[vc_row][vc_column width=”1/1″][vc_accordion collapsible=”yes” style=”accordion”][vc_accordion_tab title=”Campaign of the Year” title_color=”#ffffff” background_color=”#d96004″][vc_column_text]

• Write Deal Association, an innovative re-launch of three popular and traditional fairytales which although we take for granted, in fact are discriminatory and against human rights. The hightly-executed cartoons recounted these fairytales by promoting social and human rights, addressing gender and social inequality, tackling poverty and exclusion.

• Green Bikers, a long term programme of Nature Friends Youth Organisation, which started in 2008 and finished in 2016. Green Bikers Club was established as an environmental bike campaign aimed to establish bike culture in Azerbaijan.

• ActionAid Hellas anti-racist campaign, an anti-racist campaign and was structured around a video that was based on a social experiment. For the concept of the video, the social experiment was chosen as the tool to serve the organisers’ cause, entitled “Attack on a bus stop”.

• Refugee Aid Miksalište campaign. Given the large number of refugees coming to and through Belgrade since August 2015, on the “Balkan route”, as non-governmental organisations and humanitarian initiatives, NGO Mikser and Vlade Divac Foundation started a campaign to help refugees, by establishing a welcome point, transforming an open air venue, “Miksalište”, into Refugee Aid Serbia’s main support centre.

[/vc_column_text][/vc_accordion_tab][vc_accordion_tab title=”Social Enterprise of the Year” title_color=”#ffffff” background_color=”#d96004″][vc_column_text]

• The Good Lobby is a skill-based volunteering network making skilled Europeans (academics, professionals and students) available on a pro bono basis to non-profit organizations working on the most important social and political issues in Europe.
• Politix EU (eu.politix.io) is a one-stop shop platform that aims to make citizens aware of EU policies shaping our everyday lives – in plain and simple language. Our goal is to close the feedback loop between politicians and citizens, meaning we want to show citizens what an abstract legislative proposal could mean for their lives
• Silver Stag Scotland CIC is a social enterprise, set up as a C.I.C. which designed and patented a tartan with STAND International an international NGO. It represents and raises awareness for those children, young people and communities who have experienced disadvantage and life limiting opportunity.
• Agricoltura Capodarco Società Cooperativa Sociale is an organic multifunctional farm on the outskirts of Rome, founded in 1978 as an offshoot of the Community Capodarco of Rome. In 1978 the community was created in Grottaferrata and started agricultural activity with a group of disable and disadvantaged people, which makes it a model of social farming in Italy and the EU nowadays.

[/vc_column_text][/vc_accordion_tab][vc_accordion_tab title=”Volunteer of the Year” background_color=”#d96004″ title_color=”#ffffff”][vc_column_text]

• Karolina Mazetyte. Karolina is a 26 years social designer, innovator, change maker, community developer from a small town called Alytus, Lithuania. She is passionate about social campaigns which look into collective consciousness, sustainability and mindfulness.
  For the last 5 years she is volunteering for various initiatives that inspires youth towards growth and has been the reason for many to gain opportunities too.
• Bjorn Formosa is a 29-year-old from Malta who has been diagnosed with terminally ill ALS last August 2015 and from then onwards he has worked tirelessly to find a cure for ALS and improve sufferers’ quality of life through the ALS Malta Foundation. Bjorn is focused on the Maltese ALS and motor neuron disease and sufferers.
• James Muscat, 56 years old, has been the Vice-President of the Transplant Support Group (Malta) for the past twelve years and is very actively involved in various sectors of this philanthropic and voluntary association. He was the first unrelated living kidney donor in Malta and was awarded the Medal of Bravery (M.R.Q) in 2009.
• Mohammed Alsaud is a Syrian activist who has been working for the last 8 years for democracy and human rights both in the Middle East and Europe. He has been living as a political refugee in Sweden for the last year where he founded a non-governmental organisation: The Young Republic.

[/vc_column_text][/vc_accordion_tab][vc_accordion_tab title=”Media initiative of the Year” background_color=”#d96004″ title_color=”#ffffff”][vc_column_text]

• Altinget: civilsamfund is a new online news media about and for the civil society in Denmark. It was launched 15. September 2015.
  As a new source focused exclusively on the civil society sector, Altinget: civilsamfund works as a catalyst for better governance of organisations, new partnerships, better fundraising and ultimately for a better mutually beneficiary understanding between foundations and NGOs, charities and volunteers.
• Pasionaria.it is a not for profit feminist webzine without capital and income, established in November 2014. All of its contributors work on a voluntary basis. Its aim is to advocate for gender equality, campaign for rights and fight against gender stereotypes, homophobia, transphobia and discrimination.
• Okruženje‘ (‘Vicinities’ in English) is CDRSEE’s TV current affairs talk show that brings together guests from Balkan countries previously in conflict and from diverse backgrounds to express their ideas, listen to others and discover their common ground. It is the first initiative of its kind after the split of Yugoslavia.
• United Youth Journalists is an international youth lead project with the vision of raising awareness of what is going on in the world in order to collaborate in building the foundations of peace and sustainability. Through reliable, impartial news sources our aim is to share and learn, writing about the issues taking place in our region of the world.

[/vc_column_text][/vc_accordion_tab][/vc_accordion][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”1/1″][vc_column_text]

 

The European Citizenship Awards 2016 are a joint initiative between Volonteurope and the European Civic Forum, two European networks which promote active citizenship and recognition of the importance of social justice to the cohesion of communities across Europe. The Awards celebrate the democratic and civic engagement of individuals, organisations, citizens’ groups, media platforms and social enterprises, recognising innovative initiatives and contributions which give real substance to European values, create ownership of public space and improve the lives of our communities in terms of democracy, social justice and universal access to rights.

The joint initiative comes at a time when the European project is facing many challenges. Through the European Citizenship Awards 2016, the two networks will recognise and give visibility to outstanding initiatives and civil society actors who put European democratic citizenship into practice and have a real, positive impact on the lives of their communities – be it at the local, regional, national or European level.
The importance of ownership and belonging are at the heart of European Civic Forum and Volonteurope’s understanding of European citizenship. To do so, four categories of initiatives illustrate this concept of democratic citizenship:

1. Campaign of the Year: rewarding awareness-raising or advocacy campaigns organised by both informal and formal groups of citizens, including NGOs, with a real and proven impact on community life or public action, and a high potential for driving transformative change;
2. Social Enterprise of the Year: rewarding businesses or not-for-profits founded on the basis of social goals, which are written into the enterprise’s vision and mission, the pursuit of which brings in positive social change in communities;
3. Volunteer of the Year: rewarding individuals who have made an outstanding contribution to democratic life and to the development of a community or cause, be it through a volunteering role in an NGO or in another form of an organisation or community association (including informal groups); and
4. Media Initiative of the Year: rewarding professional media and media-based collaborative initiatives which give citizens effective tools to engage and bring about positive change in their communities; successful media initiatives will have used different tools for engagement and enhanced citizens’ participation, fostered an informed citizenry and enabled the development of a common civic space.

A judging panel selected four nominees for each categories, following precise rules of procedure and clear selection criteria.

Here you can find the detailed description for each candidate within the four categories. This is where your participation counts. You are now invited to choose your favorite candidate in each category and so give them a chance to be our 2016 Laureates.

[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]