PROJECTS AND PROGRAMS

Community house “Búdka 22” underwent reconstruction and was launch in November 2017. “Búdka 22” is a model house that is guided by the principles of sustainability and the circular economy.

It houses a community of organizations working in the environmental field and in social innovation. The individual entities operating in the villa are sharing the element of system change, a higher degree of cooperation and the creation of common synergies. Organizations based in villa “Búdka 22” are of a wide range of non-profit, scientific, and business sectors. The villa provides not only a work space for these organizations, but also a space for educational, cultural and social activities designed for the general public, so that the ideas of the individual participating organizations can be propagated further.

More information about the community house Budka 22 are to be found at www.budka22.eu.

The ambition of the Green Foundation is to define what social innovation is in the context of the Slovak environment. How to understand it, how to read it and how to perceive it. The Foundation participates  in conceptualization of ideas such as open innovation, social economy, or socially beneficial entrepreneurship, and participates in the creation of the basic attributes and to promote them in public support programs.

The Green Foundation wants to be involved in international processes: international conferences, partnership projects and initiatives to ensure the transfer of know-how and expertise from other countries to Slovakia and vice versa.

In close cooperation with the international organization ASHOKA, the Green Foundation is developing a comprehensive program to support social innovation, whose ambition is to identify the main players of social innovation in Slovakia. Players who use the market to implement their social innovation, but even those who are not market players. The Foundation’s goal is to support social innovators and to ensure that the necessary support infrastructure is available for their initiatives in the form of grant assistance, financial assistance or mentoring.

The Green Foundation is focusing on promoting the environment where social innovation originates and where it is applied in the environment of non-profit organizations, the state and the business sector.

In co-operation with the state and government authorities, the Foundation is involved in creation and will be influencing the policy-making. It will participate in designing the supporting infrastructure through its consultative and advisory capabilities.

The Green Foundation, in collaboration with the international organization Jane Goodall Institute, brings to Slovakia an educational program aimed at increasing the motivation, interest and ability of young people to have a positive influence on their surroundings. The Roots & Shoots project is implemented in the form of environmental and community project learning (service-learning), where pupils themselves identify the key themes of their environment. Selected issues are then supported by the Foundation and their community.

We have updated the Jane Goodall Institute methodology in 2016 so it could satisfy and be applicable to Slovak realities. During the school year 2016/17 we tested it in a pilot program at five Slovak schools. We have continued to expand this project and cooperated with ten schools in the school year 2017/18. 

It was the Foundation’s first major project after its transformation that brought together dozens of key public and private bodies who have an interest in Kollar Square in Bratislava. The project has been implemented in the course of 2017 and it responded to the long-standing deprived state of Kollar Square, whose functions are degraded. This area is currently being used for transit and therefore it doesn’t serve its potential of a public space in the center of the city which is adjoined to the pedestrian zone. The project consisted of three parts:

Physical Interventions, which aimed to change the state of the square in a very short time and made it look more respectable

Program Activities that showed the potential of the space to the public

A Participatory Process that defined the general agreement of all the key institutions operating on Kollar Square, professionals and public administration representatives in the future appearance, and the function of the space after its reconstruction over the 2-3-year horizon. At the same time, the goal was to create the potential for sustainability of the new functions of the square, especially in terms of the institutions operating on the square, such as the Nova Scena (theatre), the Slovak Design Center, the Slovak University of Technology.

The Foundation plans to support other foundations and non-profit organizations that have a similar aim and focus in their activities.
The Foundation’s main source of income will be the contributions of private individuals or legal entities and ongoing contributions
from the founder of Green Foundation, Mr. Boris Zeleny.