On the 29^th and 30^th of April 2015 in hotel “Marieta Palace” in Nesebar in implementation of the project “Prevention of Sexual Exploitation of Children in the Context of Deinstitutionalization” funded by the OAK Foundation and Medicor Foundation the first of the planned seminars was held. The project is implemented on the territories of districts Burgas, Plovdiv, and Sliven and similar seminars will be held in the other two regional cities.

Participants in this event were specialists working in the institutions providing services for children and youth on the territory of Burgas, representatives of “Child Protection Services” in the city of Burgas, Local Commissions for Combating Juvenile Delinquency Sredets and Plovdiv, Social Assistance Directorate Plovdiv, Associate Assistance Directorate Burgas, and Association “Demetra”.

During the seminar the participants were introduced to the goals and objectives of the project as well as with the report of the conducted study of the knowledge, attitude, and opinion of children and youth towards the problem of “sexual exploitation.”

One of the goals of this training was to bring out on a local level the problems and difficulties working with children and youth for prevention of sexual exploitation.

The content of the Handbook for prevention of sexual exploitation for professionals which will be published over the course of this project was also discussed.

Representatives of the Non-Profit Organization Association “Demetra” took part in a training seminar on “Strategic Planning and Civil Advocacy. Participation of civil groups in the development and change of public policies” which took place in hotel “Burgas” in the city of Burgas for the duration of 2^nd to 4^th of April 2015. This seminar was within the project “Strategic Planning and Advocacy: Tools for more effective involvement of NGOs in Decision Making and Dialogue with Local Authorities. The project is funded under the program to support NGOs in Bulgaria under the Financial Mechanism of the European Economic Area 2009-2014 and it is implemented by the Institute for Regional and International Studies.

The seminar was attended by other NOGs actively working with youth on the territory of the Burgas region.

During this seminar the lectors presented in a extraordinary way the basic mechanism of strategic planning, advocacy, work with the media, and development of a media strategy as an essential part of the advocacy campaign.