In 2017 Minsk Cycling Community was honored to become a participant of ECF Leadership Programme. The aim of the programme is to help cycling organizations to strengthen their influence on the regional and national government by providing them educational and financial support.
In 2017 Minsk Cycling Community was honored to become a participant of ECF Leadership Programme. The aim of the programme is to help cycling organizations to strengthen their influence on the regional and national government by providing them educational and financial support. It is expected that the final result of the successful activities of the participants will be expressed in the growth of the use of bicycle transport, more effective national policies, increased expenditures on bicycle infrastructure at the national level.
On 16-18 November 2017 Leadership Programme workshop was held by ECF in Zagreb, Croatia to provide educational support for participant organizations. The workshop covered topics of organization assessment, lobbying, management of volunteers, branding and organizing events, funding. The workshop included many individual and group assignments, interactive work, presentations made by ECF staff and participants from other countries. The host organization was Zagreb Cyclists’ Union – Sindikat Biciklista, who are not newcomers to Leadership programme and are known for their successful activity. Representatives of Sindikat Biciklista prepared very interesting and informative presentations on Volunteer Management and Branding and Events sessions, as they’re organizers of famous bike event in Zagreb named Pedalafest.
Photo source: sindikatbiciklista.hr
Other participants of the workshop included members from Spain, France, Slovakia, Portugal, Bulgaria, Bosnia and Belarus. Representative of Minsk Cycling Community – Board Member Diana Nadvikova made presentation on MCC lobbying programs, volunteering projects and our impressive bicycle carnival Viva Rovar. Interesting presentation was made by our French colleagues from FUB: during parliamentary and presidential elections in France they created a website Parlon Velo where they posted questionnaire on cycling topic with the answers of the candidates.
Photo source: sindikatbiciklista.hr
The workshop was held in the headquarters of the Zelena akcija / Friends of the Earth Croatia. Besides formal part, we had several social dinners for communication and networking. In the end of the workshop bicycle excursion around the city was organized by the City of Zagreb with the help of the Tourist Board and Pedicab.
After the workshop we also had ‘to be continued’ meeting, where we discussed ways of keeping in touch and collaborating on bicycle issues in the future. The meeting was held in the office of local hosts – Sindikat Biciklista.
Photo: Diana Nadvikova
Also we had a chance to visit BikeKitchen in Zagreb – Biciklopopravljaona. The concept of the BikeKitchen is the same as in Minsk, but unlike ours, it’s opened only once a week. However, they have much more space, tools and better conditions in comparison with our Garage 38.
Photo: Diana Nadvikova
On 7 December 2017 a meeting was held at the the Minsk Cycling Community office where activists and the board members of our organization were present. At the meeting we discussed the main tasks and materials of the workshop and analyzed this information in terms of applying it in our activity.
Photo: Alexey Basalay
Materials from sindikatbiciklista.hr and ecf.com were used in the article.
