Apply for Western Balkans Youth Cultural Fund

The Western Balkans Youth Cultural fund is a project implemented by the Regional Youth Cooperation Office and funded by the German Federal Foreign Office. The project aims to bring together the cultural scenes from across the region by supporting grass-roots cultural initiatives which will serve as a valuable contribution to foster regional cooperation and mutual understanding of intercultural dialogue, peacebuilding and reconciliation process.

Aligned with the RYCO Strategic Plan 2022-2024, the Western Balkans Youth Cultural Fund is set to make a direct and impactful contribution across three strategic priority domains: a) fostering youth opportunities, b) supporting multipliers, and c) advocating and raising awareness. Operating through a targeted approach that encompasses cultural practitioners and civil society organizations active in the cultural realm, the Fund aims to achieve two primary objectives:

• elevate the scope of opportunities available to young individuals within the cultural and creative sector of the Western Balkans; and
• reinforce cultural cooperation within the region, particularly among youth-oriented CSOs in the cultural field and cultural practitioners.

Lots

• Lot 1: Artists and cultural practitioners holding legal residence in the Western Balkans/within one of the RYCO Contracting Parties.
• Lot 2: CSOs registered in the Western Balkans/within one of the RYCO Contracting Parties.

General Objective

• The general objective of the WB Youth Cultural Fund Call for Proposals is to support individuals (cultural practitioners, artists, etc.) and civilsociety sector (NGOs) in the Western Balkans to foster reconciliation, peacebuilding, regional cooperation, and intercultural learning by providing young people with opportunities that create space for increased understanding, dialogue and mutual learning, across communities and RYCO Contracting Parties.
• RYCO is established upon the belief that when young people are provided with an opportunity to learn, grow, and express their voices, they and their whole communities benefit over the long term. Thus, this call is specifically designed to provide decisive support to actors that can contribute to this vision, whether they wish to engage in such action for the first time or are in need of assistance to continue or expand their already existing work in this regard.
• All projects funded under this call for proposals shall promote and contribute to the values upon which RYCO was established, such as accountability, impartiality, accessibility, equality, equality and inclusion, reconciliation, regionality, transparency, partnership and co-ownership, etc. All parties involved have to ensure that all aspects of the projects do not foster further divisions, and instead contribute to mutual understanding, peace, and social cohesion.

Thematic Areas

• This call has several thematic areas the applicants can choose, and tailor their project proposals to them. Applicants should choose the thematic area they believe is the closest to the particular focus of their project. Most projects will likely contribute to more than one thematic area. Applicants are encouraged to consider how they can incorporate elements of contributions to all thematic areas through their project design.
• Based on the experience and research RYCO encourages applicants to engage young people beyond the role of participants and to include them in all stages of the project, including the project design as that ensures better response to youth needs. Within this Open Call, this refers to the both Lots (Lot 1 and Lot 2).
• The thematic areas under this call are presented below:
  • Thematic Area 1: Peacebuilding and Reconciliation
    • RYCO believes that building true and enduring reconciliation involves processes that bring together individuals, groups, and societies burdened by past or present conflicts. It also aims to address negative representations and perceptions of ‘the other’ through shared experience, cooperation, and ongoing exchange, new pathways can be built to reconcile people who would otherwise remain trapped in the past.
    • Through projects focused on this thematic area, they are looking to support projects that tackle topics of region’s past and (mis)interpretation of past and challenge inherited narratives through guided processes, in a safe environment, that allows for constructive dealing with the past, intercultural learning and dialogue between individuals from diverse communities within their Contracting Parties and across the Western Balkan region.
    • Under this thematic area, RYCO acknowledges the following sub-areas that applicants can incorporate in their project proposals: intercultural learning and dialogue, constructively dealing with the past, and countering hate speech.
  • Thematic area 2: Youth empowerment and engagement in society
    • This thematic area aims to empower youth and their civic engagement in society. The development of social capital among young people and the facilitation of their awareness, ability, and motivation to participate actively in society is a major RYCO commitment. RYCO believes that youth should be among the drivers of democratic development, social and economic prosperity, and European integration in an increasingly open Western Balkans region.
    • They are especially interested in supporting projects that amplify youth voices, allow them to openly discuss their grievances, and search for common ground and issues that young people share across communities and RYCO’s Contracting Parties. They encourage applicants to engage their target group beyond the role of participants and invite or allow them to actively contribute to all stages of the project, including project design. They welcome ideas that build sustainable platforms and opportunities for youth participation which will outlast the implementation of their specific projects.
    • Other cross-cutting thematic areas that RYCO expects project applicants to incorporate in their proposals are social inclusion and social cohesion and youth policy.
    • RYCO is committed to fostering inclusion and diversity through all of its work. This means ensuring that individuals and groups with different backgrounds and capabilities are culturally and socially accepted, welcomed, valued, and enabled to participate equally. When organizing youth activities, it is of utmost importance for RYCO to ensure that every person has equal opportunity as a prerequisite, regardless of their origin, age, race, ethnicity, language, religion, gender, sexual orientation, educational level, socioeconomic status, capabilities, etc.

