STGM was founded in the year 2004 and its fundamental purpose is to support civil society organizations, which are the voices of citizens and essential actors of democracy, in becoming stronger and more capable of realizing more effective actions.
Therefore, although STGM provides assistance to all structures within civil society, it gives priority to the organizations that employ a rights-based approach. The priority target group of STGM comprises the civil society organizations that deal in the fields of gender, children, human rights, youth, environment, disability rights and cultural rights/culture-arts.
Capacity building support comes at the top of the study areas dealt by STGM. These capacity-building studies take on forms that align with the needs that change over time, from common training programs to the provision of legal assistance to organizations, and from institutional guidance studies to empowering civil networks and cooperation. Policy advocacy is yet another area of study that is on the agenda, both in the context of STGM’s own freedom of organization and in the context where STGM develops programs for empowering other organizations.
STGM has been conducting its studies mainly through projects within the scope of the instrument for pre-accession financial cooperation and civil society supported by the European Union since 2004. On the other hand, STGM carries out closely coordinated actions with public institutions that have civil society-related duties.
