The Evens Foundation
The Evens Foundation aims to contribute to the ideal of a resilient Europe that inspires people and communities toward a collective future of freedom, democracy and joy.
It was initiated by Irene Evens-Radzyminska and George Evens in 1990. Having witnessed the horrors of World War Two, which forced them to flee their home in Poland, they found new hope in Belgium. The Foundation's creation expressed
their belief in – and commitment to – the European Project: a vision of a Europe where unity and solidarity would prevail over discord.
Since then, the Foundation has evolved in response to the changing needs and concerns of communities within the EU and beyond. In 2023, the Foundation initiated a new strategy with a new mission focusing on young people aged 16-29.
Corinne Evens, daughter of the founders, is the Foundation's Honorary President. Joe Elborn is the Foundation's Executive Director, and Monique Canto-Sperber is the Chairwoman of the Advisory Board.
New Mission, New Vision
After months of introspection and years of wide-reaching experimentation, the Evens Foundation entered 2023 with a clear goal: to reformulate its vision and mission and create a more defined path for the coming years.
Since its inception, the Foundation has always placed a strong belief in democracy at its heart. It has fought to find and create reasons for optimism for the future of Europe through periods of complacency and prosperity, unrest, rising inequality, and even war. This was the obvious focus for reformulating the Foundation’s vision, which is the very first sentence in this report.
This optimistic future is only possible with the support and belief of Europe’s young people. But their voices and needs are often under-represented in public life. So they became central to the Foundation’s new mission. With this in mind, the Foundation’s team developed a new strategy focused on three core pillars: Youth and Democracy, Youth and Mental Well-being, and Defending Against Authoritarianism.
The Foundation will explore the state of democracy at a time when young people's trust in institutions is in severe decline, examine the impact of new technologies, and continue to support, develop, and highlight strategies against authoritarianism.
This work builds on the knowledge accumulated over thirty years of activities in journalism, education, the arts, and science and the strengths of the Foundation’s unique network of partners, collaborators, and prize laureates.
However, rising anxiety and depression rates among Europe's young will also have significant consequences, so mental health was identified as a new area of inquiry. To begin with, the Foundation will focus on increasing the political priority of mental health and investigate how the needs of young people can be better represented, understood and responded to.
These pillars will shape the Evens Foundation for years to come. Within them, the team can act in myriad ways, creating and strengthening partnerships, launching new investigations and building on the Foundation’s reputation for innovation within the philanthropic community. To reflect this, the concept of the “blended” Foundation was conceived: an organisation that is not limited to one kind of action or way of working but selects strategically appropriate actions that contribute to the Foundation’s overall vision and reputation. This allows the Foundation to be more agile and more impactful, combine top-down and bottom-up activities, offer grants and be an advocate, experiment with new ways of working and initiate interesting projects, and build on its team's different interests, talents and experiences.
With this new mission and blended way of working, the Foundation confidently embarked on an ambitious programme for 2023, encompassing projects with various scales and typologies, from the pan-European to the hyper-local. This report attempts to outline them all but cannot do justice to the passion and enthusiasm of the team that made it possible. The Foundation extends a heartfelt thank you to all of them, to its friends, partners and supporters, and to all those who have participated in the various workshops, board meetings, performances, hackathons, lectures, site visits, judging panels, interviews, articles, videos and retreats in 2023.
A note on numbers
The Evens Foundation is a blended foundation that makes grants, initiates and runs its own projects, and provides support to others. The 'key numbers' included in this report reflect the diversity of these activities. They are not intended for direct comparison or to be exhaustive, but rather to offer a flavour of the various ways in which the Foundation is involved in making an impact.
YOUTH AND DEMOCRACY
Participants at the HackYeah! event in Poland.
Photo courtesy of PROIDEA
Depolarisation
To launch its work exploring the issue of polarisation and inspired by the idea that "solidarity between generations" is critical to realising a prosperous Europe, the Evens Foundation delivered a series of intergenerational engagements.
The first was a three-day retreat with a broad selection of civil society representatives, bringing together different generations to learn and co-create materials.
Working with the Learning for Wellbeing Foundation, AWE Studio, the Flemish Peace Institute and Reimagine Europa, the Foundation generated a path forward to raise the issue of polarisation with the next European Parliament in 2024 and work toward depolarising our political discourse.
Based on the interactions and feedback from participants, the Evens Foundation is funding three follow-up projects in 2024, and has been involved in discussions at the EU level on how to tackle polarisation in the coming years.
