Funding Opportunity Alert! We are very pleased to let you know that applications for Intercultural Understanding Partnership (ICUP) Grants are open until 30 April 2023. Together For Humanity will award successful schools ICUP Grants of up to $10,000 to support work addressing intercultural challenges. Read on to learn about previous successful applications and see if your school is eligible.
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We take our commitment to supporting inclusion and education seriously at School Stream, so we are thrilled once more to be sharing details about how to apply for this fantastic funding opportunity.
What is an ‘intercultural challenge’?
First things first. What exactly is an intercultural challenge? You may well know it by other names, like cross-cultural challenges or inter-faith challenges. Intercultural challenges manifest in different ways in different school environments, but examples can include things like:
- A large percentage of ESL students across the school population.
- Schools that need support to deal with the arrival of large numbers of refugee-background students.
- Support to provide regional students with an understanding of, and connection to, people from different cultures.
- The need to facilitate greater belonging for First Nations students.
- A lack of awareness from the families of newly arrived communities about how school works in Australia.
Intercultural Understanding Partnership Grants
The Intercultural Understanding Partnership (ICUP) is an initiative created by Together For Humanity (TFH) and is funded by the Australian Government Department of Education. The goal of an ICUP Grant is to improve the learning and wellbeing of students by addressing a cross-cultural or interfaith challenge in the school community. Successful applicants receive financial support and the opportunity to work collaboratively with an experienced ICUP facilitator throughout their project.
Successful projects
Examples of ICUP projects include: creating a mural on school grounds and an interactive “Interfaith Heritage Trail’ from each of the major faith communities at the school, students working with a First Nations artist and mentor to create a House colour structure with First Nations totems for each house, building a garden to explore cultural identity through a connection to nature, and an applied (adjunct) history course to explore multifaceted identity in secondary age boys.
The Fine Print
Schools can submit an online Expression of Interest form for Round 3 funding until 30 April 2023. The form allows space for schools to tell the story of their intercultural challenge and determine eligibility, followed by the shortlisting stage, with the winning grant recipients announced in Term 3 2023.
Who can apply?
All Australian schools in metropolitan or regional areas with an intercultural challenge can apply.
The ICUP plan will have links to the ACER National School Improvement Tool, the Australian Wellbeing Framework, ACARA Intercultural capabilities and other strategic planning frameworks used by schools.
Please contact Together For Humanity’s Education Officer, Andrea Hogg andrea@togetherforhumanity.org.au or visit Together For Humanity for more information.
Good luck with your applications!
