Seeds for Integration Grants, Organising Bureau of European School Student Unions, Belgium (2017)

In the framework of the “Seeds for Integration” project, the Organising Bureau of European School Student Unions (OBESSU) has launched the Seeds for Integration Grants.
The aim is to provide seed-funding to secondary school student unions operating on local, regional or national level or, in case there is no student council in the school, to independent groups representing the school’s students, in order to
empower them to implement initiatives aimed at enhancing the integration of refugee students and pupils with migration background.

The objectives are to:
- engage all students, regardless of their origins, into a debate over the situation of refugee and migrant children in Europe in the context of education, and to forge a dialogue between schools on a local, regional and national level about the above topic;
- foster and support initiatives of school students that are empowering their peers with migration background to share with the school community their experiences and the challenges they face in the field of education, thus raising awareness to the issues refugeeand migrant pupils might encounter during their everyday life.
- build closer ties between the communities’ migrant students are coming from and the school community.

Grants
Small, medium and large-scale funding will be provided for projects implemented by general and vocational secondary school students on local, regional and national levels.
- On a local level, secondary school student groups can apply for a small scale grant of maximum 500 Euros.
- On a regional level, project teams composed of students from different secondary schools or Regional School Student Unions can apply for a medium scale grant of maximum 1000 Euros.
- On a national level, OBESSU Member, Candidate and Affiliate Organisations can apply for a large scale grant of maximum 2500 Euros.

The grants will support the following type of initiatives:
- awareness raising events
- activities promoting cultural diversity
- campaign and advocacy activities targeting local, regional or national policy-makers
- educational activities
- community building activities and all other ideas.

Eligible Criteria per grant scale
Small scale grants
- all Team Members should attend the same secondary level school.
- the initiative has to be implemented in the school the Team Members are attending or in the local community directly linked to the school.
Medium scale grants
- the initiative has to be a collaborative activity between 2 or more schools.
Large scale grants
- the applicant needs to be an OBESSU Member, Candidate or Affiliate Organisation.
- the proposed initiative has to be implemented on a national level or has to show the potential to have a multiplier effect.

Eligible applicants
- General or vocational secondary school student either part of or linked to their school student council/union or in case there is no student council/ union in your school you have to be the legitimate representative of their school’s students (they can justify it by collecting 20 signatures of their peers).
- The Team responsible for the implementation of the initiative should be made of at least three persons.
- One of the Team Members, who will be the contact person to OBESSU, should have an intermediate level of English.
- Should have a bank account (student union bank account or in case the student union does not have a bank account, an individual over 18 contractually representing the group throughout the implementation of the initiative).

Further details:
Seeds for Integration Grants, Organising Bureau of European School Student Unions, Belgium (2017)