The guiding purpose in forming My Balkans is to support and encourage people to build a better, more just, and open democratic society in the Balkans and South Eastern Europe using arts, culture, and education.
My Balkans mission is multifold: to develop and fund projects, programs, and activities in the region; to raise social awareness; to build relationships and alliances with individuals and organizations; and to support societies committed to justice and equality. All this, in order to promote freedom of expression, social openness, artistic excellence and educational advancement.
The arts, culture, and education are pillars of a democratic society that play an essential role in human development. Actions in the sphere of arts, culture and education help create safe spaces for free expression, exchanges, and mutual understanding and contribute to social equality, cohesion, innovation, and change. These pillars of democratic society can also be a powerful platform for tackling today’s key social challenges, due to their capacity to elicit powerful cognitive and emotional responses and to promote conflict prevention and resolution.
Arts and culture can truly be transformative, sparking hope and imagination, and taking people on journeys of discovery and change. High quality artistic work can connect people in unexpected ways, building safe spaces for individuals to be themselves and to believe in a positive future, especially in times of conflict or post-conflict and different crises.
My Balkans will employ various channels and innovative systems to encourage and expand philanthropy and charitable giving through identifying, coordinating, and streamlining the charitable processes while building a reliable infrastructure for the distribution of grants to places of need and/or in crisis.
My Balkans plans to implement its mission through a variety of inter-related activities:
- Partnership and alliance building (e.g. play the convener role and facilitate networking)
- Co-creation processes (e.g. pro-actively engage in a project with one or several partner organizations)
- Development of projects and programs (e.g. design and implement specific lines of work)
- Donor collaboration (e.g. act as a nexus between funders and civil society working in and/or on the Balkans)
- Consulting (e.g. use in-house expertise to advise others)
- Support individuals and organizations alike (e.g. funding through fellowships and grantmaking)
We plan to accomplish these activities through:
- Cultural and educational outreach projects and programs with a strong social component in the Balkans and South Eastern Europe in order to build awareness among individuals and organization;
- Supporting debates, research and speakers to promote fundamental values and open up dialogue in close cooperation with the civil society sector;
- Documentary projects and programs, featuring photography, video and web presence, to inform and engage about the conditions and factors that can have a strong impact on building democratic societies;
- Outreach to the donor community in order to promote and expand collaboration and funding in the region; Fellowships and grants to various organizations and individuals.