Call for Applications: Cities for Inclusion Workshops

As urban areas are increasingly the places where marginalised groups – particularly religious and ethnic minorities, as well as refugees and migrants – suffer discrimination and exclusion, the KAICIID Europe Region Programme has paid increasing attention to cities as the places where community members can be actively engaged in shaping solutions towards supporting social cohesion.

To this end, they wish to engage members of communities, neighbourhoods and cities across religious, faiths, cultural and ethnic backgrounds and age groups – that are willing to explore ways to address the multiple challenges related to discrimination, social exclusion and hate speech. They, at the KAICIID Europe Region Programme, are eager to support you in designing and facilitating a dialogue experience that can improve the understanding of the problem by bringing the voices of those affected in a safe space where their concerns and views can be expressed and considered. By pooling the transformative power of interreligious dialogue, the intention is to enhance mutual understanding across religious, ethnic and social groups, while exploring opportunities for coordinated actions between religious and secular stakeholders, fostering reconciliation, peaceful coexistence and equity.

Objectives and Methodology

• Promoting social cohesion refers particularly to supporting equitable societies, by recognizing and respecting ethnic, religious and cultural diversity, while promoting the well‐being and equal opportunities of all community members, particularly the most marginalised and excluded. Inspired by the experiences and recommendations contained in the EPDF policy documents, the “Cities for Inclusion Workshops” wish to offer a safe space for greater participation of community members towards building trust and mutual understanding within diverse communities. By pooling the role of religious leaders and actors as critical players within local communities, the intention is to enhance mutual understanding across religious, ethnic and social groups thanks to interreligious and intercultural dialogue methods, while exploring opportunities for coordinated actions with secular stakeholders that promote social cohesion, reconciliation, peaceful coexistence and equity.
• Based on the Chatham House rule, the “Cities for Inclusion Workshops” will offer the unique opportunity to unveil power dynamics in the ever‐changing interaction between social, cultural and religious groups in a given community. By giving voice to those involved in such dynamics, interreligious and intercultural dialogue methods and approaches will foster a genuine learning attitude so that the inner resources of the communities can be mobilised and common solutions explored for the benefit of the whole community.
• Organized by KAICIID together with the successful applicants, the “Cities for Inclusion Workshops” will pursue an interactive format, privileging an inductive approach, addressing specific situations or challenges at the community level. As such, the “Cities for Inclusion Workshops” will last up to 1.5 days, involving a small group of stakeholders – not more than 20‐25 participants – possibly including, but not limited to, policymakers, religious leaders and actors, academia and civil society, including faith‐based, refugee and migrant‐led organizations, the private sector, youth groups and movements.

Eligible Countries

• Requests should come from local communities placed in any of the 46 countries of the Council of Europe.

Eligibility Criteria 

• Potential applicants shall comply with the following eligibility criteria:
  • Eligible applicants: a joint partnership of – at a minimum ‐ a religious and a secular stakeholder at local level. Such stakeholders possibly include, and are not limited to, local policymakers, including statutory bodies/institutions, local councils/governments, religious leaders and actors from different religious denominations, the civil society, including faith‐based, refugee and migrant‐led organisations, youth and/or community members’ movements, associations and groups, the private sector. The description of the religious‐secular partnership should preferably include reference to the role that each applicant entity plays in the local community and why their involvement would be useful in addressing the social cohesion challenge at community level. Preference will be given to proposals put forward by participants in the five editions of the European Policy Dialogue Forum (EPDF).

For more information, visit KAICIID.