Main Sectors

• Architecture
• Cultural Heritage
• Design and Fashion Design
• Literary
• Music
• Performing arts
• Visual arts

Funding Information

• Size of Grants:
  • Any grant requested under this call for proposals must fall under two Lots:
    • Lot 1: EUR 3.000 for cultural practitioners.
    • Lot 2: EUR 6.000 for CSOs.

Duration

• Lot 1: The duration of the project must be a minimum of 2 months and a maximum of 4 months.
• Lot 2: The duration of the project must be a minimum of 3 months and a maximum of 6 months.

Type of Activities

• Examples of the activities that will be supported through this open call, are the following:
  • Arts, theater, film, music, photography, poetry festivals and exhibitions;
  • Networking and exchange, artistic and cultural events;
  • Mobility exchange art events;
  • Educational activities, seminars, trainings and capacity building opportunities for artists;
  • Vocational art, pottery, ceramics, woodworking, fashion;
  • Art colonies;
  • Street performance, Music, Dancing, drawing, painting, photography, animation, etc.

Location(s)

• All the project activities financed by RYCO must take place in the Western Balkans 6 Contracting Parties (WB6): Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia, and Serbia.

Eligibility Criteria

• Lot 1
  • Lot 1 is dedicated to young cultural practitioners and cultural practitioners that work with youth or youth cultural practitioners.
    • Applicants:
      • Young cultural practitioners (young people form 18 to 30)
      • Cultural practitioners that work with youth or youth cultural practitioners (cultural practitioners who don’t belong to the category of youth (can be 30+ years old), but who work with youth, aged 14-30 in the field of culture)
    • Collaborators:
      • The focus of this Lot 1 is on the regional and local community engagement. Following collaborators (not partners! – as this collaboration should not have any project financial implications) could take part and contribute to the implementation of the project supported within the Lot 1:
        • individuals,
        • cultural and educational institutions,
        • CSOs
        • local authorities,
        • youth offices/centers,
        • mayor’s office,
        • festivals,
        • (social) enterprises and companies,
        • other.
  • Their engagement could provide for an added value and secure more effective and meaningful local community engagement throughout the implementation of the supported project.
• Lot 2
  • Lot 2 is dedicated to civil society organizations working with youth/youth organizations working in the field of culture in amounts up to 6000 EUR per project, supporting creative artistic solutions for social issues in Western Balkans.
    • Applicants:
      • Youth CSOs that work in the field of culture
      • CSOs working with young people in the field of culture
      • Civil society organizations (CSOs): non-profit making organizations (NGOs) registered in one or more RYCO Contracting Parties.
      • The Applicants (lead applicant and partners) must be a CSO established in one of the RYCO Contracting Parties, before 12 October 2022.
    • Collaborators:
      • individuals (cultural practitioners and artists),
      • cultural and educational institutions,
      • CSOs
      • local authorities,
      • youth office,
      • mayor’s office,
      • festivals,
      • (social) enterprises and companies,
      • other.

For more information, visit RYCO.