Every year, the European Civic Forum recognises outstanding civic initiatives with the Civic Pride Awards.

These awards celebrate their inspiring work, raise their visibility at the European level, and encourage convergences between their struggles.

In defiance of the anti-rights backlash, TGEU has established itself as a legitimate voice for trans communities, working to strengthen the rights and well-being of trans people, with over 500 organisation and individual members in 50 countries in Europe and Central Asia.

TGEU’s core objective is to develop intersectional and decolonised programmes to build a more resilient and connected trans movement. The organisation has helped to empower trans individuals and movements by equipping organisations and activists with tools and resources to organise their activism and through its policy and advocacy work. TGEU has successfully lobbied for policy changes that protect the rights of trans individuals and promote their inclusion in society. Moreover, it plays a fundamental role in documenting and monitoring trans rights across focus countries.

Gribu palīdzēt bēgļiem (GPB), Latvia started its movement on Facebook in 2015, providing practical, immediate, and voluntary aid to refugees and asylum seekers to help them integrate into Latvian society by supporting them look for jobs, housing, and schools, assisting with administration, and by creating a website through which people can volunteer to help refugees and refugees can seek help.

Since the full-scale invasion on Ukraine started last year, GPB played a major role in coordinating with approximately 25 other NGOs to provide aid for Ukrainian refugees coming to Latvia through transportation cooperation, donations, and volunteering help, and in the first weeks, helped more than 4000 people.

The Saami Council was founded in 1956 by Sámi organisations in Sápmi, the traditional homeland of the Sámi People, spanning across parts of Finland, Sweden, Norway, and Russia, to represent and amplify the voices of the Sámi civil society, and work for Sámi rights, politics, language, culture, and to raise awareness of Arctic and environmental issues.

The Council has also been engaged on a European level since the EU unit was established in 2019 through monitoring and influencing relevant EU processes and leading the EU-Sámi Youth Idea Lab, a project which raises awareness about Sámi youth participation in EU initiatives and policies.

Despite the restrictions faced, the protest movement composed of teachers, students, and parents has been fighting for public education for several years. Their demands include better salaries, improvement in working conditions, autonomy in the national curriculum, open and constructive discourse in public education, the right to strike without limitations, and access to high quality education for all. Several teachers have been fired for participating in civil disobedience but students and parents have joined the protests in their support.

Teachers continue to face new restrictions. In July, the Public Education Act, also known as the status law, was passed by the government. The law, dubbed by teachers as a ‘vengeance law’ in retaliation for their strike action, decreases the teachers’ freedom to work autonomously and their right to strike.