Our 2005 activities:

The efforts of driving public policy formation in 2002 arises the attention of civic network at all levels. Bangkok Forum in collaboration with members from the House of Representatives held a “Big Bang Siam ” workshop on January 29, 2005 at the Prince Palace Hotel. This workshop is a continuing effort of the civic sector in participatory developing a public policy of creating the livable city. At this time, the election of the representatives of the House of Representatives was taken as a driving force for the civic sector to participatory work with the new government in creating a public participation process focusing on developing the livable city. During September- October 2005, Bangkok Forum also joined forces in developing a public participation process in creating the livable city in some districts, Bang Sue, Nog Jok, and Lad Krabang, for example. As a facilitator for the participatory workshop, the appreciative inquiry approach was used to draw out the creative power of all community stakeholders in building their own livable city.

In March 2005, Bangkok Forum worked with the Thai Health Fund Foundation, the National Health Systems Reform Office, the Children and Youth Committee from all provinces, the Ministry of Public Health, the Children and Youth Press, ชบวนการตาสับประรด , the Buddhist priest network and the children-focused organizations in organizing youth volunteering camp, “We Volunteer” at the six affected Tsunami provinces from March 21-31, 2005. The participation of the Bangkok volunteer network in revitalizing the Tsunami affected areas led to the formation of the volunteering consortium that later on collaboratively develop the “Volunteer Spirit” project. The objectives of this project were to build and support volunteers for the charity and social work, lift up volunteer spirit and improve the volunteering work. From July – October 2005, the Volunteer Spirit network launched the “Smart Giving, Smart Sharing” project by inviting the volunteers to build the house from mud, clean the river, plant the trees, take care cats and dogs, survey data on stateless children, and renovate the shelter home. As part of this project, Bangkok Forum, in coordination with the Rak Kha Cha Mao group, took lead in managing the volunteering activity of building the muddy house in Rayong province.

In June 2005, Bangkok Forum started the “Prang Puthon youth and the Public Space” project in Prang Phuthon area with a support from the Local Development Institute as part of the “ Bangkok Livable City ” Program. The objective of this project is to encourage the youth, community member and other interested community stakeholders to participate in discovering the history of this old community through creative and constructive activities like arts, music, and sport. In continuation to this project, Bangkok Forum launched the “Youth Cafe” project from August 2005 to April 2006 to continue work on discovering the community history, investigate the public problems/issues, improve community development skills for the youth in the Prang Puthon and nearby areas, and to test the volunteering network models using the “Youth Cafe” located at Bangkok Forum office as a center.