The Carpathian Foundation-Hungary aims to support ideas that help communities in North-Eastern Hungary (in Borsod-Abaúj-Zemplén, Hajdú-Bihar, Heves, Jász-Nagykun-Szolnok, Nógrád, Szabolcs-Szatmár-Bereg Counties) to improve their living conditions by themselves.
 
To achieve this we launched a development programme that relies on the communities’ own human resources and which primarily supports the community development efforts of primary and secondary schools in the region to improve the prospects of the young generation.
 
The long term goal of the programme is to help create sustainable community centres based on these local schools’ own initiatives that would lead to the establishment of stable and co-operative communities in the Carpathian region.
 
Best Practice Projects
 
Since the launch of the Fund in 2008 we have funded two best practice projects:
 
You were born here Project to make people stay in Túrkeve
 
The aim of this project is to help the launch of local training programmes involving local civil organizations and schools and also to promote co-operation among these establishments.
 
The Achievements of the Project

• extension of the local library to be able to provide services for the whole community;
• to set up and develop a new foreign language training centre for the whole community;
• extension of the existing IT centre of the local school to be appropriate for IT courses;
• launch of IT trainings for adults as well;
• development of an adult education scheme based on local attributes of labour market;
• new elements in youth education: career advice & planning, youth parliament;
• series of community workshops and community forums for common planning of the local community;
• sports facilities development of the local school.

 
The Telkibánya civic, adult education and services community centre (abbr. community centre)
 
When we chose Telkibánya, it was not only because of the site’s physical properties but it was an important factor that we knew we could rely on its schools (its staff, its syllabus with the ecoschool programme) and the municipality’s commitment to community development.
(Mr Béla Bereczky, FÉSZAK-KÖR)
 
Achivements

• development of adult trainings (acknowledged by the National Training Panel and other supervisory bodies);
• general community trainings (about community development, democracy, civic rights & duties, self-assertion, communal economy, sustainable development, etc.);
• adult and Sunday education (to encourage learning from each other, trainings to meet local needs);
• youth training and community centre;
• topical community forums;
• a regional community database, an interactive media coverage (covering the needs of the public, opportunities; relevant tenders, future projects, training material, other community information).