The CALLDE project proposes to expand and disseminate practical knowledge about local citizen participation in Central and Eastern Europe not least in comparison with Western Europe. Guided by civil society experts and activists, a mapping exercise of local community participation has been carried across post-communist countries as well as a few selected Western European countries. The exercise is called Citizen Participation Study(CPS) and its results are to be published in print and online in order to advise about civic action by:

• helping to design innovative and effective forms of citizen involvement in local democracy;
• developing into resources for training and capacity building of citizens and community works in post-communist and Western countries.

Central to the capacity building within this project is the Citizen Participation University (CPU) – an event which was carried out in the summer of 2011 in which 50 participants from the Citizens Network and the Combined European Bureau for Social Development took part. The education offered through lectures, workshops and exercises was based on the results of the action mapping exercise. The University focused on better informing participants about the current situation of local democracy and served to jointly prepare training materials for citizens and community workers alike. Learn more about Citizens Participation University here.

Citizen Participation Week (CPW) is the project’s final campaign carried out throughout the last week of September 2011. With all participating countries taking part in the campaign, Citizen Participation Week 2011 involved over 30,000 citizens across Europe and allowed member organizations to test ideas from the University in their individual local contexts.

To learn more on the individual components of the project, please visit their respective pages on this website.