WHAT’S NEW

Toolkit: Democracy beyond Voting

More than 100 youth workers and teachers participated in the Conference on Youth Participation, which took place on 29 June at FEZ Berlin. Citizens For Europe cooperated in organising the event as part of our project "Democratic Innovations in Youth Work". We facilitated two interactive workshops to present our toolkit "Democracy beyond voting" - an off- and online toolkit for youth workers and teachers to introduce the topic of democratic innovations to young people.

Call for the Action Fund Strong Against Racism

On the occasion of the International Week against Racism, we are launching our appeal for the Action Fund Strong Against Racism. This is also an opportunity to introduce the project's new website: starkgegenrassismus.de. Informal groups without legal status and smaller associations that want to volunteer with a project against racism at the local level can apply until 11 June 2023. The Action Fund Strong Against Racism will select up to 20 volunteer initiatives and support them with 5,000 EUR and a 14-month training programme.

Testing democratic innovations

More than 20 young people from Berlin participated in a workshop organized by our partner DeGeDe in the framework of the DIYW project, in order to test educational activities that our partnership developed in the last months with the aim to introduce the topic of democratic innovations to 13-20 years old, to foster their involvement in the democratic life and encourage their critical thinking towards decision-making processes. The event was an opportunity to present the two videos we have produced so far in Germany on the “Citizens’ budget” in the city of Eberswalde, the digital platform Aula and youth co-decision in school.

Presentation of the results of the study #Afrozensus

Almost 6,000 Black, African and Afro-diasporic people in Germany took part in the online survey #Afrozensus. This means that for the first time, comprehensive data is now available on their realities of life, experiences of racism and commitment. The results of the #Afrozensus indicate that anti-Black racism (ASR) is widespread in Germany and entrenched in institutions. Criminalization, exoticization, and sexualization are just three of the many patterns through which anti-Black racism is characterized and experienced by many respondents. Therefore, in order to roll back anti-Black racism in its approach, a focus on the empowerment of Black, African, and Afro-diasporic people is necessary.

Digital expert conference #Afrozensus - 30.11.2021

We will discuss the results of the #Afrozensus study and which discrimination experiences Black people in Germany have and which socio-political possibilities for action arise from this, on 30.11.2021 from 10:00 to 14:15 at the digital expert conference "#Afrozensus - Discrimination Experiences, Perspectives and Engagement of Black People in Germany". The #Afrozensus is the first comprehensive study dealing with the realities, perspectives and experiences of discrimination of Black, African and Afrodiasporic people in Germany.

People with a migration background can decide the election.

About 7.6 million people with a migration background are eligible to vote in the Bundestag elections - that is 12.2% of all eligible voters. In which constituencies do eligible voters with a migration background also have the potential to decide the Bundestag election? Based on the microcensus and data from the Federal Election Commissioner, Jun.-Prof. Arndt Leininger, PhD (Chemnitz University of Technology), Julius Lagodny (Cornell University), Daniel Gyamerah and Deniz Yıldırım-Caliman (both Citizens For Europe), with the support of Correlaid e.V., have for the first time estimated the number of eligible voters with a migration background for all 299 Bundestag constituencies.

Discrimination pervades the German film industry.

Over 6,000 members of the film industry in their 440 professions participated in the online survey initiated by the Alliance for #VielfaltImFilm (Diversity in Film). This is the first comprehensive data on their experiences with diversity and discrimination in front of and behind the camera. The results of #VielfaltImFilm indicate that discrimination pervades the German film industry and limits the participation of people with different diversity backgrounds. The survey ran from mid-July to the end of October 2020.

Democracies in the Making! Online Learning Exchange

How can civil society and activist movements resist and handle attacks by authoritarian governments on democratic values and basic rights, also in times of the COVID-19 pandemic? And how can new forms of interventions inspire these movements and revive democracy? Organized within the European Democracy Network on Saturday 28.11.2020, our practice-oriented Online Learning Exchange "Democracies in the Making" connected about 150 activists defending democratic values and change-makers designing and implementing new models of participation and deliberation, beyond periodic elections.

