Healing the Past. Building the Future – Civil reconstruction and strengthening community action capacity

Over the past fifteen years, the operating environment of independent civil society organisations has systematically narrowed: their work has been shaped by lack of funding, stigmatisation, institutional exclusion and political pressure. This has led to a deepening crisis of trust and participation: organisations’ operational security has been shaken, cooperation has weakened and self-restraint has grown. Most rural organisations depend on projects, and their teams fall apart during funding gaps. Prolonged pressure has left unprocessed trauma, burnout and isolation, and many civil actors have lost the experience of meaningful, effective work and their capacity to act. Links between organisations are weak, competition is common, and channels for dialogue with local governments are missing. Trainings are typically frontal and not very participatory. Women are active in civil organisations but are often excluded from decision-making and public representation.

The project aims at the methodological renewal and network rebuilding of rural Hungarian civil society, led by the Well-Being Foundation (JÓL-LÉT) in a consortium with the Civil Basis Society and the FuturAct Association. Activities: a consortium diagnosis and knowledge map; selecting 6 under-resourced rural civil organisations, carrying out their organisational diagnoses and developing their own development plans; a travelling, deliberative workshop series in two phases (at least 15 workshops) in four thematic blocks, with foresight-based visioning; training 10 multipliers; at least 20 independent local events run by the multipliers and the supported organisations; a pilot civil–municipal dialogue in 3 locations, with opening forums, meetings and Democratic Future Vision workshops, and an open dialogue protocol; community trauma-processing workshops and a peer counselling circle; publishing 5 open, CC-BY licensed methodological tools; peer learning sessions and annual in-person meetings within the Hősnők Tere network; communication, mid-term and final results-sharing events and a final publication; and project coordination and monitoring.

Outputs: 6 staff members with new or improved skills in the consortium organisations; 10 strengthened partnerships with other Hungarian organisations and institutions; 60 training and knowledge-sharing sessions; 250 unique participants in the training and knowledge-sharing sessions; 10 trained multipliers; 20 independent local events organised by the multipliers and the supported organisations; 5 published open methodological tools; 3 pilot civil–municipal dialogues.

Outcomes: the participating organisations shift to conscious, diagnosis-based strategic operation and apply new, participatory methods; at least 60% of participants in the trauma-processing activities report improved motivation and a reduced sense of isolation; competition gives way to trust-based cooperation; multipliers facilitate independently; in the pilot locations, civil proposals enter local government decision-making; the open tools are adapted by other organisations as well.