This document of «Communities Causes & Recommendations» was developed as part of the Communities Driving Change (CIVIC) project, co-financed by the European Commission - Europe for Citizens program, coordinated by Contextos - Cooperativa para o Desenvolvimento e Coesão Social, CRL (Portugal), in partnership with United Societies of Balkans (Greece), Asociacija Aktyvus Jaunimas (Lithuania) and Asociatia Centrul Pentru Strategii de Dezvoltare a Tineretului (Romania). The set of different Causes & Recommendations here presented resulted from the activities of Democracy Labs, Gathering of Opinions, and Public Consultations of the project, which were implemented locally, between the years of 2021 and 2022, in each Partner country city – Faro (Portugal), Thessaloniki (Greece), Kaunas (Lithuania), and Timișoara (Romania). To gain a more comprehensive understanding of the citizen's causes, a mixed methodology approach was used, to collect and analyse the data, combining qualitative and quantitative methods. Qualitative methods, such as open-ended interviews and focus groups, provided in-depth insights into the participants' experiences and perceptions. In the meantime, quantitative methods, such as surveys and statistical analysis, provided numerical data that aided to identify trends. By combining both methods, the project consortium gained a more complete picture of the citizens' needs, and the validity and reliability of the findings were improved. This approach additionally allowed the mitigation of the weaknesses of each method by balancing its limitations with its strengths. Each of the following chapters is dedicated to presenting the Community Causes & Recommendations that resulted from this work, as follows: Chapter II - Faro, Portugal; Chapter III - Thessaloniki, Greece; Chapter IV - Kaunas, Lithuania; Chapter V - Timisoara, Romania. With this work, the project consortium aims at: Giving back to the local communities and presenting to decision makers the proposals developed in each Partner city, giving more voice and visibility to the needs and desired changes of local citizens (National Versions of the local Causes & Recommendations collected are made available by each Partner organization in Portuguese, Greek, Lithuanian and Romanian languages); Reflect on possible similarities and differences of Causes identified in the different Partner countries and Recommendations given by each community to achieve the desired outcomes.

Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA). Neither the European Union nor EACEA can be held responsible for them.