MitOst supports youg activists

Darius Polok

As The MitOst is an association in form of NGO everybody can become a member. Until two years ago MitOst was open only for German speaking persons. But right now we are open for those who speak Russian, English or German and we try to communicate in these 3 languages. 

Well, all our members are in general young activists. I would call them activists in field of citizenship on the level of small scale let’s call this political issues but not in terms of political party but in terms of community development and on the others side issues of cultural exchange. Everybody can become a member and the member fee is very low. In the same time we give half of this income back to the members to support the project. And the way is very easy. They can apply three - four times a year. We select the best ideas and support them with our own money. So this is one part. 

The other part is the programmes that we develop together with foundations. Now another example. The example is Tandem Cultural Managers Exchange. The Tandem Scheme we developed together with The European Culture Foundation. We have Tandem in Ukraine, Moldavia, Tandem Turkey and Tandem Shaml which is creating a long-term connection between Europe and The Arab countries. 

And let’s take an example from Tandem. In this programme you can apply as an individual cultural manager with the organization and we as an implementing partner of the foundation we are supporting participants within the programmes. When you apply and you are selected as a culture manager you get a chance to get into the network of Tandem, you get a chance to take part in the seminars of the Tandem, you get a chance to make a placement in other organizations. And also we do support The Tandem Partners with a project grant. In this case within the programme we are also a kind of funding body.  But we do not see us as a funding body. We see MitOst mainly as a supporting body in a field between cultural organizations, small-scale cultural organizations and big European foundations. In the way we are creating these programmes together with foundations we do support the local organizations and their issues.

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Darius Polok

Darius Polok

Director of MitOst in Berlin, Germany

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