NGOs' Open Days were held

We thank to all the associations that joined this year NGOs’ Open Days, as well as to the citizens who showed interest for the associations work.

Within the 13^th NGOs’ Open Days in a row that were held all over Croatia from 5 to 7 June 2025, Government Office for Cooperation with NGOs (GOfNGOs) organised the Conference “Role and contribution of the Associations in Sustainable Development of the Local Community in Croatia” in Šibenik, at the Arsen’s House of Art. The event was followed by the presented about 50 attendees. To all others the live broadcast was available on the GOfNGOs Youtube channel on which about 100 views were registered till now.
 
At the beginning Jelena Princivali, Head of the Department for Strategic Planning, Programming and Informing welcomed all the attendees and those followed the live broadcast on behalf of the GOfNGOs. Also, in the opening part, all gathered were welcomed by Mirjana Žurić, the City of Šibenik Mayor delegate and the Head of the Administration Department for Social Activities, the deputy director of the National Foundation for the Civil Society Development Luka Bogdan and Marko Pavić, the Vice president of the Council of Europe parliamentary assembly and the Croatian Parliament member.
Natalija Šimunović, Head of the Sector in the Ministry of the Regional Development and EU Funds and dr.sc. Frane Urem, vice-dean of the Šibenik Polytechnics were talking in the introductory part of the panel on sustainable development, role of the associations in its development and opportunities of funding of the associations activities. In the continuation of the panel the Šibenik Knin County’ associations’ representatives were presented their work and the impact in that area: Matea Gović, Association of Persons with Intellectual Disabilities of the Šibenik Knin County “Kamenčići”, Aleksandra Janjić, Association “Woman”, Drniš, Suzana Suman, Association of Nature Protection and Environment, as well as the promotion of Sustainable Development “Argonauta” and Martin Mrša, Assocation “Young in the EU”.

The Second Swiss - Croatian Cooperation Programme “Civil Society” was presented at the Conference due to which the GOfNGOs will publish four Calls intended to associations during this year. Jelena Princivali presented the a.m. Programme and the Calls.
This year the citizens had the opportunity to participate in more than 130 different events organised by the associations. The overview of all the registered events within the NGOs’ Open Days 2025 is available on the application UdrugeInfo.
 
After the Conference, the GOfNGOs employees went to the field visit to the KOLAN Equestrian Club - Association for Activities and Therapy with Horses where, under the guidance of Snježana Živković, they got acquainted with the activities and projects carried out by the association, namely: conducting therapy and activities with horses especially for children and young people. More specifically, the association regular activities are: recreational rehabilitation, pedagogical and therapeutic riding; gathering parents and children with disabilities, experts of medical, pedagogical, educational and rehabilitation education for various therapeutic procedures in nature, outdoors; promoting of all activities related to the therapy programme with horses for children with disabilities and disabled people.
 
The associations were presented their community service projects as well as possibilities of involving citizens in volunteering programmes by numerous creative workshops, lectures, performances and in other different innovative ways. Participating in their activities, the citizens were informed on the great area of activities implemented by the associations. They could also be motivated to be actively engaged, themselves, in their local communities, as beneficiaries of the services, volunteers, but also as organisers of the same activities next year!
 
The GOfNGOs invite the associations to report on to the e mail address dovu@udruge.vlada.hr on the events they organised (written reports, video and / or collage of photos by 20 June 20205. For the most active associations we ensured as rewards five annual subscriptions to the magazine Udruga.hr.
 
Also, we would like to remind you about the Call “Communication Support to the Associations’ Community Services Programmes” that GOfNGOs implements in cooperation with the Croatian Association for Public Relations.

NGOs' Open Days was announced in media in  Šibenik IN (June 2, 2025.).  Šibenik IN ( June 5,  2025.), na HTV4  u Hrvatska danas: Split, Zagreb, Čakovec, (June 5, 2025. reportage from 7'48''- 11'10'')  and on radio Civilno društvo na HR1 (June 18 2025.)
 

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