Update: author talk; York LGBT Forum vacancy; EU grant

Madeline Miller talk

At 19:00 on Thursday 21 August, author Madeline Miller will be talking about her Orange Prize-winning book The Song of Achilles. The book is told from the perspective of Patroclus, who is commonly interpreted as Achilles’ lover. Madeline will Skype in to the event, which will take place at York Explore Library.

For more information, see the City of York Council website article.

York LGBT Forum committee vacancy

York LGBT Forum are looking for a volunteer to jointly coordinate their events subgroup (with one other person who has already come forward). The two coordinators would be in charge of organising stalls at various local fairs and festivals, as well as putting on events for observances such as LGBT History Month, Transgender Awareness Week, Transgender Day of Remembrance, World AIDS Day and National Bullying Week.

For more information, including the role description, contact York LGBT Forum (yorklgbtforum@gmail.com).

EU action grant for transnational projects aiming to prevent and combat intolerance

See below for a recent call for proposals for an EU action grant for transnational projects which aim to prevent and combat racism, xenophobia, homophobia and other forms of intolerance.

Applications are invited for transnational projects focused on one of the following priorities:

Best practices to prevent and combat racism, xenophobia, homophobia and other forms of intolerance (BEST)

Proposals should focus on the exchange of best practices, and in particular but not limited to, best practices around hate crime and hate speech. Mutual learning and cooperation activities, in particular projects aimed at sharing concrete best practices that are likely to increase efficient prevention, as well as effective responses by means of criminal law and by other means, will be funded.

Monitoring and reporting on hate crime and online hate speech (HATE)

Projects should focus on:

• Monitoring and data collection concerning the existence of racist/xenophobic/homophobic websites in participating countries.
• Sharing of best practices among participating countries with successful reporting mechanisms including those that rely on third party reporting, anonymous or online reporting.
• Development of efficient reporting mechanisms available to victims of hate crime (particular focus should be placed on the sustainability of reporting beyond the life of the project) and/or the establishment of reporting networks.

The funding will be awarded to a few larger projects that ideally will cover all the participating countries (EU Member States, Iceland and Liechtenstein) and in any case a high number of them.

A budget of €5.35 million is available which will be divided between the two priorities as follows:

• BEST priority – €1.5 million
• HATE priority – €3.85 million

Grants will be for a minimum of €300,000 for up to 80% of eligible project costs. Contributions in kind are not eligible costs.

Legally constituted public or private organisations, or international organisations that are not for profit may apply. Applications must be from partnerships of organisations from at least five different eligible countries. Initially, projects should last no longer than two years.

The deadline for applications is 12 November 2014 (noon CET).