BEARR News
Supporting Frontline Communities This Winter
Grants under the Community Resilience Fund are mainly focused on mental health and community resilience projects. However BEARR is acutely aware that in some places, especially frontline regions, the physical situation is so dire this winter that organisations there may have more immediate priorities. We consulted one such organisation about the various difficulties they face. …
The BEARR Trust Small Grants Scheme 2026
The BEARR Trust’s Small Grants Scheme supports small, community-based civil society organisations (CSOs) across Eastern Europe and Central Asia. Through the Scheme, BEARR aims to encourage cooperation and partnership, strengthen organisational capacity, and support practical, locally driven initiatives that respond to local needs. While much of BEARR’s recent work has focused on responding to the …
Project report: Team Unity, bringing communities together
SGS 2025 Grantee: NGO New Generation, Obukhiv, Ukraine Project: ‘Team Unity’: integration of young IDPs The project examined how grants can initiate social change and influence the social environment of a community through the practical experience of Team Unity, implemented with the support of The BEARR Trust. When the NGO New Generation was forced to …
Project report: From probation to integration in Armenia
SGS 2025 Grantee: Centre for legal Initiatives, Armenia Project: Pathways to Reintegration: Empowering through Social Inclusion for a Sustainable Future Project Aims and Approach The project was designed to support individuals on probation in their social integration and active participation in community life. Acknowledging that reintegration is a complex and long-term process influenced by legal …
BEARR Newsletter December 2025
December 2025 Dear friends and colleagues, As we reflect on the year gone by, we warmly thank our donors for their generous support and wish our partners and friends a joyful and healthy New Year, filled with hope, resilience and real achievements. In this December edition, we give an update on next year’s Small Grants …
Georgian civil society organisations in crisis
Armorer Wason, BEARR Adviser ‘I haven’t experienced this kind of repression; I grew up in post-Soviet Georgia. I’m finding it really hard to adjust. Our whole identity is under threat.’ In mid-September I spent time with two civil society organisation (CSO) leaders in Tbilisi. Nino (all names have been changed), the director of a well-respected …
Report: The BEARR Trust Annual Conference – November 14, 2025
Report by BEARR Trustee Sam Thorne Solidarity and stamina: how civil society builds and sustains resilience ‘Resilience is choosing hope, action and compassion when circumstances push towards fear and exhaustion, keeping on with positivity inspired by belief and resources, staying alive and true to personal values, and having the opportunity to act accordingly.’ This was …
Project report: “Volunteering Academy 2025”
Two grantees in the same city used their 2025 SGS Strand B grant from The BEARR Trust to run a joint “Volunteering Academy 2025” training and resilience-building programme. During the programme 30 staff and volunteers attended 10 in-person, six-hour sessions with experienced trainers. The programme covered topics most in-demand in the current challenging context: 1. …
Project report: A creative club that became a lifeline
Community Resilience Fund Grantee: Institute for Democracy, Moldova Project: To help Ukrainian refugees and Moldovan residents find stability through art A three-month initiative entitled “Creative Club for Adaptation and Community Cohesion”, supported by the The BEARR Trust, has concluded in Moldova. Its mission was simple yet vital: to help people who have lived through war, …
BEARR Newsletter October 2025
Displaced and local children in Zaporizhzhia find joy and connection through community activities supported by BEARR’s partners October 2025 Dear friends and colleagues, In this October edition, we’re delighted to share the latest update on our Ukraine Community Resilience Fund and an invitation to our Annual Conference on 14 November, where we’re pleased to announce this year’s speakers. You’ll …