Right in the middle of holiday preparations, a seminar/meeting was held at the Center for the Various Ethnic Cultures of Kaunas on December 22, 2015 with representatives of the ethnic minority communities and Rasa Paliukienė, director of the Contacts with Ethnic Communities Department of the Ethnic Minorities Department of the Government of the Republic of Lithuania. The seminar/meeting was held for representatives of the ethnic communities who plan to submit applications for funding for projects in 2016 to strengthen minority cultures. The seminar detailed the entire process of preparing a project, implementing it and reporting, and examined in detail project application forms and how they should be completed with an example provided. It also answered questions by attendees. Representatives of eight ethnic minority community associations operating in Kaunas attended, including Kaunas Jewish Community chairman Gercas Žakas and administrator Ieva Černevičiūtė. Representatives from the Ethnic Minorities Department strongly encouraged the ethnic communities to apply for financial aid for projects before January 5, 2016 for making real their creative ideas for spreading the culture and traditions of their minority, encouraging civic-mindedness among ethnic minority children and youth, preserving the ethnic minority cultural heritage, sites and values and for Saturday and/or Sunday schools for the ethnic minorities.