For the past three years, our team has been working in several peripheral areas in Europe, referred to as ‘civic deserts’ – a term that describes those places perceived as offering few to no opportunities to actively participate in and learn about civic life, mainly because of deficient civic infrastructure and low civic literacy. The key findings and recommendations are now available in the report “From ‘civic deserts’ to civic cohesion”.
Sofia Platform Foundation in collaboration with Democratic Society, City of Reykjavik and Citizens Foundation, organized a Local Democracy Lab – an online public deliberation event to discuss the condition of democracy through the lens of the Covid-19 pandemic as part of the Populism and Civic Engagement (PaCE) project. The event took place in the town […]
Visual mapping and network analysis of civic education in Europe. THE CIVICS Innovation Hub is a pan-European non-profit organisation, founded in 2021. The mission is to strengthen the democratic competence, self-efficacy, and resilience of citizens across Europe in a bottom-up manner. THE CIVICS supports both citizens and civic educators to deal with major challenges of […]
This conversation about the EU is not going to be held in a class room or a conference hall. The Sofia Platform Foundation and Inside Joke Stand-up Comedy are organizing a series of three stand-up comedy shows “Made in EU” with the support of the German Embassy in Sofia. The aim of the project is […]
As the second group completed their Capacity Building training as part of the Civic Europe program, we are excited to introduce you to the participants and the community initiatives that they are working on within the program. Stay tuned for more in the upcoming weeks! Civic Europe is an incubator for locally rooted civic initiatives, […]
© Nikolay Doychinov Originally published in German language in the digital magazine “AufRuhr”: https://www.aufruhr-magazin.de/europa/die-quelle-der-teilhabe/. They work as teachers, live in the Bulgarian provinces, and advocate democratic participation – despite all fear of judgment by others. While Katya Brankova is raising awareness about the potential of natural water sources in Razlog, Fikrie Bozova is encouraging single […]
What role does civil society play in times of transition? Do join us to discuss this question in a histoTALK on 15 March, 2pm CET! Join the webinar at: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81187626676. A live stream will be available on Facebook. A strong civil society is key for any democracy, but it has an even more important role […]
The end of WWII, in 1945, was ground zero for Europe and the world. The West began to rebuild their homes, institutions, and re-commit to democratic norms. But the East set on a 45-year long path in which communism extended its tentacles into every aspect of the societies. In a way, the fall of the […]
Series of online talks Through the lens of Transition – How the corona pandemic brings back images of the time of transition In this series of talks, organized in the context of the Transition Dialogue project,we are going to gather impressions from different countries on issues that bring back images of the transition period. The […]
Given the current situation, the need for online meeting formats grew exponentially and is now more important than ever. With this comes the inevitability to start training ourselves in both adapting to the current situation and future use of these platforms. For this we need to understand the full picture of opportunities available in the […]
Sofia Platform’s Executive director, Louisa Slavkova, took part in The Teaching of History Workshop on February 21-23 2020. The workshop was organized by the The Ratiu Forum, a collaboration between LSE IDEAS and the Ratiu Democracy Centre. Among other panellists on the workshop were Prof. Christopher Coker (UK), Prof. Slobodan Markovich (Serbia), Wojciech Przybylski (Poland), […]
Apart from the numerous events Sofia Platform has organized locally around the 10th November to raise awareness on celebrating 30 years since the beginning of transition from communism, we gathered our partners from Croatia, Germany, Poland, Russia, and Ukraine for the second meeting in the context of the project Transition Dialogue (TD) here in […]
We are celebrating the 30’th anniversary of the beginning of democratic transition with series of events. 90’s stand-up – 10.11.2019, 20.30, Книгата (The Book) This year we will be celebrating the 10’Th of November in a different, more interesting way. The first event that we dedicate to the anniversary of 1989, will put the transition […]
Our team is happy to present our new paper – ‘The generation of transition in Eastern Europe – a closer look’. The paper was first presented on the international conference on the topic held in Sofia last year. Is there a generation of transition in Eastern Europe and if so, what are its values and attitudes […]
Confronting Inequalities! The Role of Citizenship Education NECE Conference 2019, 24 – 27 October, Glasgow Technology Innovation Center (TIC), Strathclyde University Registration is open now! Please register here. Read more: http://www.bpb.de/veranstaltungen/netzwerke/nece/ NECE 2019 is proposing to discuss how the many forms of inequality – class, income, gender, race, ethnic origin, talent and geography – are affecting the rights […]
Dear friends and colleagues, Smaller organizations often struggle to tell their story. There is always something more important to do, like actually engaging with the people we work with. And they have been many in what was quite an intense year. Here is a short story of our encounters in 2018 and of some of […]
After a few months of desk research and more than 49 semi-structured interviews with representatives of the Generation of Transition from Russia to Poland, we are happy to announce that we are a step closer to publishing a report on values, attitudes and patterns of engagement of young adults in Eastern Europe. It is meant […]
Martin, Bilyana, and Adelina were among 24 high school and college students from all over the country who spent a week in late June in the town of Belene, on the banks of the Danube, to learn more about the history of Bulgaria between 1944 and 1989. The past “came alive” for them when they […]
During our summer school on the topic of democracy and memory in the city of Belene at the end of June of this year, 24 young participants, through discussions, field work on the territory of the former concentration camp, and work with archives, had the chance to speak with lecturers and researchers from the nongovernmental […]
NOVA TV reports on Sofia Platform’s summer school on remembrance of communism near the former concentration camp at Belene.
