Name of the organization: “Car Lovers Club” Youth NGO
Title of the project: “Safe driving, safe Goris”
Budget in AMD: 5,936,000
Purpose of the project: To contribute to the promotion of road safety of passengers and drivers in Goris community through improving drivers’ capacities, raising awareness of the pedestrians and public oversight.
Objectives: Foster safe driving habits in Goris community.
Planned Activities: Addressing road safety issues is one of the key priorities for Goris citizens because the roads in the city are not appropriately marked, no cameras or other type of oversight is available, and therefore, the majority of the drivers are free not to follow the traffic rules, endangering the pedestrians’ lives. To address this issue, the project team will organize a public discussion with engagement of LG, the Road Police, CSO representatives, drivers and citizens to map the challenges of road safety situation in Goris city in a participatory format. Other activities include recruitment and training of citizen monitoring groups to monitor the situation on the ground, collection of information on risks and common violations, practical driving training for women refugees from NK, and presenting recommendations on road safety measures to be improved to local Road Police and Municipality.
After the public discussion, the Project staff will recruit citizen monitoring groups, who will observe the road situation on the ground. While recruiting the monitoring group (45 local drivers and pedestrians, who will participate in trainings before monitoring), special attention will be given to engaging up to 15 women/girls forcibly displaced from NK who found refuge in Goris community (to date around 380 families have registered in Goris community). (The recent crisis demonstrated how important it would be for women to have interest in driving and road regulations). The recruited citizen monitoring groups will receive classroom training and practical driving courses, to build basic skills on road safety rules and regulations, road signs, driver and pedestrian safety rules, and others. The Project team, in cooperation with licensed experts, will conduct the trainings. The trainings will prepare active citizen groups for monitoring the traffic situation in designated spots for a certain period of time. This activity will contribute to advocating for safe traffic and safer environment as the monitoring groups will record common violations, discuss common risks for citizens including schoolchildren, elderly, parents with children, and others.
The monitoring results will serve as a basis for compiling a recommendation package which will be submitted to the Road Police and LG representatives to help regulate and improve road safety and related infrastructure (such as markings and signs, or trainings conducted by Road Police in Schools, etc.). As a result of the project the “Car-lovers club” will share their knowledge and abilities to benefit the road and life safety of the Goris community members, and will build its capacity at cooperating with citizens, LG and Police, in order to propose improvements in the safety measures serving the residents of Goris.
Name of the organization: “Bari Sirt” Charity Foundation
Title of the project: “The Power of Sports in Promoting Healthy Lifestyle”
Budget in AMD: 6,998,550
Purpose of the project: To raise the interest of LG and Goris citizens towards the role and benefits of healthy living among youth in Goris community.
Objectives: To promote sports activities as means to ensure healthy living and habits among citizens aged 12-29 in Goris and rural settlements.
Planned Activities: Goris community incorporates Goris city and 10 villages. Most community owned non-for profit organizations that provide sports, cultural and arts services to citizens are located in Goris city, making these services inaccessible to residents of the rural areas. One of the main functions of LGs is promotion of sports in communities through community owned organizations. To address this issue and somehow make sports services available for residents of rural areas, the project team will support the implementation of sports and related events by engaging the young segment of population in 6 rural settlements of Goris consolidated community (Goris, Akner, Khndzoresk, Verishen, Karahunj, Hartashen). Special emphasis will be given to the inclusion aspect of participants, including forcibly displaced people from Artsakh residing in those communities. To jointly create a plan for sports events and competitions, the team will organize a meeting with LG representatives, community owned sports structures, healthcare professionals, teachers, private sector representatives and citizens. A preliminary plan for community sports events will be created. The participating communities will be encouraged to train individual teams in various types of sports. After completion of the trainings, inter-community competition featuring various sports (running, jumping, and other categories) will be organized bringing together schoolchildren and youth of the participating teams to Goris. Local business, LG representatives, famous sportsmen and other key people, will be invited as judges and sponsors of specific nominations. The whole process will be communicated through social media platforms. After the pilot competition is launched, and sports’ popularity increased in Goris communities, Project team will develop a proposal and submit it to the LG to make this competition as an annual event and to allocate funding from the community’s budget.
As a result of the Project, in six rural communities and Goris town, groups of youth and juniors will interact through trainings and competition, sports and healthy life habits will be promoted to break the cycle of apathy, insecurity and harmful habits among young people.
Name of the organization: Hrayr Arustamyan (initiative group)
Title of the project: “Applying New Technologies in Agriculture”
Budget in AMD: 4,000,000
Purpose of the project: To enhance motivation to engage in agriculture and engineering among youth through non-formal education.
