With each passing year, non-governmental organizations have the opportunity to obtain more and more funds from local governments for their activities. Their civic activity is also increasing – these are the conclusions from a series of training workshops carried out in April within the project “Zgierz – a modern city after hours”.
Thanks to the financial support under the project, a series of training meetings was organized at the Zgierz Senior Center (10-12/04) – for officials, representatives of local government organizations, and then for active seniors. On the first day of the workshops, the main topic was obtaining and settling municipal subsidies for NGOs (non-governmental organizations), and on the second day – implementing social campaigns.
The aim was primarily to increase awareness of obtaining financial resources from local government through social organizations, such as foundations or associations, for the so-called civic activity, i.e. tasks that improve the living conditions of the local community in a small area. – Over the years, changes in the law occur and the interpretation of existing regulations also differs from previous ones. The principles of communication between organizations and local government and the exchange of experiences between them are also important. We focused on these areas during the workshops – said Artur Gluziński, specialist in cooperation between local governments and the NGO sector, who conducted the workshops in Zgierz on April 10.
At a meeting dedicated to local government employees, Zgierz officials discussed, among others: about numerous, sometimes complicated, formalities related to the financing of tasks for non-governmental organizations. Questions were asked, among others: about the rules for organizing or announcing competitions. In turn, representatives of non-governmental organizations could ask about methods of settling subsidies, as well as about the correct implementation of the contract concluded with the local government to perform the task.
Organizing workshops on social participation was possible thanks to the project “Zgierz – a modern city after hours”, co-financed by the Norwegian Financial Mechanism 2014-2021 and the EEA Financial Mechanism 2024-2021 under the “Local Development” Program.