Ildikó Bárányi is a Member of the Civil College Foundation in Hungary and Member of the Supervisory Board of the Chance Lab (Hungarian Anti-Poverty Network). She has three years experience in the field and has a background in the business world. Ildikó decided to give her extra time and energy volunteering in Hungarian communities. Initially, she got involved in her own neighborhood to help those closest to her to improve their living situations. Soon after she felt the call to do something bigger and began volunteering with the Hungarian Anti-Poverty Network where she met a former member of the ECON board who introduced her to the organization.  One of her favorite experiences connects to her time volunteering with the Hungarian Anti-Poverty Network, an arm of the European Anti-Poverty Network that pushes Hungarian government to provide more support for families who are experiencing poverty. In October 2017, the organization held a week filled with events that were related to the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty. These engaging and educational events, including one which hosted a panel of experts, were able to bring in media attention that spread across to other communities and increase awareness about the issue.

To Ildikó, organizing means bringing people together who share common values to work on the expressed needs of a community and to support one another. After bringing a group together, they must go out to local events and ask people what problems they are facing. A common fear for new organizers is first approaching residents but Ildikó urges them to meet the people where they are and not to be afraid to talk to others.  After attending training events, including serving as a participant in the European Community Organizing School, Ildikó became a member of ECON’s fundraising committee and had helped with projects aimed at bringing attention and funding to the network and its members. The work members of ECON do is very important to her because it strives to get to the root of systematic issues through changing the long-term instead of serving as a band-aid that only briefly addresses problems. Stemming from her work on the fundraising committee, Ildikó would like to see ECON’s communications grow so it can aid the organization in expanding its fundraising efforts. She also benefited from the international trainings and would like to increase and strengthen those opportunities for the members of the network. While she is Hungarian, Ildikó first and foremost identifies as a European and is awestruck by this colorful and creative region and hopes her work with ECON can help unite it.