Objectives: To build practical skills and interest among youth towards agriculture and engineering via applying technologies in innovative agricultural management.
Planned Activities: During the Goris Community Visioning event organized in April 2023, one of the groups identified the need in modernization of agriculture to increase effectiveness and productivity. Another challenge identified was in fact, that there is a lack of interest in the younger generation towards agriculture along other economic sectors. To address these needs, an initiative group experienced in ArmatLab programs proposed to teach and apply engineering skills for agricultural solutions. The project was recommended for funding also based on the fact that it proposes to combine two themes - engineering and agriculture, both important from the perspective of future economic activity by young people. The project team will cooperate with the Goris Agricultural College to identify some challenges in the agriculture sector, will form two groups of students – who will learn basic agricultural knowledge and another one for engineering design. The groups will be encouraged to invite representatives of forcibly displaced people (of the specific age group) from Artsakh who reside in Goris community. Two sets of trainings will be conducted for the two thematic groups. These groups will interact to build a device that will help solve a specific agricultural issue, such as for example – equal soil fertilization or irrigation, livestock milking or vegetable weeding, and others. The results will be publicized during the closing event that will bring together agriculturists, experts, LG, CSOs and citizens aiming to replicate the positive experience.
As a result of the project, around 30 young people from various communities of Goris will increase their basic knowledge in agriculture and technologies, through engaging in solving practical tasks and showcasing their achievements in public. The initiative group will foster cooperation between local agricultural college, engineering teachers and students, in the non-formal educational initiative.
Name of the organization: Anahit Amaryan (initiative group)
Title of the project: “Community issues through the eyes of young people”
Budget in AMD: 3,008,000
Purpose of the project: To increase social activism of young people of Akner through inter-generational cooperation.
Objective: To create a comprehensive mechanism of interaction between youth and adult population of the village.
Planned Activities: The residents of Akner village (both adult and youth) have little or no recreational or engaging activity going on beyond hanging out in the village center as a form of social activity. To bring some positive change in the lives of both adults and youth, the local initiative group led by Anahit Amaryan, came up with an idea to engage two generations into social activity. A group of young activists will be formed in Akner, will discuss what are priority community issues that may be addressed within this project. The formed group will be trained on how to do video on social issues, how to conduct interviews, how to put common issues on the highlight. The team then will conduct interviews with senior citizens on various topics related to common issues in the socio-economic, cultural sectors of Akner. The final videos produced by youth will be introduced to local residents during a project’s closing event. The project will result in the establishment of a group of active youth that have learned to discuss problems, have developed basic multimedia skills to address common community issues and engage various groups of community in their activities.
Name of the organization: Armen Ivanyan (Initiative group)
Title of the project: “Building Touristic Capacities of Goris”,
Budget in AMD: 3,919,000
Purpose of the project: To increase the attractiveness of Goris community for internal and external tourism.
Objectives: To promote community - business cooperation to benefit the development of tourism sector.
Planned Activities: The project team will organize 4 thematic discussions to explore the main challenges, opportunities, and development perspectives in tourism sector. The discussions will be built around the following topics: 1. opportunities and challenges to develop infrastructures affecting tourism sector; 2. opportunities and challenges to improve the hospitality sector; 3. opportunities and challenges in service infrastructure; 4. gastronomic and traditional features of rural areas of Goris. The initiative group will engage experts to design each of the discussions, will invite respective sectoral representatives from all communities of Goris. Each of the sectoral discussions will produce a summary report with major challenges and recommendations, thus forming a joint approach of tourism development in Goris community. The report will highlight the existing potential, perspectives of tourism development and the challenges that various actors need to address. The final report will be introduced to private sector, tour operators, service sector representatives, CSOs, and LG to consider those in the future strategic documents and programs. As a result of the Project, Goris community representatives of various sectors will cooperate, generate a common approach for one of the important sectors of Goris community’s economy – the tourism sector and related infrastructure.
Name of the organization: “French-Speakers Cultural Center of Goris” NGO
Title of the project: “Rural Guest-Houses”
Budget in AMD: 4,955,000
Purpose of the project: To create opportunities for socio-economic activity in rural communities of Goris.
Objectives: To build the capacity of local residents to set up and promote guest-houses in Goris’s rural communities.
Planned Activities: The discussions with residents of Goris consolidated community, including during the Visioning event, have often brought up the issue of the unbalanced distribution of resources among communities, or accumulation of most of the resources (recreational, economic, educational, etc.) in Goris city. During the Visioning event, the mentioned that there are many adventure tourists passing through their villages and local attraction, and while there are many houses that have free rooms, they rent hotels in Goris city. Local residents have no basic skills to use their houses for hosting visitors. So, the project will make an attempt to support residents from rural settlements to understand the basics of hosting services and decide if they can put resources and develop the local room and board opportunities.
