„Ich kann was!“-initiative: 2017 call for proposals begins
Bonn: As from now, child and youth welfare organizations are entitled to apply for financial support of up to 10,000 euros per project under the „Ich kann was!“ initiative. The 2017 call for proposals will provide support for those projects that primarily involve digital educational opportunities. The slogan for the competition that this year is being invited for the very first time by Deutsche Telekom Stiftung is “Key skills for the digital world”. At the beginning of 2017 the Foundation took over the successful initiative that was originally launched by the Telekom Group. The applications period runs from 15th March to 30th April 2017.
„Ich kann was!“ is aimed at organizations that are engaged in extracurricular child and youth work and are also closely involved in the everyday lives and experiences of children and teenagers. Focusing this kind of support on young persons aged between 9 and 16 should give them an opportunity to discover and develop their individual talents and abilities.
In the words of Professor Wolfgang Schuster, Chairman of the Telekom Foundation, “Children and teenagers increasingly need digital skills if they are to survive in this world and find good jobs”. He went on: “These skills first have to be imparted at youth centers and schools, but child and youth welfare services can also make an important contribution here. This is where we will find those young people who are doing badly at school. These are the ones we want to focus our support on, so that as many children and teenagers as possible have an opportunity to lead a self-determined and successful life in the digital world.”
Applications are invited from organizations running projects that take the themes and challenges which are part of the everyday lives and experiences of children and young people and combine them with modern communications media or digital instruments and technologies. Social, artistic, musical, sporting, technical and leisure-learning ideas, for example, can be interlinked with elements taken from the world of computers, the internet, social media, film, photography, programming, robotics, making and repair, and so on.
All applications must be made online via the internet site initiative-ich-kann-was.de. The competition is open to new applications and also to submissions from organizations that have already received financial support or have previously responded to a call for proposals. An expert panel will sit in the late summer of 2017 to decide which projects and organizations are to be approved for funding.