Our team, together with historian Svetlana Mihaylova, visited Knyaginya Maria Louisa Professional High School and history teacher Ms. Yana Todorova to complete the module on the topic “Constructive Communication and Interaction” with her eleventh grade class. Through the “World café” method, we were able to understand and explain, through discussion and informal conversation, a large […]
We returned to the Acad. Metodiy Popov Natural Sciences and Mathematics High School, where we met with philosophy teacher Mrs. Diana Markova’s class, along with our expert historian Momchil Metodiev, to complete the module on civic education on the topic “Civil Society and Civic Participation & Me and My Civic Position” by viewing and analyzing […]
If you are between 18 and 24 years old with an interest in the topics of memory and democracy, apply for our summer school on Persin island and in Belene, happening from the 25th till the 29th of June. You could fill the application form and find more information here. Disclaimer: The call […]
Between 18 and 20 May, Sofia Platform participated in the Jean Monnet Project “Decisions and Dilemmas 3: making learning about the EU motivating and meaningful” in Vidin, which was organised by the Bulgarian History Teachers’ Association.
In the final part of the six-hour module on civic education for the eleventh grade on “Freedom, Citizens and Power” at PGEE Bansko, together with expert Ralitsa Kirilova an history teacher and representative of the local municipal authority Mr. Yousuf Salih, we managed to explain key concepts set out in preliminary curriculum of the Ministry […]
On May 15, with the support of the Jewish Organization of the Bulgaria, Shalom, we conducted the last lesson from our project “75 years from the saving of the Bulgarian Jews” with a survivor’s account of events. Hennie Lorer told his family’s story to students in 127th School in Sofia.
On May 8th with our expert Mariana Asenova, a journalist, we went back to Yordan Radichkov Secondary School to introduce to the school management the results of our joint work with Mrs. Valea Alexandrova, historian, and XI class on the topic “The Role of Students and Schools in Democratic Citizenship”.
On 3 May, we talked with seventh graders from Chernorizets Hrabar Secondary School about the role of civil society and the residents of Plovdiv in the events surrounding the rescue of the Bulgarian Jewish community from deportation 75 years ago.
On 30 April, with students of Ms. Yana Todorova, a history teacher in the eleventh grade in Knyaginya Maria Luisa Professional High School in Sofia, we held the first part of the civic education module on “Constructive communication and interaction”. Through interactive role-playing games and intriguing discussions, together with our experts on the topic Svetlana […]
We came to Sava Mladenov Secondary School for a third and final time, during which we played the simulation game developed by our expert Hristo Panchugov, a political scientist, which puts students in the middle of a (parliamentary) election.
On 27 April, with our expert Nilitsa Kirilova, a culturologist, we returned to Hristo Botev Secondary School in Montana for the second module of the civic education lessons. With the help of engineer Ivo Ivanov, the children managed to put themselves in the role of municipal advisers and discuss a proposal for a dog park […]
On 25 April, the last 2 hours of the first civil module were held with eleventh graders at P. K. Yavorov Secondary School in Straldzha. Together with our expert Hristo Panchugov, we talked about the concepts and definitions of justice.