The project team will conduct meetings/visits to 5 villages, spread information on opportunities offered by the Project for potential guest-houses. The team will also collect information on basic capacity needs and development perspectives of guest-houses infrastructures. Based on this information, the team will define the scope of the capacity building trainings in 3 major directions: service provision, communication and marketing. The training themes are preliminary and will be clarified with the help of experienced trainers based on the needs of the recruited participants and the potential of those communities. The training participants will be selected from the five communities visited. The participants will be selected based on the possibility of the particular settlement for hosting visitors, the potential guest-house location and facilities, as well as the willingness of the owners to engage in the establishing “bed and breakfast” type services. After completion of the training course, five most promising guest-house owners will be offered support in establishing business online pages, in addition to printing sample catering and menus for the potential customers/guests. The project team will assist with registering their facilities with the existing touristic networks to expand business opportunities. The trainings will aim to motivate the owners of the guest-houses to set-up “bed and breakfast” type services. The project will result in the exploration and establishment of additional income opportunities in the rural areas and, therefore, improvement of socio-economic condition of the community.
Name of the organization: “Goris Youth Center” NGO
Title of the project: “Contributing to Community Resilience through cooperation and training”
Budget in AMD: 5,665,600
Purpose of the project: To strengthen Goris youth resilience for responding to crisis situations
Objectives: Capacity building for schoolchildren and young people from 6 communities of Goris consolidate community on resilience building through non-formal education methods.
Planned Activities: The project will start with discussions with Municipality staff, administrative heads of communities, community-based organizations and schools to determine the scope of the trainings. During the discussion the Project team will discuss what major natural and human-caused disasters Goris community may face, what the community resilience measures are defined in the LG’s plans, and how youth and schools could be prepared for, respond to, and/or overcome crises situations. The team will engage experienced trainers to design the training based on the identified priorities. These may include, but are not limited to earthquakes, epidemic, wars, etc. Approximately 50 schoolchildren will get basic knowledge on community resilience and behavioral rules including first aid in various force-major situations and disasters. Upon completion of the trainings, the Project team will organize a final event, during which, the training participants will demonstrate their knowledge and skills via quizzes and games. The project will contribute to building basic skills and knowledge of community youth to manage and respond to various crises situations and disasters.
Name of the organization: “Cooperation Arch” NGO
Title of the project: “Day Care Center for Elderly”
Budget in AMD: 6,990,000
Purpose of the project: To support the social wellbeing of vulnerable senior citizens.
Objectives: To build the capacity and human resources of the Elderly Social Support Center to provide additional services, such as: health-monitoring and social engagement for the expanded groups of vulnerable population of Goris community.
Planned Activities: The project team runs a Social Support Center for the Elderly, which provides specific services to approximately 50-60 vulnerable elderly, limited to food and basic healthcare. This project will help develop a series of new services for up to 75-90 beneficiaries, including displaced people from Artsakh who resided in Goris. The staff of the Center will get ToTs to improve their activity planning and implementation capacities, with focus on the new categories of services. Several new services will be piloted to the beneficiaries, including but not limited to regular consultations with healthcare professionals, increased physical activity, psychological counseling, sightseeing tours, participation in various cultural events, basic tech skills, such as how to use smartphones, make video calls, search essential information in internet, use social media platforms, etc. The project staff will cooperate with the Unified Social Service of Goris and private sector companies to attract additional support for establishing additional services for the vulnerable citizens. The Project team will put special emphasis in recruiting and providing services for the forcibly displaced populations from NK currently residing in Goris community.
As result of the project, the CSO will build its capacity to design and provide a spectrum of services for one of the most socially and physically vulnerable groups – the elderly population of Goris community.
Name of the organization: “Syunik Armenological Research Center” NGO
Title of the project: “Knowledge and Practices - as Cultural Assets”,
Budget in AMD: 6,845,000
Purpose of the project: To promote the preservation and the use of intangible cultural assets of Goris community.
Objectives: To explore and re-think the use of intangible cultural assets of Goris consolidated community with engagement of active young groups.
Planned Activities: The project will begin recruitment of active students from Goris State University. They will receive training on methodology of collection of oral stories, will split into groups and collect oral stories from various settlements of Goris. The best stories will be analyzed and edited for further publication. An expert will be invited to facilitate a discussion on social norms and values presented in oral stories, and ways the oral stories may be used in the educational processes. Up to 30 participants will be invited to the discussion. These include teachers, students, librarians, historians, museum staff, and others engaged in the process of education. The best stories will be published in www.sarc.am website. The project will result in collection and provision of intangible cultural heritage of Goris by students, and will promote cooperation culture between Goris State University, libraries, museums, students, and other community structures, as well as will be used to boost critical thought around the social norms and traditions.
