PeerEx | UK and Russia

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Peer-Ex: Building cross-border connections

Around the world, CSOs and social enterprises are having to find new ways to adapt to changes in the political and financial landscapes they operate in. The charity and social enterprise sector in Russia and the UK is no exception to this. The aim of the programme is to help organisations exchange knowledge on how to strengthen civil society and social enterprises by seeking alternative solutions to leadership challenges and build resilience, and as a result, to achieve greater positive impact.

Peer to peer learning is an excellent method to build know-how by:

finding solutions to shared challenges, based on good practices already in place
sharing different perspectives
learning from each other, while leveling out the hierarchy

This programme is built on Euclid Network’s expertise and previous experience in hosting peer exchanges for civil society and social enterprise leaders.

Participants from the two countries will be matched and spend time together face-to-face to learn from each other, as well as learning from experts. The peers will also work together online before and after their visits. Costs of participating will be covered by the project.

What people had to say about Peer-Ex

Grigory Sverdlin, a director at Nochliezka, a non-profit charity organisation which provides assistance to homeless people, paid a visit to Oxford with his counterpart Tim Sadler (Executive Director Sustainable City at Oxford City Council) to see the range of charitable projects happening in the innovate city – and is now looking to realise his plans of creating a new social enterprise in Russia.

"It was really interesting to step in and talk to people and make contacts that will help us and our colleagues. Who knows maybe in a year there will be a café that employs homeless people in Russia. It is just the beginning of social enterprise in Russia, even charity is young in the country."

"The peer I was matched with was very business orientated so it was different but it was very useful. I got some ideas on how our NGOs could be more pro active and I am taking home with me several ideas about how we can diversify our income streams. I think we need to restructure the way we work. We tend to think we don’t have enough employees… but I see organisations in the UK with fewer employees doing the same if not even more work."

Irina Makeeva, Siberian Civic Initiatives Support Centre in Novosibirsk

Another participant, Olga Smurova (Deputy Director at the Social Rehabilitation Center in Nizhny Novgorod), was given a tour of social enterprises in Durham by her peer Kate Welch.

"It was great to see how many social enterprises there are in the UK and how many volunteers are involved. I think that the more opportunities there are for people to be involved, the less people will be excluded in society. I am really looking forward to seeing the peers in Russia and showing them what is going on in our country. It is not as developed in Russia but many things are being done.”

Join us

If you are curious, looking for inspiration and eager to share your knowledge and learn from others, PeerEx is for you.

Apply here and embark on the PeerEx journey with us!

Deadline: 22nd October.

Due to the volume of applications, we will only contact successful applicants. You can expect to hear back by 12th November.

If you have additional questions please contact Marta Bruschi.

Apply now

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