The Ukrainian Cultural Foundation (hereinafter UCF) offers municipalities two programmes in February: Culture. Regions and Restoration of Cultural and Artistic Activities. These grant opportunities were discussed in detail at the event organised by the U-LEAD Programme jointly with the UCF. The event focused on project activities of municipalities and opportunities provided by UCF.
UCF representatives spoke about the Culture. Regions Programme. Its purpose is to facilitate the intercultural dialogue among different ethnic groups of Ukraine, to promote the history and culture of the indigenous peoples of Ukraine, to strengthen the cultural attractiveness of the regions by boosting the local cultural development of municipalities, including in the regions affected by Russia’s aggression.
The call is open until 29 February 2024. The Programme is represented by three LOTs: “Local culture”, “Culture of the indigenous peoples of Crimea”, “Reintegration through culture”. Learn more about the competition Culture. Regions here: https://bit.ly/3wmaEKb
The second grant opportunity, which was discussed, is the Restoration of Cultural and Artistic Activities. UCF believes that thanks to cultural projects, Ukrainian society was able not only to use its cultural potential in wartime, but also lay the groundwork for the post-war recovery of the state. The deadline to apply for the competition is 19 February 2024. Learn more about the Programme “Restoration of Cultural and Artistic Activities” here: https://ucf.in.ua/news/05022024
U-LEAD experts provided clarification on how to write a project application, project financing and budget preparation, as well as emphasised the main components of a high-quality project application.
The speaker of the event, Adviser on Decentralisation and Local Self-Government of the Regional Office of U-LEAD with Europe in the Chernihiv Oblast, Liudmyla Chabak, noted that the contests from the UCF for municipalities were an additional opportunity to finance the cultural sphere.
According to her, although municipalities are interested in project activities, they do not always have experts who can write a high-quality project application. The adviser stressed that in order to obtain additional opportunities, municipalities need to master the skills of working with projects:
“There are various cases of municipalities joining grant competitions and writing a project application: some succeed from the get-go, some do with their second or third application. You need to work on these skills because grants are an additional resource for municipalities. That is why U-LEAD provides all interested municipalities with the necessary information on handling project applications.”
Nataliia Zaitseva, Project Manager of the Department of Regional Activities of U-LEAD and speaker of the event, summarised:
“This year, U-LEAD is preparing a number of info sessions for municipalities regarding grant programmes and competitions. Our goal is to draw the attention of local self-government bodies to the specifics of preparing project proposals specifically as a local self-government body. We are also preparing to launch comprehensive training programmes: a support programme for creating a project office in municipalities and another round of “Steps for Specialists. Project Cycle Management.”