GLChange-makers Updates November 2025

The GLC Alumni Network hosted an international virtual gathering on November 4, bringing together disability advocates from Central and Eastern Europe and the United States for an in-depth exchange on emerging challenges, shared victories, and strategies for sustaining advocacy in a shifting political environment. Moderated by Vladislav Petkov, the event aimed to reconnect alumni, strengthen cross-border relationships, and explore how the GLC Alumni Network can continue supporting disability-rights work despite shrinking democratic space and uncertain funding climates.

The program featured a rich lineup of speakers from both regions, beginning with U.S. leaders - including representatives from the Michigan Disability Rights Coalition, Access Living, and the United States International Council on Disabilities - who outlined current federal, state, and international trends affecting disability policy. Mentors and longtime partners such as Theresa Metzmaker, Elizabeth Sammons, Amber Smock, and Isabel Hodge shared insights into the evolving advocacy environment in the U.S., the repercussions of policy changes abroad, and the value of ongoing international collaboration.

Alumni from Hungary, Romania, Albania, and Bulgaria followed with updates on the disability-rights landscape in their respective countries, highlighting both progress and setbacks over the last years. Speakers including Zora Molnar, Petra Pintelei, Andreia Bruckner, Enron Seiti, and Ashod Derandonyan discussed current campaigns, legislative or social shifts shaping their work, and moments of pride within their communities. Many also reflected on how changes in U.S. policy and funding priorities have influenced European narratives, resources, and advocacy strategies.

The event concluded with a collective discussion on strengthening a sustained community of practice within the GLC Alumni Network. Participants emphasized the need for continued knowledge exchange and mutual support, particularly amid increasingly challenging political contexts, but also highlighted proper channels to stay connected need to be identified, which take into account the limited time and resources. To carry the momentum forward, alumni working on disability issues were invited to contribute ideas for a possible community of practice on disability rights through a short survey. The survey is still open until December 10th and you can fill it up here:

If there are barriers for you to fill up this form, you can send your answers/reflections to me at [email protected] or we can schedule a short call to collect responses. A recording of the session (featuring ASL interpretation) is available upon request on the same e-mail address.

Special gratitude to Michigan Disability Rights Coalition and Access Living for the support in putting this event together!

Adrienne Evans, Executive Director of United Vision for Idaho and a long-term mentor and friend within the GLC Alumni Network, succesfully concluded a strategic partnership trip to Romania, taking place between October 1st and October 15th 2025. Adrienne went back to Europe to work with Victor-Catalin Toma (Romania, alumni of cohort Spring 2019) and further exploring possibilities for replicating the European Youth Village program in the US. More details on the trip and its result will come in next issues.

Adrienne’s trip to Romania was co-funded by the Dave Beckwith Memorial Strategic Partnership Programme 2024. The funding was raised among the members and friends of our network to allow for further international learning and solidarity. If you want to see more trips happening, make sure to support our fundraising campaign:

Originally, a big in-person international reunion was supposed to happen in September 2025 in Romania. Then, the funding was pulled out and while the big reunion could not happen, a number of small reunions were taking place.

In Hungary, the return of honorary member Elizabeth Balint for the autumn months have generated a lot of alumni fuzz. Elizabeth’s endless energy managed to bring together not only people from across the Hungarian alumni community, but also international guests like Miroslav Ragac and Edita Bednarova (Slovakia), Vladislav Petkov and Emil Metodiev (Bulgaria), Victor Toma (Romania).

In Slovakia, a number of alumni got together in November for a weekend reunion, hosted by Martina Marekova (Spring 2023). The Slovak alumni community has come up with a plan for rotational responsibility where each year one alum would be in charge of logistical and program-related arrangements for organizing self-sponsored alumni reunions. Amazing idea!

In Bulgaria, a very cold day in mid-November ruined the plans for many alumni who were trying to get together for hot tea and updates. Nevertheless, many still showed up, proving once again we need the relationships our networks have built and strenghtened.

From a Facebook post to the Capital City Civil Organization of the Year Award - Charity Taxi - the organisation funded and ran by our alumn Tamas Horn (cohort Fall 2016) has come a long way over the past 10 years.

Since its inception, Charity Taxi has collected donations from 5,000 households in Budapest. This amounts to roughly 170 tons of donations, which were delivered to 53,000 people in need in 110 disadvantaged communities with the help of nearly 700 volunteers. It is therefore not surprising the work of the organisation has been recognized with several professional awards.

The 10th anniversary was honored with a special publication, a big festival and an ambitious fundraising campaign.

Happy birthday, Charity taxi! Congratulations, Tomi!

“Good organizing requires relational power building, which centers and elevates ordinary people. Good organizing is never transactional or extractive. We must work together, hand in hand with partners in philanthropy, to advance social justice, defeat White nationalism, and undo the corporate capture of our society.

Good organizing is not new. Many of its techniques, such as agitation and civil disobedience, were pioneered in the labor movement and then adapted in new ways by civil rights leaders like James Lawson, Fannie Lou Hamer, Ella Baker, and Diane Nash; and earlier leaders like Septima Clark, who championed popular education.

These foundational techniques have since been widely shared by the Midwest Academy and other leadership training organizations. We have expanded this toolkit with new methodologies like deep canvassing, which emerged out of the movement for marriage equality.

Deep canvassing goes far beyond standard electoral techniques to engage people in nonjudgmental, constructive conversations. It has proven highly effective in bringing people of opposing viewpoints together so they can take action together, with enduring results. And while digital organizing can mobilize and reach millions of people with a single click, it will never replace the effectiveness of knocking on a neighbor’s door or sitting down for a conversation at the kitchen table. (…)

To block authoritarian consolidation in the short term and lay the foundation for the long fight ahead requires a range of tactics and strategies. We must forge alliances with uncommon partners and create narratives of liberation rooted in shared stories of survival, dignity, and democracy that millions recognize as their own. These narratives must bring us together, out of isolation, and into action.”

The Obama Foundation’s Leaders program aims to inspire, empower, and connect regional cohorts of changemakers to accelerate positive and lasting change in their communities and throughout their region and across our world. The Leaders program launched in Africa in 2018 and expanded to Asia Pacific in 2019, Europe in 2020, and the United States in 2023.

Open for 24-45-year-old emerging leaders from around the world who forge societies and communities rooted in shared values, where all people belong, participate, and thrive.

Application deadline is December 12th 2025.