BIRLIKTE HUB: A learning community strengthened by experience

In February 2023, we started the second implementation period of the BIRLIKTE Institutional Support Program, which is the result of STGM's long experience in the civic space. We completed the first implementation period of the program in fall 2020 and gained a lot of experience. We are working to implement the feedback we received from the civil society organizations we worked with during this second implementation period. One of these feedbacks was the need to create more opportunities for the CSOs participating in the program to meet more frequently to get to know each other, develop collaborations, and learn from each other's expertise. To better meet these needs, we established BIRLIKTE NETWORK as a learning and exchange community during the implementation period. 

Fundamentally, we created the BIRLIKTE Network to:

• To strengthen communication among BIRLIKTE participants,
• To ensure uninterrupted communication between the program and participants, and
• To create opportunities for organizations to learn from and with each other.

To achieve these goals, we organize various events as part of the BIRLIKTE Network. Our in-person and online trainings, webinars, and workshops will be followed by thematic meetings with peer organizations in Ireland, online forums, and in-person peer meetings. In addition, 5 representatives from participating organizations will have the opportunity to spend 2 weeks working with workplace learning in peer organizations in Ireland and learn about the approaches, methods and examples of best practices there.

Digital meeting place B-HUB

In addition to these events, the BIRLIKTE Network also offers a digital meeting place: B- HUB.

B- HUB is the social media platform of the BIRLIKTE Program! Each organization of the program on B- HUB includes on its profile page information such as scope of work, target groups and contact information. In addition, members of the participating organizations, employees, volunteers, in short, anyone who wants to participate in this platform can become a member of B- HUB and create their own personal profile.

Organizations disseminate the announcements of their upcoming events and can post all kinds of publications such as researches, reports and bulletins to the B- HUB library. They can follow each other and group announcements according to their interests or the people and organizations they follow.

Profiles of all organizations are included under the collaboration title of B- HUB. From here you can scan according to the topic you would like to collaborate with.

Organizations also have a separate section where they post their resources, experience and expertise that they would like to share with other participants: Paying In Forward. In this section, each organization can announce their resources and opportunities, such as education, workshops, meeting rooms, that they would like to share in solidarity with the BIRLIKTE community. Organizations interested in these announcements can also submit a request here.

In addition to the library created with participant publications, B- HUB also has a basic resources section created by the program team.

The Basic Resources section contains resources in various formats and at various levels under 16 subtitles on the topics of the model of instutional development that we have implemented in BIRLIKTE. As a program team, we selected these resources by discussing them individually in a series of regular meetings. This section was created by compiling resources in various formats such as books, informational notes, beginner, intermediate, and advanced level videos that cover theoretical discussions on each topic, the legal framework, and practical applications. Participating organizations can access basic information here on the areas for improvement they have identified in their self-assessment processes.

We have compiled these resources into the following 16 subheadings:

1. Governance and Decision Making,
2. Strategic Planning,
3. Staff - Volunteers - Members,
4. Collaborations and Partnerships,
5. Resources - Financial Management,
6. Resources - Knowledge Management,
7. Resources - Grants Management,
8. Fundraising,
9. Communication,
10. Digitization,
11. Monitoring and Evaluation,
12. Rights-Based Approach,
13. Gender Mainstreaming,
14. Cross-cutters - Environmental Mainstreaming,
15. Cross-cutters - Child Safety and Child Participation,
16. Cross Cutters - Accessibility.

Program Documents complete the Library and Basic Resources sections. Program Documents consist of documents created and used during the BIRLIKTE Program, sample templates and webinar recordings for the application. In this section, participating organizations can access any document they want whenever they want. These cover technical information from sample signature sheet, payroll schedule, visibility rules to grant application procedures.

User-friendly and accessible system

BIRLIKTE Network events are posted at HUB announcements. The content, method, date, etc. of these events. We are working on new technical specifications to determine the details with the participating organizations. We also continue to strive and design new sections so that B-HUB enables much more interaction between users than its counterparts.

We are committed to making B- HUB user-friendly and accessible. For this reason, we evaluate all feedback from our participating organizations and share it regularly with our technical team.

B- HUB, which is currently only available to BIRLIKTE participants, could develop into a broader platform for civil society organizations in Turkey to learn from each other, discuss, and form new partnerships, from the scope of work to new methodologies to the institutional capacity of civil society organizations. Who knows? We will continue to work with all our energy to develop the lessons learned here into such a contribution, and we will keep this space updated with news from the activities of the BIRLIKTE network in the coming period.