The second took the form of a partnership with the Gulbenkian Foundation to engage over 1000 young people in December at their Lisbon campus, where the Evens Foundation made the case that mobilising youth vote was a critical part of depolarising the political landscape. When you vote you take ownership. Apathy is toxic. Among the audience was the President of the epublic.
27 participants for the weekend think lab
3 follow-up projects funded
1000+ young people engaged in Lisbon
The Evens Foundation hosts a site visit at the European Parliament with members of Philea as part of the depolarisation workstream. Photo by Joe Elborn
EU Election Hackathons
4000 attendees
1 keynote on digitisation and democracy
10,000 PLN prize
150 challenge participants
14 project finalists, 1 winner
1,152,729 Social Media Reach
As part of its ongoing work around youth engagement with democracy, the Evens Foundation partnered with HackYeah! in Poland – one of Europe’s largest hackathon platforms – inviting thousands of participants to develop creative digital solutions for increasing youth voter turnout in the 2024 EU Elections.
Taking place from 31 September to 1 October 2023, HackYeah! attracted more than 4000 participants. They worked in teams to complete different ‘tasks’ coached by mentors.
The Evens Foundation’s “Empower the Youth'' challenge offered a prize of 10,000 PLN and potential further support for development and deployment. The Foundation asked participants to “design and implement innovative digital tools to significantly increase youth voter turnout in the June 2024 European elections, with a primary focus on Poland. These tools should be creative, engaging, politically neutral, and scalable to address the broader European context”.
The Foundation assembled a team of mentors, including locally active political figures from the Youth National Council of Poland, and engaged with participants via dedicated Discord channels.
The winning concept focused on political accountability, matching promises made on the campaign trail to how politicians vote in parliament. We also delivered a keynote address and made a call to the whole stadium to get out and vote (and also in the Polish elections that were weeks away).
Winners of the Evens Foundation challenge at HackYeah. Photo courtesy of PROIDEA
Campus Poland
In the last week of August 2023, the Evens Foundation travelled to Kortowo (Olsztyn), Poland, to attend Campus –The Future of Poland, the biggest event of its kind in Europe, dedicated to young people who actively participate in social and political life in Poland.
Campus aims to empower youth to shape the reality around them. Beyond providing financial support to help realise the event, the Evens Foundation saw the festival as an opportunity to engage with a new audience of young activists. Almost 300 events were spread across the week, including three workshops organised by the Evens Foundation and its partners. The Foundation focused on themes that are top-of-mind for activists.
Evens Foundation Workshops at Campus – The Future of Poland Too young/too old to vote?
Intergenerational dialogue before the elections with Marta Białek-Graczyk from the Association of Creative Initiatives “ę.”
Urban/rural stories. How to connect and act together with Anna ŁukawskaAdamczyk from Fundacja Wieświejak AI and social change – facts, myths and inspirations for the young activist’s work with David Sypniewski and Hanna Zielińska (Evens Foundation)
7 days
510 speakers
1300 participants
60 social media and media broadcasts
The crowd during the opening of Campus Poland. Image courtesy of Campus Poland
AI and elections
The Evens Foundation launched an exploration around AI's impact on democratic processes in Europe, specifically its impact on elections. The objective was to broaden the Foundation’s understanding of this emerging technology and the role it could play in upcoming EU elections and facilitate further forecasting.
The Foundation contacted more than 78 individuals, including leaders in the democracy space, Silicon Valley and tech hubs across Europe. Interviews were conducted with a selection ranging from technologists to creatives to political thought leaders, including Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen. Several interviewees went on to author pieces on the issue of AI and elections in 2023. With the European legislative work on the topic due to be completed in 2024 (the EU Artificial Intelligence Act), the impact of AI on elections was an important and under-addressed issue.
78 experts canvassed
16 in-depth one-to-one interviews
5 continents covered for differing perspectives (Europe, North America, South America, Asia and Africa)
A colour fight at Campus Poland, an event to support youth political engagement in Poland. Photo courtesy of Campus Poland
SHAPING EDUCATION
Professor Kehinde Andrews delivers a keynote talk at Utrecht University as part of the Education Prize exchange meeting. Photo by David Sypniewski
Changing Democracies
Changing Democracies is the Evens Foundation’s flagship project. It is an ambitious and wide-reaching initiative that brings together 13 partners across 10 European countries to illuminate the hidden history of democratic transition in Europe.
Running until 2025, it is a European oral history project investigating how living history can lead to critical reflection and (intergenerational) dialogue about democracy today.
