Creating Opportunities, ILGA Europe

Location: Eastern Europe and Central Asia

Focus: Movement building

Website: https://www.ilga-europe.org/what-we-do/our-work-supporting-movement/funder/creating-opportunities

Across Eastern Europe and Central Asia, LGBTQI communities lack legal protections against discrimination, face harassment and violence, and are marginalised in an increasingly polarised Europe. The Creating Opportunities programme run by ILGA-Europe supports campaigning activities and provides financial and strategic support. They fund new organisations, under-represented groups, and individual activists working in hostile environments and situations where it is challenging to gain access to funding. 

2020 was an important year for Creating Opportunities as they gathered research on the needs of 200 activists and groups in the region. Five projects were supported in Czech Republic, Estonia, Georgia, Italy and Serbia, although many had to re-plan because of the pandemic. In Serbia, for instance, a pro-civil partnerships campaign diverted funding to members of the community struggling with isolation during lockdown. Creating Opportunities also supported a campaign in Italy for LGBTQI hate crime legislation, which went online as a result of the pandemic and has led to more acceptance of LGBTQI people. 

In 2021, GiveOut’s grant will continue to support the Creating Opportunities programme, and in particular improve the movement’s ability to prevent, respond to and resist attacks of the so-called anti-gender movement. The programme is supporting 11 trans groups to challenge anti-trans discourse, which includes research, training and communication campaigns. In addition, ILGA-Europe will host spaces for peer-learning and inspiration sessions with guest speakers.

GiveOut is a charity registered with the Charity Commission for England and Wales (Registered Charity Number 1176434).