Alternatív Közösségek Egyesülete - Alternative Communities Association

The Alternative Communities Association was established in 1998. The organization has 3 main goals: - Supporting CSOs, civic organizations in the North Plain Region - Providing an open space for local informal groups and civic initiatives - Building democracy. Since 2017, the Alternative Communities Association has carried out re-granting and capacity building work in the region through two programmes: the Regional Community Centres Program for 4 years funded by OSF, and the Civic Europe program for a year and a half funded by Mercator Stiftung. The aim of the calls for proposals was to support the strengthening and capacity development of civil organisations and autonomous communities operating in the counties of the Northern Great Plain region through various professional and financial support. After assessing the needs of NGOs in the region, we developed different types of support schemes for different types of needs. We were able to support large-scale, one-year long projects of civil society organisations and informal communities in the Northern Great Plain region in three application periods, which primarily aimed at strengthening the local status and capacity development of the organisations. Applicants could use the funding to tackle current and specific problems, to achieve realistic goals and to finance activities involving community collaboration. The wide range of eligible activities allowed applicants to find the most appropriate response to the needs of the community. We were also managing other calls for the CSOs, such as: Crisis Call (during the COVID-19), Action Grant (small projects for campaigns, community actions, research and awareness-raising events to tackle local, topical problems) and a cross-sectorial grant as a pilot (it supported ideas that bring together civil society and business to tackle a specific social problem). We provided trainings, networking events and mentoring for the grantees.