Recovering in solidarity - EDN Activists’ Meeting in Brno (CZ)

After a long break, another EDN activist meeting took place between 11th-14th September in Brno/Tisnov. Notwithstanding the difficult circumstances of the pandemic situation, EDN activists continue to exchange their experiences and to support each other in their struggles for more democratic, inclusive and ecological societies. During the four days meeting, participants took part in a forest therapy, in a city tour and public event connected to local activist groups and movements in Brno, as well as in workshop sessions on non-hierarchical organisations, non-violent communication and in burn out in activism.

Start #AFROZENSUS und #VielfaltImFilm

During the last challenging months we have been working intensively on two new projects and are happy to present to you #AFROZENSUS, the first large-scale online survey to record the life realities, experiences of discrimination and perspectives of African descent living in German as well as #VielfaltImFilm, the very first survey on diversity and discrimination in front and behind the camera.

A coalition for political change - Storytelling "Voting Rights For All"

How do you initiate and implement a partnership between various actors from civil society, academia, politics and local communities? How can a coalition of various stakeholders advocate for social and political change? How do you foster an inclusive, participatory and impactful multi-sectoral collaboration? In this podcast, Séverine Lenglet, Head of the division “Empowering Civil Society“ at Citizens For Europe, and Martin Wilhelm, Director of Citizens For Europe, try to answer these questions, using the example of the Alliance “Wahlrecht für Alle – Voting Rights for All” that was initiated by Citizens For Europe in 2011 in Berlin.

Reflecting on struggles and social movements in Europe and beyond

Networking with representatives of social movements and civil society organizations from France, Latin American and Caribbean countries, sharing activist success stories, learning about fundraising opportunities and philanthropy for democracy-related projects in Europe, civic-sightseeing in the footsteps of revolutionary women and looking for constructive responses to the problem of shrinking civic spaces – the weekend between 24th-27th January in Paris was full of valuable encounters, reflections and discussions for activists from the European Democracy Network (EDN). Listen, watch, read about all these topics in this blogpost.

More than 50,000 people reached at the local level

The pilot phase of our ViRaL action fund has come to an end and we are reviewing it. We got to know so many great activists* who are committed to diversity and against racism, and we had the opportunity to fund and support them with ViRaL. 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.

Empowering and connecting activists in Budapest, October 2019

Community organising and campaigning; mobile video activism; the situation and discrimination of Roma Community, media propaganda and shrinking of civic spaces in Hungary; psychological support to prevent burn out and strengthen resilience – the third activists' meeting of our European Democracy Network that took place in Budapest from 4-7 October 2019 was full of intensive training sessions, inspiring keynotes, city civic sightseeing, artistic vibes and networking opportunities.

Living Transnational Solidarity - Berlin June 2019

White Privileges, Digital Security, Positive Psychology, Right-wing Populism and Shrinking Civic Space in Germany – the activists of the European Democracy Network project took part in various training sessions during our Networking Meeting in Werkstatt der Kulturen between 28 June to 1st of July. We also organised a “Transnational Inspirations dinner” to give the participants the opportunity to meet local and diaspora activists living in Berlin as well as to share inspiring activists stories and best practices to create change.

#ViRaL-Webinar: Fundraising for small organisations

A great project idea does not automatically make a good project proposal. It is a challenge to present an idea in an application in such a way that it is easy for the sponsor to understand and to be convinced about it. The first #ViRaL-Webinar takes a look at the application process from the analysis of the call for proposals to the submission of the application: What does an application need? What methods are there to highlight the needs of the project? How do you formulate good project objectives? What should be taken into account when the organisation presents itself? And what does a good cost plan look like?

