Improve Your LGBTQI Organisational Development!
We are thrilled to bring back the IGLYO Activist Academy for its seventh edition, set to take place in Tampere, Finland, from 13 to 19 July 2025. This dynamic, skills-based training programme is the right fit for you if you are a passionate young queer activist eager to enhance your activism skills, connect across borders, and strengthen your work in the LGBTQI movement.
Ready to take the next step in your queer youth activism journey? Read the full call below and submit your application by Sunday 13 April 2025 at 23:59 CEST.
What is the Activist Academy?
The IGLYO Activist Academy is a dynamic, skills-based training programme designed for young queer activists aged 18-30 who are at the beginning of their activism journeys. It brings together passionate people eager to develop their skills, engage in a cross-cultural setting, and strengthen their work within the LGBTQI movement.
This year, the Academy will be hosted by IGLYO Member Transfeminiinit. The programme will have a specific focus on LGBTQI organisational development, providing participants with the tools to build and strengthen LGBTQI initiatives, improving their effectiveness and adaptability. It will cover areas such as strategic planning, change management, fundraising, partnership building, volunteer and team management, leadership, decision-making, governance, internal policies, and more.
You will also have the opportunity to attend parallel sessions on different topics, offering deeper insights into key areas in relation to organisational development. We will explore how to mainstream crucial issues such as anti-racism and trans and intersex rights, among others, into organisational structures and practices.
Where and when is it happening?
The IGLYO Activist Academy 2025 will be held in Tampere, Finland. Participants are expected to arrive on Sunday 13 July 2025 and depart on Saturday 19 July 2025. The programme will run for five days (from Monday 14 July to Friday 18 July 2025).
How much does it cost?
The fee to participate in the Activist Academy is €50 per participant. IGLYO will cover all expenses related to your participation, including travel, accommodation*, visa costs and meals. You will be responsible for booking your own travel, and we will reimburse you up to €300 for EU participants and €350 for non-EU participants in accordance with our travel and reimbursement policy, which will be provided to you if you are selected. Visa costs will be reimbursed in full.
If you are selected as a participant, you will be able to apply for a fee waiver or for direct travel booking by IGLYO. This measure is meant to facilitate the attendance of participants facing economic difficulties and/or from countries with a disadvantageous exchange rate to €. Requests will be assessed on a case-by-case basis.
*Keep in mind that accommodation will be in an apartment shared with another participant. A limited number of single rooms are available for accessibility reasons (please indicate this need in your application).
How does it work?
Get ready for an exciting and intensive experience! Here’s an overview of how the programme will be structured:
- Preparatory online sessions. In June/July, we will hold a series of online sessions to share important information about the programme, logistics, accessibility, and the code of conduct. These sessions will also give us the opportunity to start getting to know each other and set expectations for the training.
- Breaking the ice: The first day will kick off with an introductory session where we’ll set ground rules and form the teams.
- Expert-led workshops: Throughout the week, you’ll join interactive workshops led by experts (to be announced soon) on organisational development. Moreover, you will be able to attend parallel sessions offering deeper insights into key areas in relation to organisational development
- Real-life skills-based tasks: After the workshops, you’ll have the opportunity to put the skills and knowledge you acquired into action by working on real-life skills-based tasks with your team. Throughout this hands-on experience, you’ll receive guidance and support from mentors, who are trained participants of previous editions of the Academy.
- Presenting: At the end of the week, you and your team will present your completed projects to fellow participants and receive valuable feedback from the experts and IGLYO staff.
Who can apply?
The call for the IGLYO Activist Academy 2025 is for you if you:
- Are a novice (or intermediate) queer activist or aspire to become one.
- Are between 18 and 30 years old on the date of application.
- Are based in a Council of Europe Member State (see full list here), or in Russia, Belarus, or Kosovo.
- Can use English at an intermediate-advanced level. Most participants, experts, staff and volunteers will not be native English speakers. Nonetheless, in order to participate in this training, you will need to be able to follow conversations and presentations in English. Don’t worry if your English is not perfect, or if you feel shy to speak in a foreign language: we can support you in that through a buddying system or by relying on your team’s mentor.
IGLYO Member Organisations (see full list here) will be given priority if there is high demand. However, if you are not part of an IGLYO Member Organisation, you are still welcome to apply as long as you meet the above criteria.
IGLYO particularly welcomes applications from underrepresented groups and communities such as young women, trans youth, non-binary youth, intersex youth, young people from Black communities, other communities of colour and ethnic minorities, refugees, migrants, sex workers, disabled youth, neurodivergent youth, young people living with HIV, and fat young people.
IGLYO is committed to making its events accessible and inclusive for everyone, and this event is open to all young queer activists, regardless of ability. Please let us know about any accessibility needs you may have in the application form, and we will work to ensure all feasible accommodations are provided for.
Why join the Activist Academy?
By joining the IGLYO Activist Academy 2025 in Tampere, you will, among other things:
- Learn activism and organisational development skills from seasoned experts;
- Choose from parallel workshops offering deeper insights on organisational development, among which trans and intersex activism and mainstreaming anti-racism within LGBTQI activism.
- Directly apply the skills and knowledge acquired during the workshops by tackling real-life skills-based tasks, and receive feedback from experts and IGLYO staff.
- Improve your confidence working in teams and collaborating in an international, cross-cultural setting.
- Meet and network with over 20 young queer activists from the all over Europe and build everlasting relationships;
- Discover the local queer scene in Tampere through an exciting social programme (not part of the mandatory programme);
- And much more for you to explore!
If you’re still unsure whether the Activist Academy is for you, take a look at the programme, video and photos from last year’s edition in Brussels to get a sneak peek of what to expect!
How to apply?
Ready for your next queer adventure? Make sure to read the full call above and submit your application through this application form by Sunday 13 April 2025 at 23:59 CEST. Selected participants will be contacted shortly after the deadline.
Important note: We encourage you to submit a personal application that genuinely reflects your experiences and motivations. Generic applications that are clearly AI-generated will automatically receive a lower score. We strongly value hearing directly from you about your journey, what drives you in your activism, and your specific interest in this opportunity.
Questions & contact
For any questions, please reach out to our Programmes Team, Viola (She/Her) and Ali (They/Them), at programmes@iglyo.org.
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Co-organised by
With the Support of
The Activist Academy Tampere 2025 is organised by IGLYO — International LGBTQI Youth and Student Organisation in collaboration with Transfeminiinit. It is funded by the Dutch Ministry of Education Culture & Science, the Citizens, the Equality, Rights and Values (CERV) programme of the European Union, and the European Youth Foundation of the Council of Europe.
Interested?
