Deadline: 2-Mar-21
The United States Embassy in Bosnia and Herzegovina, through the Office of Public Affairs (OPA), is pleased to announce Notice of funding opportunity to design and implement two BOLD (BiH Omladinski Lideri, Bosnia and Herzegovina Young Leaders) Civic Engagement Workshops for BiH Youth Leaders.
The goal of these workshops is to create opportunities for active participation and civic engagement of young BiH leaders in their communities through skill development; with special emphasis on the development and implementation of their own projects to address a particular need in the community. The workshops should provide a broad foundation of skills needed to succeed in the civil society sector, including, but not limited to, the fundamentals of project management, innovative civic engagement project design, project-based collaboration, leveraging assets within the BOLD network to ensure project success, strategies to overcome apathy and skepticism, and how to work with other like-minded individuals or groups to lead the broader community toward positive change.
Mandatory Components
- Applicants should propose two workshops, each on the same theme, for at least 40 participants from across BiH, and up to 10 days in length. The age range of possible participants is 18-35, but the applicant may limit the range
- further for participation in either workshop, to best fit the proposed workshops’ theme Each workshop should be made of up different participants.
- The first workshop should take place within the 2021 calendar year and the second workshop should take place within the first half of 2022.
- The workshops should offer an innovative plan and provide young people with a concrete understanding of what civic engagement entails and the practical skills to become active in their communities to effect positive change in an area beneficial to the public. Concepts to be introduced should include, but not be limited to, citizenship, community building, grassroots activism, political leadership, and volunteerism. Participants should be encouraged to concentrate on their particular area of interest such as, as civil rights and protections, public health, education, ethics, leadership, or media.
- The primary outcome of the workshop is for participants, individually; or groups of participants, jointly; to design a civic project to be implemented in their communities over the course of the following year. Training should include, but not be limited to, project management and the design and development of a project proposal, including a budget. By the end of the workshop participants should complete a basic draft of their project designs in the form of a project proposal, which will be competitive for funding from the Embassy or other donors.
- Participants will be eligible to submit proposals in a BOLD small grant competition that will take place later in the year. To prepare them for this, a representative from the OPA grants team should be invited to present during the workshop on the basics of applying for a grant with the U.S. Embassy.
- The proposal should contain detailed day-by-day schedule for each workshop, and other necessary information that makes it clear to anyone not familiar with it how the program will meet the stated objectives and projected outcomes.
- There should be a strong American connection in the delivery of each workshop, ideally, with at least one participating American trainer contributing, their expertise and experience from the civil society field, either virtually or in person.
- The applicant should propose a nationwide recruitment plan to reach workshop participants from all parts of the country that goes beyond a public call for applications to include targeted outreach to appropriate youth audiences. OPA will review the final list of participants for each workshop before they are notified of their selection.
- It is the obligation of the applicant to ensure that workshop participants’ information about themselves, their experience in the workshop, andior their project ideas are shared and publicized on social media platforms of the BOLD network so that others can see their leadership examples and be motivated by their experience in the workshop.
Funding Information
- Award amount: USD 120,000
- Length of performance period: 16 months
Eligibility Criteria
Non-government, non-profit organizations (including think tanks, civil society organizations) educational institutions that are based and legally registered in Bosnia and Herzegovina are eligible to apply. Applicants must demonstrate an ability to work in all parts of BiH, whether independently or in cooperation with a partner organization.
For more information, visit https://www.grants.gov/web/grants/view-opportunity.html?oppId=331062