Each year Forum for Dialogue awards Leaders of Dialogue with grants and scholarships for commemorative initiatives and for personal development. The financial support helps Leaders carry out their projects such as monuments or plaques in public spaces, meetings with Holocaust Survivors and descendants of Jews from Leaders’ towns, guidebooks presenting the local Jewish monuments, or development of innovative educational tools. This year, Leaders of Dialogue can submit their proposals focused on permanent commemoration and raising awareness about the local Jewish heritage.

On November 20-22, we organized an online training workshop for Leaders of Dialogue on how to plan projects and write grant proposals. Ten Leaders of Dialogue, together with experts from the School for Leaders, Maria Klaman and Anna Warwas, worked on ideas participants plan to submit as proposals to the Forum for Dialogue grants and scholarships program. This workshop was designed as a practical exercise of turning project ideas into professional grant proposals.

The participants had a great opportunity to learn about project methodology and implement it while writing a grant proposal. Friday night, the participants were joined by Anna Brzyska, a Leader of Dialogue from Brzesko and a recipient of the scholarship last year, who received funding to organize commemoration of a gravesite of a Jewish family murdered in the village of Brzeźnica. During the workshop, Anna Brzyska shared her experience of implementing the project, evolving from an idea to its realization. For the participants, meeting with Anna was a chance to ask about her work and challenges she faced during the past year. The workshop also provided them with space to give each other feedback on their projects, enriching their commemorative ideas.

The grant proposal workshop was co-financed by the Ledor Wador Foundation.