For the fifth consecutive year, the passion for football gathered the young people from the Houses of Opportunity, the team of FSCI, young inmates from the youth prison in Boychinovtsi as well as volunteers.

Due to the extremely high temperatures, the match took place under the shade of the tress, very near to the building where the young inmates live and study. The audience consisted of the youth from the youth prison, the staff of the institution, members of FSCI and volunteers.

The match lasted an hour and a half, and the three teams needed to play against each other in order to see which one is the best. Even though the young guys from the youth prison were very talented, the winner of this year’s football match was the FSCI team.

In order for this event to take place, FSCI relied entirely on the donations from Bulgarian citizens. The amount which was collected was 1,177 lv. was used to cover the expenses for food for the young people from the Houses of Opportunity as well as for some presents for the inmates: school material, packaged food and cosmetics.

One goal of the “Football Summer in Boychinovtsi” initiative is to show young people deprived of their freedom that there are other alternatives to the criminal life, that they are not alone and forgotten, despite the wrong choices they made in the past, that there are people who are willing to help and support them once they leave the institution if they wish to change their lives. The other goal of the initiative is to provide opportunity for young people from the House of Opportunity Programme, managed by FSCI, to see the youth prison from the inside, to have a feel for it and hopefully to prevent them of ending up in one of those places in future.

60 participants from all across the Balkans came together to learn more about Inspiring civil society for good during this year’s Network Conference in Sofia. Everybody enjoyed spending time with people who share a similar vision and values about social change and inclusion.

Highlights of this year’s conference were interviews with former House of Opportunity residents, contributions by Bulgarian business people on why they support FSCI and what they look for in NGOs, and stories about the work of FSCI’s partners from all across the Balkans. The workshops provided a good opportunity to ask questions, exchange ideas and experiences and share good practice with each other.

Find out more about FSCI’s Development Programme here.

Three different sporting events will support FSCI this Sunday, 9^thOctober – Sofia Marathon 2016, the Basketball Super Cup of Bulgaria and the Medtronic Global Heroes Run in Minneapolis (Minnesota, USA). 

Marathon Sofia 2016 defines Balkan champions and super winners in the chain “Running as a lifestyle” – the marathon is one of the largest and most exciting sport events in the country, which again is part of the initiative “Sofia 2018 – European Capital of Sport.”

The Marathon Sofia 2016 starts at 9.30 at the National Stadium “Vasil Levski”. At 9:40 am will be the mass start and the participants of the classical marathon will be at 10.00 am, 10 minutes after them will be the start for the other disciplines.

The organizers of Marathon Sofia are the Foundation “Sofia – European Capital of Sport”, Sofia Municipality, Ministry of Youth and Sports, the Bulgarian Olympic Committee, Bulgarian Federation of Athletics and the Balkan Athletic Association, and a record prize fund – 60,000 lev. The marathon supports several charities, one of which is the “House of Opportunity” Programme of FSCI within the campaign “Yellow Coins” of VIVACOM.

In the evening (6 pm) the basketball game for the Super Cup of Bulgaria between the champion Lukoil Academic and winner of the Cup of Bulgaria Rilski Sportist will take place at the Universiada Hall.

The Basketball show will enable one of the two teams to win the trophy at the start of the new season in the National Basketball League, and all money raised from the ticket sales will be donated to the cause of VIVACOM and their “Yellow Coins” campaign – FSCI’s House of Opportunity Programme.

Also on Sunday, the Medtronic Twin Cities Marathon will take place in Minneapolis, Minnesota (USA), in which the founder and chairman of FSCI, Chris Mould, was selected to participate as a “global hero”.

The Medtronic’s Global Heroes programme aims to celebrate and profile runners who have benefitted from medical technology. Each Global Hero represents their country and medical condition, but more importantly, they represent a return to “active life”.

Chris Mould is using this event to raise money for two causes – The Trussell Trust (the UK’s largest foodbank network), and the Bulgarian organization FSCI, which for eight years has already been helping vulnerable people to break the vicious cycle of poverty in Bulgaria, and recently also in other Balkan countries, and restore hope for a better future. Do read Chris’s inspiring story here.

A lot has happened to our Serbian partners since they joined our Development Programme - not only did they help us organise the second FSCI Network Conference in Belgrade in March, they also celebrated their third birthday as an NGO during the conference. Their greatest joy was that the majority of young people they have helped during these past three yearswere able to join in the celebrations.

The day before the conference, the official opening of the House of Opportunity in Belgrade was held. Representatives from governmental and non-governmental services, FSCI Network Conference participants from many different Balkan countries, as well as friends and supporters of Center Star attended the event. Even a TV crew was present and a short clip aired on Serbian TV.

The next big event was the “Ballet Magnificat”, a show performed by a professional American ballet company in Belgrade on 9 May and supported by the US Embassy. The proceeds of the ticket sales went to Center Star for their House of Opportunity Programme. As a consequence, the team of House of Opportunity Belgrade had the opportunity to meet the speaker of the national assembly and present the project, and one of the residents in the observed home shared his life story and how the programme is helping him to finish college and prepare for independent living. Afterwards, they visited the royal family in their residence and met representatives of the princess’s Foundation which helps children without parental care, among other things.

Since the House of Opportunity in Belgrade is going well, Center Star is preparing to open a network of Houses across the country. Plans to open a House in Niš (south of Serbia) are underway, and Tanya had a very encouraging time there recently meeting prospective staff.

Other news from the FSCI Development Programme

 Two more organisations have recently signed up to our FSCI Development Programme: Nada zaŽivot is planning to open a House of Opportunity in Čakovec, Croatia, in July 2016. They have found an apartment and have most of the staff in place. The regional and city municipality have promised to pay for the rent and the utility bills for the HOP, which is very encouraging. Roots Research Center, Greece plan to set up a specialist day centre in Athens for young people coming out of care.

The House of Opportunity Varaždin, Croatia, which was started in Feb. by HocuŽivot (I want life), has currently four residents and is doing well.

Our partner A2B Albania is in the process of setting up a House of Opportunity in Elbasan using a building donated rent free by the local municipality.

The center has a total of 16 months to help more than 90 people through free training in various fields – social skills, entrepreneurship, self-realization
The first group of ten young people has already been formed. Young disadvantaged people will go through several trainings in order to acquire social and work habits and skills – forced to leave the specialized institutions for children at the age of 18, deprived of parental care, or grew up in families in extreme poverty, these young people are finding it hard to “fit” into society.

The construction of a psycho-social center for the acquisition of practical skills, mediating the transition to independent living, deinstitutionalization and demarginalization are some of the main tasks of the trainers from the Foundation for Social Change and Inclusion.

Social Centre Opportunity was opened in November 2014 (address: Sofia, bul. Dimitar Petkov 75, fl. 1, ap. 3) and the main goal of the project is to implement an integrated approach in the delivery of social services and the development of social/employment skills of care leavers and people at risk of poverty.

For more information: http://fscibulgaria.org/en/pages/Projects/Social-center-Opportunity/

This document was created with the financial support of the programme that supports NGOs in Bulgaria under the Financial Mechanism of the European Economic area. The entire responsibility for the contents of this document rests with the Foundation for Social Change and Inclusion and under no circumstances can be assumed that this document reflects the official opinion of the Financial Mechanism of the European Economic area and the Operator of Programme for support of NGOs in Bulgaria.