Belarusian Social Information Bureaus
Working Community of Associations of Social Organizations
- Program Civil Society
- Program Area Strengthening Civic Space
- Grant Amount $100,000
- Grant Period September 1, 2009–August 31, 2011
- Location Warszawa, Poland
- Geographic Focus Belarus
About this grant
The program goal is to help Belarusian citizens understand and realize their rights related to social benefits and services. The grantee will work with the Belarusian Association of Social Workers to strengthen a national network of 12 social information bureaus in Belarus. Bureau staff will be trained in such practices as volunteer development and community activism. The bureaus will manage an informational database aimed at local residents seeking advice or redress on social, economic, and consumer issues. In the most recent grant period, this comprehensive database was thoroughly overhauled and updated, and project staff received training in new methods aimed at improving information and service provision for local citizens. Created in 2000 and based in Poland, the Working Community of Associations of Social Organizations is a federation of regional social work associations, which represents the interests of socially marginalized individuals and groups.