At the end of 2022, the project was selected for EU funding in the framework of the Citizens, Equality, Rights and Values Programme (CERV), following a lengthy application process, which allowed the Foundation to officially launch Changing Democracies in 2023.
The project aims to contribute to building a shared European space for histories and memories of life under fascist and communist regimes, resistance, transitions, colonialism, war and peace. The Foundation and its partners believe these can help us grasp what processes are needed for democracy to fulfil its promises for everyone and how agency and citizenship can be imagined differently.
The project comprises a set of carefully curated activities
1. collecting transition stories in 10 European countries
2. organisation of 10 local experiences inspired by the stories
3. development and European tour of a transnational travelling exhibition
4. creation of an educational resource in 10 languages and accompanying workshops for teachers
5. research to understand how young people give meaning to the oral histories they are confronted with
6. production and screening of a documentary
7. building online engagement on the topic
Depending on the local context, it involves participants of different ages and backgrounds—children and youth, teachers, journalists, seniors, and underrepresented groups.
Apart from the Evens Foundation and EuroClio (Netherlands), who initiated the project, the partner organisations involved include the Association of History Educators Greece (Greece), Autres Directions (Netherlands), the Borderland Foundation (Poland), the Escola de Cultura de Pau (Spain), the Faculty of Arts, Charles University (Czech Republic), the Flemish Peace Institute (Belgium), In Medias Res (Netherlands), the Institute of Research in Art, Design and Society, University of Porto (Portugal), the Museum of Slavonia (Croatia), Mediawise Society (Romania), and the Open Lithuania Foundation (Lithuania).
The consortium's first live meeting took place in Vilnius from 22 to 23 April 2023. The remainder of the year was dominated by defining criteria for potential witnesses, identifying witnesses in each context, jointly deciding on the final selection, preparing a standard set of interview questions, and filming the interviews.
1 oral history project
500,000 EU grant
10 countries 13 partners 31 witness testimonies
The story collection consists of 31 interviews recorded in 10 countries, with witnesses of different ages, backgrounds, views and professions aiming to fill the gap in the official narratives about the times of transition to democracy in various national, cultural and geographical contexts. Through the project’s outcomes, fragments of the stories will be brought to people around Europe who have never experienced life in a nondemocratic system.
The witnesses’ understanding and evaluation of democracy depend significantly on their life stories. At the same time, even though the ideologies in some non-democratic European countries were very different, experiences were often not that far apart. This illustrates the potential of the project’s broader European perspective, which goes beyond historical fact and explores people’s aspirations—the hopes and fears people shared despite the different ideological systems they lived in.
In Belgium and the Netherlands, where democracy was established more than a lifetime ago, the focus was placed on testimonies of people who migrated from non-democratic countries or former colonies to complement the European perspective with a more global one.
In parallel, the partners began preparing local experiences inspired by the stories. The first of these started in November 2023 in Spain, where the Escola de Cultura de Pau invited La Massana Art School students to engage with the testimonies from Spain and draw their reflections on the challenges they believe democracy is facing.
In 2024, the project will continue to evolve through local experiences and European-level outputs: a travelling exhibition, an interactive website, an educational resource pack, a documentary, and a publication sharing the research results.
Stills from the Changing Democracies story collection on the wall during a meeting with the project partners in Barcelona. Photo by David Sypniewski
Education Prize: Utrecht meeting
In January 2023, the Evens Foundation organised a meeting in Utrecht between the 2020 Evens Education Prize laureates, shortlisted candidates and close collaborators, intending to build connections and share knowledge across the education sector.
The event built on the success of a previous exchange that was part of the Evens Foundation’s 30th Anniversary programme in June 2022. Participants reported that the event offered a unique opportunity to talk amongst peers about key topics in contemporary education.
These meetings also gave the Foundation an opportunity to learn from those in the field and use this to guide its own work and future editions of the Evens Education Prize.
Koen Leurs, associate professor in Gender, Media and Migration Studies at the Graduate Gender Program, Department of Media and Culture at Utrecht University and 2020 Education Prize laureate, hosted the meeting. The event was organised in two strands, with discussions, workshops, a tour and meetings with the invited participants, alongside a public lecture by another 2020 laureate – Kehinde Andrews, Professor of Black Studies at Birmingham City University and author of The Psychosis of Whiteness, whose talk was titled The Battle for Black Studies: Decolonising knowledge is not just ‘academic’.
The event was captured in a short film, where the Foundation and participants also shared their advice and thoughts on organising a useful exchange meeting.
