Strengthening Diversity, Combating Racism, Engaging Locally

With a Regranting scheme, we support people on the ground throughout Germany who oppose racism and are committed to the recognition of diversity.

Germany is a diverse immigration country. At the same time, the rejection of diversity and racially discriminatory and marginalizing ideas are increasingly normalized and made more socially acceptable in public discourse. It must be countered everywhere directly and locally! With the action-fund ViRaL, we seek to support people who are committed to opposing these tendencies in their environment with courage and creativity, but who so far lacked the resources to do so. We promote anti-racist projects in urban and rural areas, in Western and Eastern Germany, and contribute to the development and dissemination of knowledge and strategies to strengthen the recognition of diversity.

ViRaL combines both a financial grant of €5,000 and an accompanying year-long tailored program to empower the grantees to grow, professionalize and implement their project idea with impact. The pilot phase of ViRaL started in March 2018 and ended in December 2019. For the first edition, we selected 10 projects out of 180 applications. So much was set in motion and initiated by ViRaL on the ground! ViRaL has reached over 250,000 people online. With their local projects, the selected groups and associations, had a reach of approx. 50,000 people at the local level.

#ViRaLfonds

ViRaL Website

"Racism is a category of discrimination that affects people in all places and is experienced at all times. The same must apply to our anti-racism work", says Charlotte Bechert, project assistant at ViRaL. The action-fund ViRaL aims to:

support anti-racist projects in the very places where they seem to be failing
allow informal groups to receive support
encourage new persons to engage in anti-racist action
reach people who have not been actively engaged in the fight against racism
promote societal education on racism and the recognition of diversity
make various methods, actors and areas of application in everyday life visible

The ViRaL action fund focuses above all on cooperation with smaller civil society actors that have recognized the problem of racist exclusion and discrimination in their immediate surroundings and want to develop concrete solutions for overcoming them. ViRaL attaches a particular importance to the local anchoring of projects, that is, the conception of the problem of racism in its local context and its embedding in and cooperation with local structures. ViRaL seeks to reach out with anti-racist counter-narratives to people who have have not yet dealt with the topic, as well as to provide resources and support to those who are targeted by racism and exclusion.

Within an accompanying year-long tailored program, ViRaL supports grantees by sharing our network and infrastructure and offering specifically tailored support and mentoring. Grantees can gain access to legal, technical and financial advice, anti-racist and diversity consulting or communication trainings. Along with local trainings for the grantees, the program invests in digital learning and knowledge dissemination formats (e.g., webinars, podcasts) to produce content that is accessible to anyone on the web.

The ViRaL action fund is a re-granting and micro-granting instrument.

Citizens For Europe, with its broad network and reputation in civil society, acts as an intermediary between those who will receive funding and large donors. With its structure, it also enables the promotion of informal groups. In addition, Citizens For Europe mobilizes its expertise and network as a civil society player to help monitor the content and strategy of the projects.

In contrast to subsidies with a broad target group, the ViRaL action fund makes it easier for us to check the impact of the funded projects and the fund itself. The funded projects have clearly defined target groups from their immediate environment and are usually anchored themselves in the communities to be reached.

The documentation of the projects’ progress plays a central role in our funded projects. We promote the projects using video, images and texts on social media. Thus, the parties involved increase their visibility and multiply the enlightenment effect of their work.

For further information please visit our website https://aktionsfonds-viral.de/ or contact us at viral@citizensforeurope.org

Cooperation between:

OTHER PROJECTS

September 10, 2018

EUROPEAN DEMOCRACY NETWORK

European Democracy Network

For the defense of freedom, democracy and fundamental rights!

Democracy and its underlying fundamental rights are in decline in Europe. More and more right-wing populist parties and leaders are taking over governments and dismantling the democratic constitutional state – even in the so-called consolidated democracies. In this context, we believe it is necessary to support activists and initiatives who are under threat. As transnational partnership we initiated the European Democracy Network (EDN) to support, empower and connect activists who stand against the erosion of democracy and fundamental rights, and advocate for legal, political, social or climate justice. We believe that we can only encounter the shrinking of civic space in transnational solidarity and across issues.

September 9, 2018

VIRAL ACTION FUND

ViRaL Action-fund

Strengthening Diversity, Combating Racism, Engaging Locally

With a re-granting scheme, we support people on the ground throughout Germany who oppose racism and are committed to the recognition of diversity. ViRaL seeks to reach out with anti-racist counter-narratives to people who have have not yet dealt with the topic, as well as to provide resources and support to those who are targeted by racism and exclusion. We provide the selected projects with mini-grants, tailored trainings and the tools they need, and we share our network and infrastructure with them.

September 8, 2018

CHIEF

CHIEF, Towards an inclusive cultural education

Designing a multi-stakeholder collaboration to trigger change

The European CHIEF project builds a dialogue between young people, researchers, education practitioners, policymakers, community leaders and civil society activists in order to facilitate a future of Europe based on more inclusive notions of cultural heritage and cultural identity. Citizens For Europe will methodically design a multi-stakeholders' process and accompany a series of workshops to create a sustainable environment for dialogue between these actors and develop effective policy recommendations at the local and European level.

September 1, 2018

WAHLRECHT FÜR ALLE – Voting right for All

Wahlrecht für Alle - Voting right for all

We demand the right to vote for all people living here!

In Berlin more than 700,000 residents are excluded from voting in elections for local, regional and national representatives and referendums, simply because the Berlin electoral law is tied to German citizenship. Since 2011, the Berlin alliance “Wahlrecht für Alle” (“Voting Right for All”) has drawn attention to this injustice and has been committed to enabling the political participation of all people living in Berlin, regardless of their nationality. We therefore call for national voting right for EU citizens and third-country nationals, as well as for local and municipal voting right for third-country nationals.

August 31, 2018

NiCeR

NiCeR - Empowering local and newcomer youth

Using theater to strengthen youth participation in local life

Started in December 2015, the two-year NiCeR project used theater and the power of storytelling to develop a counter-narrative that strengthened youth participation in local cultural and social life while promoting skills development, empowerment and living together in cultural diversity. In Berlin, 30 young people from Berlin, Kosovo, Syria and Afghanistan came together, created and performed the musical What the Volk?! based on identity, belonging, migration and the power of language.

August 30, 2018

You and Me

You and Me - Empowering rural youth

A Youth film project for a new European narrative

Our youth film project brought together 9 young who grew up in the rural areas in Spain, Greece and Germany. They grabbed a camera and told their own stories beyond the media spin and stereotypes that have dominated the mainstream narrative in the European Union over the last few years. After taking part in a film training, they travelled in September and October 2016 as transnational groups through the rural areas of Brandenburg (Germany), Lesbos (Greece) and Aragón (Spain), where they interviewed other youngsters about their lives in the rural areas, their dreams and everyday challenges.