Within the framework of the project #GEONext – Partnerships for youth engagement, Georgian Institute of Politics (GIP) in partnership with the Polis180 – German Grassroots ThinkTank for Foreign and European Affairs is announcing a Call for Grant Applications for youth (18-35 years old) based in Georgia. The project aims at forming and supporting the local initiative groups across Georgia as well as identifying their needs and supporting implementation of group initiatives about digitalization, inclusion, climate/sustainability and regional economic development. The project is funded by the German Federal Foreign Office.
Building on our experiences and networks, Polis180 and GIP want to bring together youths and broader civil society actors from Georgia and Germany in order to develop practical approaches and implement local projects tackling current challenges, such as digitalization, inclusion, climate/sustainability and regional economic development. The active youths will be paired with mentors from various sectors, discuss with experts and develop formats to pass on these learnings to their peers.
Young people who are interested in taking part in this grant contest will have an opportunity to participate in the training sessions oriented on the development of skills. The training sessions will cover a wide array of topics such as the importance of digital education, strategic communication, public-private partnership, inclusive governance, project management, budgeting and many more. The sub-grantees will be supported by mentors from private companies, as well as by co-mentors from civil society in Germany.
If you are interested in taking part in the project, join our information session on the 3rd of May, at 13:00. The project coordinators will provide you with detailed information about the project and how to participate in it. Please register for the info session in advance using the following link – Register here.
The project is the continuation of the #GEOYOUTH project series implemented in 2020-2021 which gathered more than 500 young people, including the representatives of ethnic minorities, from ten different regions of Georgia. Under the framework of the 2020 program, regional summits were organized, during which participants discussed the challenges for youth political participation in Georgia and proposed potential solutions to these challenges. The Youth Manifesto prepared as a result of these summits reflects the discussions held by the youth and their visions for increasing the political participation of young people in Georgia. Under the GIP&Polis180 sub-granting scheme, the 8 youth groups from the different regions of Georgia implemented their local initiatives based on the problematic topics which were illustrated in the Manifesto. However, in two years’ time, there were implemented 12 youth initiatives in total. By the end of the project, one representative of the grant recipient groups traveled to Berlin with the study visit where they met the representatives of the partner organization and visited different governmental and non-governmental organizations.
The people interested in participating in the competition need to submit the filled application form (see attached) by the 13th of May, 23:59h to the following email address: [email protected] by writing –#GEONEXT_project proposal in the subject line.