23 participants
10 countries represented 1 short film highlighting the ingredients of a good exchange
VIDEO
Stefan Zweig programme
The recipients of the first edition of the Stefan Zweig scholarship and essay prize with the Collège d'Europe in Bruges, Belgium, were announced in June 2023.
Anže Mediževec, Mathilda Schulenberg, and Flaminia Bonnani were announced as the recipients of the essay prizes, while Alejandro Sánchez Bañares and Gaspard Toussaint received scholarships for the coming 2023-2024 academic year.
Conceived by the Evens Foundation’s co-founder Corinne Evens, board
members, and friends of the Foundation, the Stefan Zweig programme aims to support the next generation of bright minds and pioneering thinkers in Europe. It targets young postgraduates working on some of contemporary Europe's key challenges, primarily through financial support and academic partnerships.
It is named after Austrian novelist, playwright, journalist, and biographer Stefan Zweig. "Stefan Zweig was one of the few writers who had a clear idea of the dangers that threatened Europe," explained Raymond Georis, philanthropist and friend of the Foundation.
The Stefan Zweig awards ceremony at the College d'Europe in Bruges, Belgium
Frank Irving leads a Traces of Slavery walk in Utrecht with participants from the Education Prize exchange meeting.
Photo by David Sypniewski
CREATING CULTUREDRIVEN CHANGE
Femke Herregraven speaking at the Evens Arts Prize ceremony. Photo by Monday Jr.
The Evens Arts Prize
The 2023 edition of the biennial Evens Arts Prize was dedicated to exploring artistic practices that critically engage with AI and address its democratic challenges. It was awarded to Netherlands-based artist Femke Herregraven.
Herregraven investigates value systems, global finance, and geopolitics. Her work spans high-frequency trading, mineral mining, catastrophe bonds, and algorithms, making the invisible systems behind our modern world tangible. She was awarded the Evens Arts Prize for her investigation into these extractive technologies and the consistent use of AI to unsettle established models.
Nominations for the 2023 Evens Arts Prize were invited from a panel of 27 leading art industry figures assembled by the prize’s artistic director, Anne Davidian.
The Jury of the Evens Arts Prize 2023
Daniel Blanga Gubbay, Artistic CoDirector, Kunstenfestivaldesarts; Nicolas Bourriaud, Artistic Director, 15th Gwangju Biennale, and Founder, Radicants; Elena Filipovic, Director and Curator, Kunsthalle Basel; Matteo Pasquinelli, Associate Professor in Philosophy of Science, Ca’ Foscari University; Gosia Plysa, Director, Unsound.
Jury Chair: André Wilkens, Director, European Cultural Foundation.
The Nominators of the Evens Arts Prize 2023
Ramon Amaro, Senior Researcher in Digital Culture, Nieuwe Instituut, Rotterdam; Zdenka Badovinac, Director, Museum of Contemporary Art, Zagreb; Lars Bang Larsen, Head of Art & Research, Art Hub, Copenhagen; Leonardo Bigazzi, Curator, Foundation In Between Art Films, Rome; Mercedes Bunz, Professor Digital Culture & Humanities, King's College, London; Francesca Corona, Artistic Director, Festival d'Automne, Paris; Julia Eckhardt, Artistic Director, Q-02, Brussels; Silvia Fanti, Artistic Director, Live Arts Week /Xing, Bologna; iLiana Fokianaki, Founder, State of Concept, Athens; Cyrus Goberville, Head of Cultural Programming, Bourse de Commerce | Pinault Collection, Paris; Stefanie Hessler, Director, Swiss Institute, New York; Mathilde Henrot, Programmer, Locarno Film Festival; Nora N. Khan & Andrea Bellini, Artistic Directors, Biennale Image en Mouvement 2024, Geneva; Peter Kirn, Director, MusicMakers HackLab, CTM Festival, Berlin; Inga Lace, Curator, Latvian Centre for Contemporary Art, Riga; Andrea Lissoni, Director, Haus der Kunst, Munich; Frank Madlener, Director, IRCAM, Paris; Anna Manubens, Director, Hangar, Barcelona; Anne Hilde Neset, Director, Henie Onstad, Høvikodden; Nóra Ó Murchú, Artistic Director, transmediale, Berlin; Maria Ines Rodriguez, Director, Walter Leblanc Foundation, Brussels; Nadim Samman, Curator for the Digital Sphere, KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin; Andras Siebold, Artistic Director, Kampnagel, Hamburg; Caspar Sonnen, Head of New Media, International Documentary Film Festival (IDFA), Amsterdam; Marlies Wirth, Curator for Digital Arts, MAK, Vienna; Ben Vickers, Curator, Publisher, CTO, Serpentine Galleries, London.
