U.S. Consulate General Ho Chi Minh City’s PAS: American Social Club

Deadline: 14-Mar-21

The U.S. Consulate General Ho Chi Minh City’s Public Affairs Section (PAS) is pleased to announce available funding for the American Center Ho Chi Minh City’s American Social Club.

Focus Areas

Proposals for projects that focus on at least one of the priority programs and target audiences specified below:

Philosophy, Science, and Arts: Course, workshop, or camp aimed at the high school and college students to cultivate the tools, knowledge, and platforms to strengthen respect for freedom of expression and convey social issues on different mediums. The program will help build support networks and mentoring opportunities through working with philosophers, artists, and civil communities and will help foster an environment where gender equity, social inclusion, empowerment, and fundamental freedoms are the norm in arts, free speech, creative writing, and other artistic forms.
Civil Society: Course or workshop aimed at students and young professionals to develop an increasingly comprehensive awareness of gender equity, respect for religions, human rights, racial injustice; combatting domestic violence, child abuse, trafficking-in-person, gun violence; healthcare, hunger and food insecurity, philanthropy, and family planning. Alternatively, the program could focus on guiding young professionals towards career advancement.
Civic Engagement: Course or workshop aimed at students and professionals on promoting responsible leadership, transparency, and good governance. Alternatively, the program could advance citizens’ engagement in government decision-making, help civil society groups organize in a digital world, and promote open and accountable government and combat corruption.
Digital Inclusion and Security: Course or workshop aimed at high school and college students on accelerating Internet access and empowering communities to be active participants in the digital economy. Alternatively, the program could conduct training on free, open source software (FOSS) to raise cyber security awareness, combat cyber bullying and cyber violence, and counter disinformation and hate speech.
Human and Societal Development: Course or workshop to provide access to knowledge regarding existing legislation and facilities for underprivileged groups and vulnerable communities, including LGBTQI groups, persons with disabilities, religious organizations, ethnic minorities; domestic violence and sexual trafficking victims, and abuse survivors. The program will focus on employment opportunities, vocational training, and advising to help develop participants’ self-confidence and encourage them to be active, visible members of society.
“World Cafe”: Monthly dialogue aimed at international relations, public administration, and journalism students to identify existing social issues, develop critical thinking skills and negotiation skills to help Vietnamese youth express them publicly and advocate for information transparency and law enforcement.

Funding Information

Award Amount will vary between $1,000 and $10,000. Proposals over $10,000 will be considered only with a cost-share and on a case-by-case basis. Proposals that include a cost-share are strongly encouraged and have a higher likelihood of being funded.
Length of performance period: Duration should be a minimum of six months and a maximum of one year. Successful projects will be eligible for renewal.
Target Audience: The target audiences for successful projects are Vietnamese students and professionals ages 15- 40.
Priority Region: Only activities implemented/conducted at the American Center in Ho Chi Minh city, Vietnam will be funded.

Eligibility Criteria

Submissions are encouraged from the U.S. and Vietnamese entities with relevant programming and/or teaching experience. This experience should be documented in the proposal. Eligible entities include:

Not-for-profit, civil society/non-governmental organizations;
Universities; non-profit educational institutions;
Individuals.

Evaluation Criteria

Criteria used for evaluating the proposals are as follows:

Design and implement the American Social Club at the American Center in Ho Chi Minh City during its operation hours or via online classes if in-person classes are not feasible due to health and safety concerns related to COVID-19.
Available classroom sizes can accommodate up to 20 students or up to 200 students.
Competitive proposals for courses will have two to four contact hours per week, for a minimum of 24 hours in total or 6 weeks. Competitive proposals for workshops will have two to four sessions, for a minimum of eight contact hours or two days.
Duration should be a minimum of three months and a maximum of one year.
Students/participants will be recruited by the grantee.
The language of instruction is preferably English, but Vietnamese may be used in some instances. The final presentation or capstone project must be in English.
The proposal must include detailed information about the project members and instructor(s), including CV, resume and other relevant professional experience.
The instructors of the class should be trained teachers or working professionals.
The grantee is responsible for obtaining visas and any other legal documents required by the Government of Vietnam for staff to work in the country.
Budget in the proposal must include: – Cost of teaching materials for teachers and learning materials for students – Cost of U.S.-based alternative e-learning platform – Salary of teachers – Marketing and recruiting costs – Field trips.
The proposal must also include marketing strategies, syllabus, and plan of course monitoring and evaluation.
Provide post-course feedback on the students’ performance.