Build with us! - Democracy reloaded

Following the 2026 elections, grassroots civil society organizations and local community groups face severe resource scarcity, activist burnout, and capacity depletion caused by a hostile political atmosphere. Independent local oversight and civic accountability remain remarkably weak, while institutionalized mechanisms for public participation in municipal decision-making are largely absent. Local public discourse suffers from intense social polarization, political fragmentation, and widespread disinformation, while local government authorities frequently resist partnering with active citizens. Through this development project, the Civil College Foundation addresses this structural democracy deficit, the lack of meaningful community involvement, and the weak advocacy leverage of vulnerable grassroots groups across Hungarian municipalities.

The project is structured around five core implementation pillars. First, under the Guardians of Local Democracy program, they develop the Transparency Toolkit (partnering with K-Monitor) and the Local Publicity Toolkit through 8 workshops and 10 consultations. Second, the Common Ground initiative conducts 10 deliberative community dialogues utilizing the Finnish Time Out methodology, accompanied by 2 facilitator training sessions. Third, they organize the Lent Power Academy, blending community art with civic activism. Fourth, they launch a 1-year community organizer internship program in 2027 featuring 10 months of mentored fieldwork. Fifth, they execute broad networking and awareness-raising actions, including celebrating the Month of Participation, awarding the Roma Women's Civil Prize, and supporting vulnerable groups.

The expected impact includes enhancing local transparency, accountability, and civic oversight, bridging deep societal divides through structured deliberative dialogues, and institutionalizing citizen engagement. Key output targets comprise 35 signed partnership agreements, directly reaching 500 local citizens, providing training for 180 participants, organizing 10 municipal participatory events with 5 partner local governments, and releasing 4 downloadable PDF toolkits. The primary target groups encompass small and medium grassroots civil groups, local activist networks, citizens seeking active democratic participation, marginalized and vulnerable communities (parents of children with special educational needs, Roma groups, wheelchair users), as well as open municipal local governments. Municipalities and CSOs will establish partnersips for local issues.