History

PDCS was created in 1991 as a project at the Comenius University in Bratislava that was part of the international educational program Partners for Democratic Change (PDC).

In 1994, PDCS was registered as a foundation, continuing its activities since 1997 as a civic association. In 1999 it earned the accreditation of Ministry of Education of the Slovak Republic for education related to management of nonprofit organizations and functioning of the third sector in Slovakia. 

PDCS is part of international network. Partners for Democratic Change International (PDCI) is a partnership of different centers linked by a common mission and values of democratic change, working to build capacity, cooperation, and sustainability among its members. Through PDCI, Partners develops and strengthens Centers through transferring expertise and resources among them, and mobilizing experienced trainers from existing Centers to build new Centers' training, application and organizational development capacities.

Currently, the PDCS includes an internal staff of 13 people and works with several external contractual partners and volunteers. In the past it had run the Conciliation Council in Levice and Presov, and the Mediation Center in Banská Bystrica.

In its activities, PDCS has so far focused on provision of educational, training, consultation and facilitation services for clients in Slovakia and abroad. Through its work, PDCS supports participation of citizens in decision making on public issues, searches out for and facilitates starting cooperation of various citizen groups, but also government, local-government and nonprofit organizations.

Since 1993, PDCS provided training and facilitation services in workshops in 45 countries including: Afghanistan, Armenia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Estonia, Georgia, Germany, Hungary, Israel, Jemen, Kazakhstan, Kosovo, Latvia, Lithuania, Macedonia, Moldavia, Mongolia, The Netherlands, Poland, Romania, Russia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Tajikistan, Thailand, Turkey, Ukraine, and the United States.

An important event in the history of PDCS was its 10th anniversary conference in 2001 - "Civil Society and its Ability to Manage Conflicts".

In 2004 we have organized a conference Trends in Consulting in V4 Countries, which was very successful.

In 2007 we have organized discussion seminar in Open Space form "Trends in Trainings and Informal Education". App. 80 particpants from different educational and consulting agencies, representatives from different trainers associations, consultants, NGOs were discussin different topics.

In the past, our colleagues have included:

Ales Bednařik, Ladislav Briestenský, Katka Farkašová, Tomáš Foldi, Lucia Halandová, Jana Hermanová, Ján Hrubala, Zuzana Kelbelová, Luboš Klimek, Martina Laššáková, Pavol Makyš, Jana Pružinská, Lenka Rapošová, Peter Robl, Ivana Tóthová, Filip Vagač, Renáta Ferstlová, Roland Wágner.