CHALLENGES FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF COMMUNITY CENTRES (CHITALISHTE) IN THE CONDITIONS OF COVID-19

The COVID-19 crisis placed the community centres (chitalishte in Bulgarian) in new conditions, which they need to comply with. This unprecedented crisis has impacted the conditions and way of work of all organisations, including the community centres. At the same time, the crisis dictates a new way of behaving and communicating with people. The new conditions require organisations to focus on their functioning in the new digital environment. In this regard, the purpose of this study is to identify the challenges facing community centres as important organisations with socially significant benefits in the crisis COVID-19. The analysis is based on the results of a survey conducted among 26 representatives of the community centres in Blagoevgrad district. Based on the survey, the main problems faced by the community centres in the context of the COVID-19 crisis are identified.