OSF Prague and its partners organized the Stronger Roots Conference hosting up to 90 representatives of the civil society organizations from Central Europe in Prague in May 11-13, 2022. The conference was held on the occasion of the closing of the first round of an innovative Stronger Roots Program which aims to increase the resilience of civil society organizations and their networks and strengthen their social capital.

The Stronger Roots Program has been implemented in the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary by Open Society Fund Prague, the NIOK Foundation, Open Society Foundation Bratislava and Glopolis with the support from Porticus and the Open Society Initiative for Europe since 2019. During the Program, 35 civil society organizations were able to strengthen their social base (a community of their supporters, donors, volunteers and other people around them) and 9 CSO networks managed to start new or strengthen their existing partnerships across divergent ideological or geographical lines.   

The conference took place on May 11 – 13, 2022 in Prague and presented the methodology, impact and case studies of the Stronger Roots Program, but also opened questions on the current state of affairs in Central and Eastern Europe, sociological trends, new challenges and opportunities for the civil society organizations.