Name of the organization: "Education and Activity" social-charity, educational-cultural Foundation
Title of the project: “Teachers’ Support Lab”
Budget in AMD: 6,967,000
Purpose of the project: To improve the quality of teaching processes in the educational sector of Goris community.
Objectives: To set up teaching support laboratory in Goris, to build educators’ capacities in use of modern technologies.
Planned Activities: The project will be launched by a discussion with representatives of schools, pre-schools, and the Education department of the Goris Municipality. The discussion will focus on the main priorities in the education sector and will serve as a basis for the development of a training module for building missing capacities of schoolteachers. The modules will include but not limited to the following themes: 1. Use of technologies in the process of education; 2. Project based learning as a method for critical thinking of students. Two (12-hour/2 sessions) trainings will be conducted with the help of experts, for 20 participants in each training (40 teachers in total). After the training modules are piloted, the Laboratory will develop its operational procedures, with main management principles, scope of services defined. The Laboratory will be established by the implementing organization, and the local experts will be invited periodically to conduct trainings on specific topics. The scope of trainings and material may include cross-cutting themes, such as anti-discrimination, inclusiveness, bullying, gender equality, etc. that could be integrated in the educational process in schools. As result, Goris community will develop expertise to supplement the educational processes, quality of teaching will be improved, students’ learning process will be improved via the use of visuals, technologies and project-based assignments and activities.
Name of the organization: “Sose Women’s Issues” NGO
Title of the project: “Overcoming stereotypes”
Budget in AMD: 6,928,500
Purpose of the project: To contribute to changing societal attitudes regarding women’s issues and stereotypes.
Objectives: To contribute to changing gender stereotypes via highlighting women’s success stories.
Planned Activities: The project team will identify 5 stories on women-change makers in Goris including women who successfully overcame crises situations and built-up successful experiences. 5 stories will be filmed and edited to be disseminated through online platforms and media. Based on the developed content, a forum will be organized, where the films will be showcased, discussed to reveal ongoing challenges and stereotypes that need continuous attention and work, so that women become empowered and recognized actors in the society. Based on the outcomes of the forum, recommendations will be developed and submitted to Goris LG with recommendations on and measures to take for enhancement of women’s role in community, particularly in crisis management situations.
Name of the organization: Syunik Scientific and Cultural Development Foundation
Title of the project: “Mobile Museums”
Budget in AMD: 3,999,000
Purpose of the project: To contribute to formation of alternative educational-museum, strengthening and continuous development of museum-school ties, diversification, and activation of cultural life in communities through “Mobile museums” innovative-interactive educational project.
Objectives: To develop “Mobile museum” innovative-educational model and raise awareness on museum culture.
Planned Activities: The Project team will organize a discussion with representatives of the sector of education and all 4 museums /Aksel Bakunts, Sero Khnazadyan House-Museums, Geological and History Museums/ located in Goris, with the aim to discuss the opportunities of museums to engage in and contribute to the project through their museum resources. The idea is to develop an innovative-educational model called a “Mobile museum”, which will allow an alternative use of local museums through developing games and quizzes around the themes of the selected museums. This will increase the popularity of museums in Goris consolidated community and supplement the process of formal education. Particularly, “Mobile Museums” will benefit those schoolchildren who do not have an opportunity to visit the museums in Goris city. Syunik Scientific and Cultural Development Foundation will design the structure of the first “Mobile Museum”. This implies interactive classes for schoolchildren on museum artefacts presented in the form of games/quizzes. These will be various tests/questions that will be used during the visits in the format of games/contests. They will not be printed as a separate product. These will be descriptions of games/tasks to be used during the meetings with schoolchildren. This approach will boost creativity of and interest towards museums among schoolchildren. The list of exhibits/artefacts from museums will be developed in cooperation with museums’ employees. The Project team will develop the questionnaire (quiz) that will be used during the visits to community schools. Project team will make arrangements with 10 schools of all rural settlements of Goris community to coordinate the schedule of visits. The agenda of a 2-3 hour session, will be developed. Mobile museums will travel to schools and community centers, will present the museums of Goris community, will conduct interactive discussions including educational quizzes/tests around the presented museums and artefacts. The project will reach out to at least 200 schoolchildren. As result, schoolchildren living in rural areas will be exposed to culture, a cooperation model will be set between schools and museums. Eventually, the Project will fill in address the lack of cultural and non-formal educational opportunities in rural areas of Goris community. In addition to this, local museum employees will learn how to promote attendance to museums, i.e. may develop their own educational games and quizzes to boost the museum attendance, make it more interactive, educational and interesting.