Training

ISC's top-flight training program combines an innovative, tailor-made methodology that has been designed, tested and implemented by ISC in Serbia. The Civil Society Advocacy Initiative (CSAI) program utilizes a powerful set of customized tools designed to implement advanced advocacy initiatives in Serbia's civil society sector. The program combines financial support through direct grant assistance and capacity building workshops via group trainings and individual mentoring. Unlike other international donors, ISC provides country-wide training opportunities even to non-program grantees, through its Mobile Advocacy School (MAS) program. To date, ISC CSAI's training program has included more than 700 participants from 180 civil society organizations in Serbia.

Since 2007, ISC has actively worked to mentor a core team of Advocacy Resource Persons (ARP). This pool of top-tier senior consultants is composed of experienced civic leaders, who were individually selected through a competitive process that ensured a high degree of competency and overall knowledge. The quality of the team brings an additional level of expertise to the training program and provides a committed group of experts dedicated to advancing Serbian civil society. Their professionalism, extensive advocacy experience and hands-on approach are major assets of ISC's ARP Team. Furthermore, the team members are all certified and, in order to maintain their certification, each member of the team is obligated to annually attend an advocacy skills workshops conducted by Mr. Nader Tadros, Director and Founder of the US-based People's Advocacy.

The two cornerstones of ISC CSAI's training program are the Core Advocacy Assistance and the Mobile Advocacy School components. The goal of the Core Advocacy Assistance is to prepare civic organizations for effective advocacy initiatives. This two-step process consists of tailor-made consultancy sessions designed to assist grantees in planning, implementing and monitoring advocacy activities, which is followed by direct financial support via Advocacy in Practice (AIP) grants. The core trainings and tailor-made technical assistance are targeted interventions that address grantees' priority needs in advocacy and communication strategies, as well as in key aspects of organizational development. ISC's Core Advocacy Assistance training curriculum focuses on effective advocacy initiatives and communication strategies. The ARP Team of consultants conducts the advocacy training, while the communication and media outreach trainings are conducted by prominent Serbian journalists, PR experts and media professionals, such as the Production Group MREZA, TV Academy and McCann Erickson's Public Relations Department. Since 2007, ISC has conducted 59 training events across Serbia. The Mobile Advocacy School (MAS), designed by ISC in 2008, serves to strengthen citizen's advocacy initiatives in local communities throughout Serbia in order for citizens to plan for and implement effective advocacy campaigns on issues of critical importance to Serbia's continued democratic transition. The key purpose of MAS is to improve non-grantees' advocacy skills by providing regular technical assistance to the Serbian civil society sector.

ISC's MAS component enables a broad cross section of citizens, particularly individuals residing in ethnically mixed and economically underdeveloped municipalities, to participate at ISC's capacity-building trainings. ISC's hands-on curriculum is designed to foster increased citizen participation and initiate local civic networks that can be mobilized to address important local and regional issues. To date, ISC has organized 9 Mobile Advocacy Schools in Vojvodina, Sandzak, Central Serbia, East Serbia and South Serbia regions, including Bujanovac, Presevo and Medvedja.