In 1989, after the fall of the Berlin Wall, the vision of 'Europe whole and free' dominated. Thirty years later, the sense of erosion of democratic values in Europe is very palpable. Some of the disenchantment is rooted in reality, i.e. stagnating economic development, divisions over immigration, and the loss of faith in the ability of traditional politics to solve people's problems. We believe that a better understanding of citizenship and civic participation and their promotion are important steps that can restore faith in democracy.
'Civic Europe' is a two-component program that seeks to support ideas, individuals and organizations based or working in communities outside major cities. The program aims to develop the capacities and skills of these individuals / organizations to help them establish themselves as active participants in public life.

Activities
The program has two strands:

- Building an ecosystem for the development of civic education in Bulgaria, Poland, Romania and Hungary
In Bulgaria, we plan to identify between 20 and 40 active citizens with an interest in civic education, based or working in small towns and villages, and with them go through a capacity and capability-building program. With the completion of this development program, with our help, each of these active citizens will receive support (including financial support) for the implementation of their own local civic education project.

- Idea incubator for successfully tested good practices on a local level
The second strand of the program seeks to support already existing, successful 24 local projects, divided into two groups of 12, which strengthen civic cohesion at the local level. 
 

Materials

Part of the program is the sociological survey - the Civic Health Index (Index). The Index is developed by the Sofia Platform Foundation and its application is the work of Global Metrics - an agency for marketing and sociological research and analysis. The results are available here. 

Part of the program is also the resource platform for teaching civics education: grajdansko.bg