Meet the activists of our European Democracy Network

Our partnership "European Democracy Network" currently supports, empowers and networks activists who stand against the erosion of democracy, the rise of nationalism and white supremacy, as well as the shrinking of civic spaces where civil society is under pressure. The selected activists are from Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia, Syria, Ukraine and Turkey.

The network of neo-conservative movements in Europe

The talk with Klementyna Suchanow, Polish author and political activist, presents the neo-conservative movement and the backlash on human rights it brings. The so called Agenda Europe which started in 2013 is a plan of reduction and withdrow of the human rights. It is an organized agenda realized in all the countries in different ways, according to local laws, with the same points: anti-abortion, anti-lgbt, anti-contraceptives, no divorce and at the end anti-democracy.

Together for democracy: First EDN Activists Meeting

Our European Democracy Network (EDN) brings together a dozen of activists fighting against the erosion of democracy, the rise of nationalism and white supremacy, as well as the shrinking of civic space. They met for the first time in Warsaw (Poland) at the end of March together with the EDN partners. During the four days meeting, they got to know each other, exchange about their experiences as activists in Hungary, Poland, Czech Republic, France, Turkey, Slovakia, Denmark and Germany. And the participants co-designed the future of the network, its activities and how do they want it to empower them.

Our first #ViRaL Podcast is online!

Especially for informal groups and smaller actors without full-time and professionalised structures, financing their actions and ideas is a special challenge - also because they often lack the capacities and experience to keep up with established organisations or to cope with the complex application processes. Which strategies, sources and support can informal groups and smaller actors draw on to tackle the challenges of financing? This question is answered in our first podcast produced in the context of the accompanying programme of our action fund ViRaL.

Thüringen goes Diversity

Our team “Vielfalt entscheidet – Diversity in Leadership” is currently working with and for the Thuringian state administration to develop Germany's first survey of anti-discrimination and equality data, in which around 20,000 employees can participate. The results of “Vielfalt entscheidet Thüringen” will form the basis for a diversity strategy of the Thuringian state administration. It is the first time in Germany that such a large number of employees are given the opportunity to share their differentiated perspectives on and experiences with diversity and discrimination.

Kick-Off European Democracy Network

From January 28th to 30th, 2019, the kick-off meeting of the project “European Democracy Network” (EDN) took place at the Centre Marc Bloch in Berlin, bringing together the representatives of our 7 partner organisations from Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Hungary, Poland and Germany. During three days, we co-designed the project objectives, activities and timeline. In the next weeks, we will select 16 activists that will take part in a yearly empowerment program, to support them in standing against the erosion of democracy and fundamental rights, against the rise of nationalism and white supremacism and the shrinking of civic spaces.

#ViRaLfonds in Baden Baden

What do Hans, Almula, Sepideh, Ingeborg, Katalin, Jutta, Marija and Khalil have in common? From the GDR, Romania, Syria, Iran, Kosovo, Turkey or Erytrea, they all fled from their home and sought refuge in Baden Baden. On 20 January 2019 they stood together on the stage of the city Boenhoeffer Saal and shared their stories with the audience. About 300 people came to one of the two readings organized by the project "Baden-Baden schreibt ein Buch" (Baden-Baden Writes a Book) that we support with our Action Fund ViRaL.

"What does history teach us, Mrs Himmler?"

In the old dairy in Sundern (Sauerland), the organizational team has just gotten more chairs. Almost a hundred people are sitting in the hall where the film "My Family, the Nazis and I" is being screened. Afterwards, one of the protagonists of the film is available for an interview with the audience: the author and historian Katrin Himmler, grandniece of the Reichsführer SS and organizer of the Holocaust, Heinrich Himmler.

Kick-Off #ViRaLfonds: Together against racism!

On September 22 and 23, 2018, the kick-off meeting of our pilot project Action Fund ViRaL - Strengthening Diversity, Combating Racism, Engaging Locally - brought together representatives of the 10 funded projects from all over Germany. In addition to the exchange with and between the participants, a debate on racism and empowerment played a central role. Here we report on these two exciting days.