Penza, 21 September 2015. PenzaNews. The city of Penza held its third city communities forum under the name “Wake Up the Province.”

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The event that took place at the Heliopark Residence hotel was divided into two parts: the main section, and the forecast discussions that tried to estimate the future for the city communities, non-profit organizations and public initiatives as a whole for the next 3-5 years.

The participants of the forum studied the best and the worst cases of city communities and learned more about using various marketing, fundraising and other strategies in their operation.

In his comment to PenzaNews agency after the event, Oleg Sharipkov, executive director of the Penza Civil Union foundation, one of the organizers of the forum, praised the hard work they had done over the past day and a half.

“About 130 people came: representatives of non-profit organizations, city communities, or simply various activists. They showed interesting projects, shared their knowledge, ‘recharged’ with the help of each other, saw how numerous we are and what should be done. Also, there were forecasts that we expect to help make the developments more active,” the speaker said.

Each of the three city communities forum already held in Penza had entirely different missions, he added.

“The first one aimed to help us get acquainted with each other. The second was dedicated to city events, where we learned to make them brighter and more interesting. And the third forum aimed to inspire, to revive the slightly waned enthusiasm,” Oleg Sharipkov clarified.

According to him, the participants of the third forum successfully fulfilled that mission, which may lead to new joint projects by the city communities.

“If all goes well, we will try to make another forum in spring. We’ll see when the time comes. If we feel the rising trend, we will hold an educational course with an emphasis on the new tech. And if the trend goes down with no change, we’ll try to ‘recharge’ them again,” the speaker explained.