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Center for Participation and Development is an NGO, which was created in 2011 by the group of the civil society activists, experts and public figures with different professional background from Georgia, US and Europe as an entity and in the meantime call for the new policy and practical approaches to the issues of tolerance, citizenship and diversity combining challenges and resources for the adequate development of the civil society in Georgia. CPD works with youth and minorities promoting civil integration and participation of vulnerable groups in decision-making processes, as well as the development of tolerant society in Georgia and in the Eastern Partnership region by raising the level of civic consciousness, harnessing advocacy skills among vulnerable groups, working on formal and non-formal education. Another important direction of work of CDP is protection of human rights defenders.
Our projects, events and activities:
Since 2016 CPD manages temporary relocation program for human rights defenders at risk from EECA region. During 6 years more than 200human rights defenders benefited from rehabilitation, psychological and medical support, education and networking opportunities. The program addresses both the cases of emergency relocation due to the security threats as well as serves the HRDs with severe burnout.
In 2017 during the municipal elections in Tbilisi, CPD implemented an unprecedented volunteer campaign #Iobserve. CPD recruited 205 volunteer elections observers out of 700 applications received. The pool of trainers conducted 14 trainings for 300 people, after which 205 people were selected for the observation. Within 24 hours, 8 operators of the call center continuously advised observers, helped to prevent violations and file complaints about illegal actions of members of the election commission. In 2018 CPD was contracted by Central Election Commission to train young people for the monitoring of the different types of elections during the "Active Citizen's School".
CPD carries on the fight against Ultra-right hate groups and violent extremism, which includes research, educational activities and public awareness within the frameworks of the campaign "Georgia: no place for hate". We also offer complex psychosocial support for victims of hate crimes and their family members. Campaign is devoted to the memory of our late colleague Vitali Safarov killed in 2018.
CPD has designed and implemented 6 camps for children from the Easern Partnership countries applying interactive learning methods for promotion of tolerance and human rights - "Sources of tolerance" and "Small world". CPD often works with the children and youth from conflict environments focusing on healing the trauma and providing tools for stress management. We view the camps we organize as a tool for development of the community of the new leaders and raising awareness on human rights and democratic values among the younger generations in the countries of the region. After each camp we continue working with the participating youth creating online communications groups and facilitating their participation in the civic activism initiatives in their countries of origin.
CPD team members are recognized specialists providing trainings to the HRDs and activists in the region and globally. The primary topics of our expertise are digital and physical security, advocacy, rights of minorities and indigenous peoples, international human rights system, fundraising, project management etc. We provide retreat programs for different international organizations as a service.
You can track all our updates on several public network accounts, as well as during public meetings.
Our philosophy entails, that we support anybody in need.
We use and share our skills and long-time experience in different fields of work as well as create the opportunity to other specialists to share their knowledge.
We understand that the root of many problems can be withered by education. Therefore we implement a wide variety of trainings, workshops and public lectures.
One of the very important directions of our work is research and publishing reports.
The center systematically consults ethnic minority leaders in Georgia, conducts trainings for members of the ethnic minority community organizations. We seek to biuld capacities of vulnerable groups to protect own rights.
Chairman of the Board, Lawyer, Expert on minority issues, Head of the Yazidi Community in Georgia
Associate Professor at the University of Georgia
Expert on Ethnic Minority Issues
Human Rights Trainer
Executive director
Development advisor
Communications officer
Financial manager
cpd.infodesk@gmail.com
