Local services
A meeting entitled “Developing Cooperation between Responsible Companies and Civil Communities” was organised in Debrecen by the Civilians for the Youth Association and the Hajdú-Bihar County Civil Community Service Center on the 29th of January, 2025, with the participation of representatives of companies and civil organisations.
The Civilians for the Youth Association operates the Hajdú-Bihar County Civil Community Service Center, whose task is to support local communities and civil organisations, to help develop the civil sphere, local initiatives, and to promote social participation. By organising the meeting, the association aimed to connect the leaders and representatives of civil organisations and companies. They hope that the event will contribute to strengthening a corporate culture and mindset in which businesses already operating in Debrecen or newly established here strengthen and support local communities through their social responsibility programmes. The Hajdú-Bihar County Civil Community Service Center initiated the previous, first meeting where the city government promised to connect civil organizations operating in Debrecen with companies located in the city.
The current event was also attended by the Mayor of Debrecen, László Papp, and Deputy Mayor, Diána Széles. As László Papp said in his welcoming speech, among other things, there is a need for connections between the local government, the city, civil organisations and economic actors, and this system of connections must be strengthened, which must definitely have a decisive force in a city with a healthy society, economy, and spirituality. He emphasised that the operation of local civil communities is very important in Debrecen. In addition to the fact that the city strives to cooperate with the civil society on various platforms, the local government also has a civil support fund, which it plans in the city budget every year. In addition, according to the mayor, it is essential that the city acts as a catalyst in building relationships between representatives of the civil society and actors with a long local history or those newly arriving from an international level in the increasingly important and growing economic life of Debrecen, which is also internationally significant. The actors of economic life have the intention to practice corporate social responsibility, to use a fashionable term, CSR activity, which means that they seek contact and want contact with local civil communities in order to be able to stand by good causes, demonstrate that they want to participate, and want to play a role in the life of the city in supporting local communities. László Papp considers this very important. He believes that local civil organisations represent very good causes across the broadest spectrum, as there are many very good civil initiatives in Debrecen, from architecture, environmental protection through the social field to culture and sports. The local government itself is also trying to get involved in this process in an initiating role; let’s just think of the Debrecen Charity Board, which brings together organisations active in the social field, or the Move Debrecen! Movement, which plays a very, very important role in the field of sports in terms of improving movement and lifestyle. These local government initiatives have succeeded in reaching a significant number of the city’s citizens in recent years, but these activities cannot operate in isolation. That is why the local government, and personally Deputy Mayor Diána Széles, has an important role in building a network of connections so that the threads of connection can be refined into a strong, cohesive fabric. László Papp is confident that we are facing, or are already in, a phase of the city’s development in terms of community, associations, and civil organizations, in which very intensive cooperation will be experienced in the coming years between local economic actors and civil organizations. The local government will certainly contribute to strengthening this cooperation. Debrecen has enormous opportunities ahead, not only in an economic sense but also in terms of community building.
Deputy Mayor Diána Széles spoke about the enormous power of the civil society in Debrecen. People are active in this area who do their job with all their heart and soul and want to do something for the community. According to the Deputy Mayor, it is also the job of state, local government, and economic actors to help these people. The current meeting is intended to be only the first opportunity for civil society and economic actors to meet, as in addition to those currently present, there are countless civil society organizations operating in the city that also want to build relationships. Today’s event will help the participants to jointly create the framework for this. There are no large labour organisations behind the civil organisations, just people who want to do something for the community. The city government is committed to making their voices heard. The Deputy Mayor thanked the Hajdú-Bihar County Civil Community Service Center for its help in this and for the fact that not only civil organisations from Debrecen are present at this meeting but also those active in other settlements of the county, because Debrecen would like to show them off as well. Diána Széles also spoke about how not only economic actors can support civil society organisations, but civil society organisations can also help train and raise awareness of company employees through their health education and environmental protection activities. In addition, there are also many opportunities in the civil sphere that economic actors can use, and meetings like this one provide an opportunity to find each other on common topics.
It is not an easy thing to run a civil society organisation, you always have to research funding opportunities and apply and apply. Despite this, there are many strong civil society organisations in Debrecen that have been operating for decades and that you can rely on. Because together we are Debrecen! Head of the Hajdú-Bihar County Civil Community Service Center, Margit Serfőzőné Bencsik called the current event a milestone in the life of their office. It is another living example of Debrecen being a caring city. The office, run by the Civilians for the Youth Association, has had a big dream for years that associations present in civil life and corporate representatives would come closer to each other. The opportunity for this has now been created, and it is the beginning of a journey of enormous significance. Margit Serfőzőné Bencsik thanked the city leaders for this opportunity, for helping to invite economic actors.
Source and photo credit:debrecen.hu
