International Council for Cultural Centers (I3C)

 The goal of the project is to strengthen the participation of marginalized groups and individuals in their communities throughout Bulgaria. To this end, the International Council for Cultural Centers will expand and strengthen its network of Bread Houses in Bulgaria, increase the capacity of the local bread house coordinators to implement projects and engage marginalized groups, and explore the possibilities of turning bread houses into successful social enterprises.

 Over the past two years, we were delighted to see a growing international interest in our Bread Therapy methods, proven effective with various underprivileged groups.

 Our initiative 'Solidarity Bread' was involved in UNAOC #OneHumanity microsite as a good practive of solidarity in the face of COVID-19. In April we launched our online bread makings as a response to the needs of the society. Our moto is #High-TOUCH through high-tech with the wish of reaching more people in a need of sharing, expression of emotions and breaking a bread together with others.

 And the Award for the most Innovative European Volunteer Initiative for 2019 goes to… Solidarity Bread!

On January 18 we played the “Build a Bread House” educational game on social entrepreneurship with 60 youngsters from Bulgaria, Macedonia and Serbia. By using the stages of growing wheat, we discussed how we can create a Bread House in their communities and which social groups can participate in the functioning of the Bread House. The youngsters visited the Sofia Bread House and played the “Bakers Without Borders” game as a part of the project “Youth Social Integration Through Social Entrepreneurship” funded by the Erasmus+ Program and implemented by the Bulgarian Memory Foundation (Bulgaria), together with the Bulgarian-Macedonian Friendship Association (Macedonia) and the Citizen Association “Grupa liperalnih, ambicioznih i solidarnih“ (Serbia). The goal of the project is to develop entrepreneurial skills through informal education and to contribute to youth employment.

We are launching a series of children’s books written and illustrated by our founder and president, Dr. Nadezhda Savova-Grigorova, cultural anthropologist (Princeton University) and “Traveler with a Mission of the Year 2012” of the global National Geographic. The books are separate from the game Bakers without Borders, but related to it. They go under the general title of “The Adventures of NadEzhko, the hedgehog Baker without Borders”. You can learn more about the books and purchase them on the website of the Bakers without Borders game: http://thegame.bakerswithoutborders.net/books/.

We were recently awarded participation in the 8th Mont-Blanc Meetings on solidarity economy that will take place on December 6, 7, and 8, 2017 in France. The topic of the event is "Social and solidarity economy: The new efficiency." During the event we will present about the initiative of the Bread Houses Network. Zdrava Vodenicharova from the Bread Houses Network will be presenting attending the event to present us.