The Rainbow Network project will create a network of LGBTI rights activists engaged in advocacy and constituency building across Bulgaria by capacity-building of 10-15 community members who live and work in towns away from the capital. Through implementing an LGBTI Leadership Academy and activities for “friends raising,” the project will foster the development of LGBTI rights supportive infrastructure in the country. The current focal point of LGBTI community life, the Rainbow Hub in Sofia, Bulgaria, will create linkages to LGBTI-friendly places throughout the country and empower them to serve as community focal points, providing information and access to services for LGBTI people in need. The trained LGBTI leaders (mainly young people under 35), will become local contact points of the Rainbow Network, enhancing the resilience of the LGBTI communities, monitoring LGBTI rights violations on the local level, reporting, seeking necessary help, and fostering community participation in the democratic processes on the local level. 

The specific objectives are:

• Identify and train 10-15 LGBTI community leaders from 5-6 regions beyond the capital.
• Identify and build a relationship with local LGBTI allies in each of the target places.
• Disseminate information about the LGBTI contact points in the target regions and establish reliable channels for communication between community members and the contact points. 

Expected results:

• Identified, attracted, and trained to become “local LGBTI contact points” 10-15 local LGBTI community leaders from Blagoevgrad, Plovdiv, Stara Zagora, Veliko Tarnovo, Varna, Burgas or other towns in North-West, South-West, South-Central, North-East and South-East Bulgaria. 
• Established annual LGBTI Leadership Academy as a capacity-building and networking event for the country-wide activists Rainbow Network.
• Identified and attracted as a “safe space” for local LGBTI communities 5-8 local places such as cafes, community centers, or CSO offices; raised awareness of their managers as LGBTI allies.
• New rubric on LGBTI lives in the countryside at Proud.bg publishing stories at least once a month.
• New community initiatives at the local level are empowered and supported by the project.
• Improved reporting of anti-LGBTI hate speech and hate crimes committed in places beyond the capital.
• Enhanced support services (psychological, legal, etc.) for community members living outside the capital.
• Enhanced mobilization of LGBTI community members from across the country around Sofia Pride and other national-level events which place LGBTI rights on the public and political agenda.