Protecting democracy, human rights and the rule of law through an open civic space

ongoing

The PLATO project aims to protect, promote and raise awareness of EU fundamental rights & values by supporting CSOs in Greece and Cyprus with funding and capacity building. Specifically, it will fund around 50 CSO projects, through Call 1 ‘Empower civil society to promote the rule of law, participatory democracy, good governance, open civic space and media freedom’ and Call 2 ‘Protect and promote human rights, democracy and equality through empowering vulnerable groups’. Through the CSO projects it is anticipated that: 5000 people will be engaged in CSO activities (at least 50% women), including training, capacity building, awareness raising and civic platforms & dialogues; the awareness of 1,000,000 people will be raised through 100 awareness raising activities; 1000 people (at least 50% women) will benefit from support services; 200 monitoring and advocacy activities will be carried out, influencing 10 national laws/policies; and 20 activities to promote learning & exchange with CSOs in other EU countries will be implemented. PLATO will build the capacity and resilience of CSOs in Greece and Cyprus through a comprehensive capacity building programme, including 24 hours’ awareness-raising training, 27 hours’ ‘how to apply’ workshops, 55 hours’ organisational development training, 20 hours’ storytelling training, 24 hours’ thematic training, as well as team mentoring, executive coaching and consulting. A dedicated project webpage and innovative dissemination activities will enable effective communication of the project’s outputs and results. The main target groups are CSOs, with an emphasis on small, grassroots and rural CSOs, and the project will also directly benefit vulnerable groups: women, children & youth, people with disabilities, refugees, migrants & minorities, older people and LGBTQI+ people. Other target groups include policy & lawmakers, judiciary, police, civil servants, service providers and teachers, journalists as well as the general public.