After the interesting first run of testing for the civic education programs for the eleventh and twelfth grade at Atanas Chenglevev Secondary School last month, we returned, with sociologist Maya Grekova, to the class of Ms. Maria Vachkova, an economics teacher. We succeeded in concluding our “Minorities and Civil Society” module through simulated games and […]
The interest that the theme “Freedom, Citizens and Power” awakened in the students in Montana led is to bring our expert Ralitsa Kirilova, culturologist, to PGEE in Bansko, to the class of history teacher of Mr. Yusuf Salih.
Together with our expert Hristo Panchugov, a political scientist, we returned to Sava Mladenov Secondary School to finish our conversation on “Politics, Democracy and the Rule of Law with eleventh graders from philosophy teacher Mrs. Tsonka Dushkova’s class.
With our team, we returned to the final part of the six-hour module on the subject “Rise and Expansion of Identities” in the class of Ms. Donka Slavcheva, a school psychologist and philosopher. This time, our expert was sociologist Petya Kabakchieva.
In an interview with Bloomberg, Louisa Slavkova shared her thoughts on the meeting between Turkey and the EU, commenting that she thought of it as beneficial regardless of its outcome. https://www.bloombergtv.bg/video/luiza-slavkova-nepoznavaneto-na-istoriyata-vodi-do-neynoto-povtaryane
Sofia Platform’s team gave an open lesson on history and tolerance, in which we discussed the rescue of Bulgaria’s Jews 75 years ago with tenth and eleventh graders from Vela Blagoeva Secondary School.
We talked with students from Saints Cyril and Methodius Secondary School about Karnobat’s abandoned Jewish quarter and and its now-nonexistent Jewish population.
What does civil society mean and what does it mean to have a civic position? We discussed this with our expert Momchil Metodiev, a historian, with students from philosophy teacher Mrs. Diana Markova’s class from the Third High School of Natural Studies and Mathematics Acad. Metodiy Popov. Our discussion was part of the joint themes […]
In P. K. Yavorov Secondary School, in history teacher Ms. Galya Raynova’s class, with our expert Hristo Pangchugov, a political scientist, we played “The Prisoner’s Dilemma” and talked about the idea of justice and our rights and responsibilities as citizens within the framework of the theme “The Idea of Justice – Rights and Responsibilities of […]
After our meeting in the village of Chernoochene with the 1st place winner of the contest “Places and memory” for a research project dedicated to the 75th anniversary of the rescue of Bulgarian Jews, we headed to Kardjali, where we spoke with students of Petko R. Slaveykov Secondary School about the local Jewish community and […]
Together with the students from the Mathematical High School “Acad. Kiril Popov” in Plovdiv, we remembered the role of the city and the Orthodox Church in the rescue of 48,000 people from forced relocation, in particular the participation of the Metropolitans Cyril and Stefan.
In the class of Mrs. Tsonka Dushkova, a philosophy teacher from Sava Mladenov Secondary School, our expert on the project testing the Ministry of Education’s civic education project for eleventh and twelfth grade, politcal scientist Hristo Panchugov, presented the topic of “Politics, Democracy and the Rule of Law”.
Our team, in partnership with Associate Professor Albena Taneva and her students from the Department of Public Administration at Sofia University, presented to the students from the High School of Mathematics and Natural Studies Professor Emanuil Ivanov the topic “The memory of the fate of the Jews in Bulgaria in the Holocaust years”.
Our team, together with expert Maya Grekova, a sociologist, visited Atanas Chengelev Secondary School and economics teacher Mrs. Maria Vachkova’s class to talk about the topic of minorities and civil society.
On March 14, 2018, Sofia Platform, together with a team of students from Sofia University’s Department of Public Administration, spoke with 9th graders from St. Paisii Hilendarski High School about the fate of Bulgarian Jews during World War II.
In Paisii Hilendarski Secondary School, with the help of Donka Slavcheva, a school psychologist and philosopher, and our expert historian Bistra Stoimenova, we discussed the topic of the rise and expansion of identities with eleventh grade students.
On March 12, together with Mariana Asenova, a journalist, we visited Yordan Radichkov Secondary School, where our host was history teacher Mrs. Valya Alexandrova. With her eleventh grade class, we talked about the role of students and schools in democratic citizenship.
On March 9, we piloted our modules for testing the Ministry of Education and Science’s programs for Civil Education for eleventh grade. Together with our expert, culturologist Ralitsa Kirilova, we visited PGTE “Hristo Botev” with Mrs. Sonia Mladenova, teacher of philosophy, and we discussed the theme “Freedom, citizens and authorities” with students in the eleventh […]
