Visual with the caption “Training, Global Online Activist Academy - 23 March to 9 April 2023, Online”. On the right are the dark silhouettes of four activists using megaphones and raising placards or their arm in the air. Below are the logos of the Activist Academy, IGLYO, the EU and the Dutch Ministry of Culture and Education. The visual invites readers to apply on activist-academy.org.

Open Call for Participants

Applications are open!

After three successful online editions in 20202021 and 2022, we are thrilled to announce that our IGLYO LGBTQI Activist Academy is going online and global again from 23 March to 9 April 2023!

Applications for the Global Online Activist Academy 2023 closed on Sunday 26 February 2023 at 23:59 CEST.

 

What is the Global Online Activist Academy?

IGLYO’s Global Online Activist Academy is a 2-week skills-based training programme for young people between 18 and 30 at the beginning of their activist careers who are passionate about activism, advocacy and learning, and have a strong interest in lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and intersex (LGBTQI) rights. The goal is to jumpstart younger activists into skill-demanding and leadership roles within LGBTQI organisations. 

While we wait for the in-person Activist Academy planned in summer 2023, the fourth online and eighth overall edition of the Activist Academy will gather selected participants from around the world online from 23 March to 9 April 2023. What’s more is that participation in the online edition is completely free of charge.

 

How does it work?

Be prepared for a wonderful and intensive experience: The Global Online Activist Academy 2023 will include 6-7 mandatory online live sessions and a few hours of individual/team work. The total time commitment of each participant will be around 30 hours, spread around 2 weeks.

You can sign up for the Academy in teams of maximum 3 people, or alone (in which case you will have to fulfil all the Academy tasks and challenges by yourself). But worry not if you are not part of a team: You are free to form teams with other participants in a similar situation.

In a nutshell, here’s how this year’s programme will be organised:

  1. Breaking the ice
    The online Academy programme will kick off on Thursday 23 March in an ice-breaking session where we will all meet online, find out more about each other, and learn how the Activist Academy works.
  2. Expert workshops
    You’ll start with three or four interactive masterclasses/workshops led by experts within the global LGBTQI movement. You’ll learn skills such as how to write and deliver powerful speeches or prepare a strong statement, how to grab people’s attention and build support for important issues through messaging and graphic design, and other useful skills.
  3. Real-life challenges
    Once you’ve completed all the expert workshops, you will put what you’ve learnt into practice and translate your new skills and knowledge into action by undertaking two real-life challenges over the course of a week with the help of your team-mates and the support of online mentors, who are all graduates of previous Activist Academy editions. When your two challenges are ready, you’ll receive constructive feedback from our team of judges before making final changes and improvements.
  4. Voting
    All your finished products will be uploaded on a secret page on the Academy website, and all Academy participants, teams and judges will vote for their favourite entries. 
  5. Award Ceremony
    The Academy Trophies will be announced during the final live session of the Academy on 9 April 2023. The 3 teams with the highest overall score will receive a prize worth €500 each! 

We will upload the Mentors, Experts and full programme shortly. Please note that ​​the exact times of the workshops and meetings will be decided later on, but they will most likely be around noon CEST!

 

Who can apply?

The call for the Global Online Activist Academy 2023 is for you if you:

  • Identify with or advocate for LGBTQI rights and are involved in LGBTQI activism;
  • Are between 18 and 30 years old, at the date of application;
  • Are able to use English at an intermediate/advanced level;
  • Are able to participate in the online live sessions taking place in European time zones*;
  • Are able to use a computer, have a good internet connection and access to basic video/audio recording equipment (at a minimum a smartphone).

In addition, to be able to qualify for the rewards, participants must attend all mandatory online live sessions and contribute to the production of 2 challenges.

​IGLYO particularly welcomes applications from underrepresented groups and communities such as young women, trans and non-binary youth, intersex youth, young people with disabilities, young people living with HIV, racialised youth, Black youth and young people of colour, and young refugees and migrants.

*Note that most online live sessions will be scheduled around noon, CEST (Belgium/Brussels time). Take this into consideration if your time zone is very different. We will provide the exact time as soon as we know what time zones participants live in, to try to make it convenient for most of you. Two years ago, our hero participants from Mexico attended workshops at 4 am and they were amazing!

 

How to apply?

Applications for the Global Online Activist Academy 2023 closed on Sunday 26 February 2023 at 23:59 CEST.

Selected participants will be informed via email in early March 2023.

If you have any questions regarding the Academy, please email Tudor at tudor@iglyo.com, or Brian at brian@iglyo.com

Good luck!

 

***

The Activist Academy is organised by IGLYO — International LGBTQI Youth and Student Organisation. IGLYO is the world’s largest LGBTQI Youth and Student Organisation, counting more than 100 Member Organisations in over 40 countries across the Council of Europe Region. IGLYO’s mission is to advance the rights of LGBTQI youth, fight for equality and inclusion, and empower LGBTQI youth voices through international training and events, thematic research and advocacy campaigns, online tools and resources, networking activities, and much more. You can learn more about IGLYO on iglyo.com.

The Activist Academy is funded by the Dutch Ministry of Education Culture & Science and the Citizens, Equality, Rights and Values (CERV) programme 2021-2027 of the European Union.

IGLYO is co-funded by the Rights Equality and Citizenship (REC) programme 2014-2020 of the European Union and the Government of the Netherlands. The contents of this publication are the sole responsibility of IGLYO and can in no way be taken to reflect the views of the European Commission or the Government of the Netherlands.