Veneva

 Fourth training module

 “Planning and project thinking. Time control.Practical planning- projects.Political campaigns” – 3 days

 First day

 Time control in politics

 Making of a political calendar.

 Second day

 Public campaigns. Political campaigns. Election campaigns.

 Management of election campaign.

 Messages. Key and forbidden words.

 Project cycle.

 Third day

 Project development and management

 Written course assignments:

 "What do I think about the training in the Academy for social policy".

 Lecturers’ team:

 Associate Professor Lilyana Kaneva

 Tatyana Turlakova, PhD

 Anton Kutev

 Gergana Aleksova

 Dimcho Mihalevski

 “Professionalism of the municipal councilors from the Left” project

 This project is an attempt to develop and sustain the pilot project from year 2004 focused on training of the municipal councilors from South-East Bulgaria- Bourgas, Sliven and Yambol Districts. It was implemented in partnership with “Jean Jores” Foundation. The action plan includes 4 training seminars of the municipal councilors from North-West Bulgaria- municipalities of the Vidin, Bratza and Montana municipalities. It starts with a meeting with one representative from each of the all 33 municipalities about the selection of the participants. The Institute has developed its own methods for selection of participants. Once it made, 22 people will be invited to join the trainings. They are going to be municipal councilors from the “Left” aged up to 40 years.

 The separate activities are as follows:

Group-dynamic training on effective communication, communicative skills, conflict solving and negotiations – 3 days

Intensive residential seminar(using the group-dynamic training’s methods) on Organizational management- public behaviour, team building, work and management, leadership, political debates and media work– 4 days

Working meeting of the team for reporting the results (rating of the incoming and outgoing level), updating of the activities and preparation of the other seminars - 2 days in Sofia.

Seminar on subject: “Marketing of the municipality” focused on leading of working meetings, group and personal problem solving, levels of taking decisions, strategic planning, development, management and administration of projects, partnerships and partner network - 3 days.

Working outs of the local working groups on the following themes: “Marketing of the municipality”; “Priority problems in our region”; “ Variants for establishing of partnership network in our region”; “ Priority project for the near future” and others.

The working groups are going to work locally and are receiving the necessary consultations by the Institute’s experts on three working meetings in different town. As a result of that on the next seminar they are coming with prepared working outs that again are going to be consulted.

• Seminar- workshop containing thematic discussions and presentations on the following themes: “Preparation of municipal budget; public services; municipal activities; organization of meetings encouraging the civil dialogue - 2 days.

 At the final project stage a manual for young municipal councilors will be published, as part of the project sustainability activities. Also information materials for the active municipal councilors within the project region will be issued.

 A local social capacity in municipalities of three Bulgarian districts will be established as a result of the project implementation. Young people from the “Left”, living in those regions, will be prepared to create and support effective partnerships and professional work. They, locally, will influence on the process of taking decisions concerning municipal activities and about development of perceptive democracy.

 “For democratic elections- increasing of the capacity of the election process during the next general elections” project

 Aim: The aim is two trainers from different constituencies (total number of 31) to be trained.After that they will multiply their knowledge and skills to members of the election commissions and to the observers of the next general elections. Then for their part they can also multiply the gained knowledge and skills.

 1. Introduction to the political assignments of the Bulgarian “Left” during the last general elections just before the accession to the EU.

 2. Acquaintance with the French experience about best practices and models for monitoring and dealing with eventual violations and problems during the Election Day and process.

 3. Acquaintance with the Bulgarian legislation concerning the holding of general elections.

 4. Issuing of information materials helping the members of the election commissions and the observers.

 Organization of 2 two-day seminars- one in North Bulgaria (28 trainees from 14 constituencies), and one in South Bulgaria (34 trainees from 17 constituencies).

 The seminars’ themes and focus are as follows:

The Bulgarian left on the eve of the elections- lector from the National election center of the “Left”.

The French experience in the monitoring about holding a democratic and fare elections- lector from “Jean Jores” Foundation.

The Bulgarian legislation concerning the holding of democratic and fare general elections. Acquaintance with frequent violations and frauds during the elections- lector from the Institute for social integration.

 Issuing of information manual containing materials in support of the representatives of the “Left” in the election commissions and observers.

 The main result from the project implementation is the opportunity to support the monitoring of the forthcoming general elections in Bulgaria. This is needed so that the “Left” can contribute to their transparency and democracy.