Beyond Systems: What Two Days in Dojran Taught Us About Community, Care, and the Future of Inclusion

Inclusion doesn’t begin in institutions - and it certainly doesn’t end there. True inclusion starts in communities. In the way care is imagined, services are delivered, and people are treated not as recipients, but as experts in their own lives.

That belief brought us to Dojran.

Earlier this month, we joined a two-day workshop on community-based services and deinstitutionalization. Organized by the Center for Youth Activism KRIK and supported by Caritas and the EU, the event gathered organizations and advocates from across the region. Though no individuals with disabilities were present, their realities, rights, and needs were central to every single conversation.

Because it’s not about who’s in the room, it’s about who the room is built for.

From systems to people

Too often, support is seen as something technical. But people are not spreadsheets. Care cannot be standardized, not when it’s meant to empower, uplift, and dignify.

In Dojran, the focus shifted: from managing services to meeting people. From talking about structures to talking with communities. Together with participants from diverse NGOs, municipal offices, and civil society groups, we explored what it really takes to move beyond institutional care:

• How can local services be more flexible, humane, and grounded in real needs?

• What are the pathways from legislation to lived experience?

• Where do power and care intersect, and how can we rethink both?

These weren’t theoretical questions. They were urgent. Rooted in the understanding that real inclusion doesn’t come from reforming systems alone, it comes from redesigning them with the people most affected.

Participation is not a checkbox. It’s a process

It’s easy to speak about “community-based services” in policy language. It’s harder, but more necessary, to ask what that means on the ground.

In two days of open dialogue, group work, and structured reflection, we interrogated the assumptions baked into current service models. Who decides what’s dignified? Who defines what’s “efficient”? And where are the voices that have been historically left out?

Workshops like these aren’t just learning moments. They’re accountability moments. They remind us that allyship is not only about showing up, but about staying, even when the conversations are complex, slow, or uncomfortable.

Why inclusion must be local to be real

The future of care is not top-down. It’s built in towns like Dojran, by coalitions that understand both the weight of systemic change and the daily realities of those they serve.

As Cultural Connection continues to advocate for more inclusive workplaces and cultural environments across Europe, this experience deepens our commitment to making sure our work reflects, and responds to, real community voices.

Because the future we want isn’t built in conference halls. It’s built in spaces where people feel heard, held, and at home.

Inclusion is not a gesture. It’s a responsibility

We came to Dojran not with answers, but with questions. And we left with even better ones, the kind that guide long-term, human-first transformation.

We remain committed to learning from and with those at the forefront of inclusion, whether in disability rights, LGBTQ+ justice, migration, or mental health. Because none of these movements exist in isolation. And neither can our approach to culture, work, and care.

This work doesn’t end at a workshop. It begins there.