VIDEO
Next Generation Please!
Led by Brussels-based cultural institution Bozar and supported by the Evens Foundation amongst others, Next Generation, Please! invites young people aged 15 to 26 to partner with an artist and create outputs around a theme. Looking ahead to the 2024 European elections, the theme for the 2023/24 edition was ‘European Values’, and the medium chosen was moving images.
Submissions for the initiative’s eighth edition were invited via an open call launched in February 2023. Five projects were selected for the 2023/24 initiative cycle. Each received a €5500 grant. The final films will be shown during a two-day film festival at Bozar in May 2024.
The projects
A Castle Made of Sand Artist Vincen Beeckman and asylum institution Fedasil engage around migration in the urban and European context. The project gives a voice to a group of unaccompanied minors, mainly from Afghanistan.
Hymnorama
Students from the Kunsthumaniora Brussel and Collectif Mal Temperado are joining forces for this project. They are making a docufilm entitled Hymnorama, which focuses on reworking the EU national anthem into a contemporary version.
Wie was ik geweest?/ Who had I been?
In collaboration with Ithaka ISK, Common Frames is making a documentary mosaic narrative about the
1 open call
€27,500 awarded 5 films
impact of one’s migration on the mental well-being of young status holders in the Netherlands.
InnerEScape
InnerEScape is an initiative of the artist collective KNEPH. Young people find their way in turbulent times. During the creation process, the recruited young people (through ‘Authentical’ and ‘TryOut alba-Tonuso’) create inner landscapes in which they reflect on the future. This will result in InnerEScape, a poetic, experimental film.
Candela
Filmmaker Mariana Machado, Luca School of Arts Brussels, and Espirito Mundo join forces. Their film Candela, which means light, candle, or fire in Spanish, portrays the relationship between three Latin American youths and their relationship with a fourth character: the city of Brussels.
Ithaka Filmt, one of the participants in Next Generation, Please!
Photo Joeri Calis/Bozar
Writers and Thinkers
Writers and Thinkers is a core strand of Bozar’s annual public programme, with public talks from some of the world’s most influential authors and philosophers. The 2023 edition of the Writers and Thinkers programme was supported by the Evens Foundation and included high-profile names such as US politician Bernie Sanders and French philosopher Jacques Ranciere, alongside emerging authors tackling timely subjects from climate change to nationhood.
On 7 November, the Evens Foundation created a special mini-event for members of the EU Commission with Kim Stanley Robinson, author of the climate fiction novel The Ministry for the Future, to coincide with his Writers and Thinkers talk.
48 events
22,353 attendees
465 average attendance
Bernie Sanders speaks at Bozar as part of the Writers and Thinkers programme.
Photo Marin Driguez/Bozar.
Small grants in culture
In 2023, the Evens Foundation launched a new initiative: awarding strategic small grants to complement the project and advocacy work taking place throughout the organisation.
These targeted grants offered an opportunity to strengthen bonds with existing partners and explore synergies with potential future collaborators.
Humour as a force: 1 x €5000
This microgrant was created to support the exploration of humour as a force to defend against or counteract authoritarianism and totalitarianism. There are many examples of how humour has been used as a weapon to expose and criticise the abuses and absurdities of power and sometimes as a tool to unite and mobilise people to resist and counteract. How does this happen? What are the conditions? Can this be supported?
Recipient: Basket Beat for the Festival de les arts Comunitàries de Catalunya, 4-7 October 2023. The grant was specifically focused on supporting the event’s Academic Congress.
The Festival de les Arts Comunitàries de Catalunya offers a space for exploring the potential of destruction and confusion in community arts with shows, activities, performances, workshops and conferences. The focus is on humour, irreverence, and ugliness in political, artistic, and pedagogical forms that confront contemporary society's lack of political direction.
Basket Beat – which aims to “recognize, accompany, enable and problematize educational, social, community and political processes through making music in a group with
basketballs” – was among the nominees for the 2020 Evens Education Prize. It is the host organiser of the festival, inviting other participants to help shape and deconstruct the programme each year. The festival attracted around 3000 people across a wide range of activities, with over 150 artists performing as part of the programme.
The Academic Congress, which took place on the mornings of the 4,5,6 and 7 October, was supported by the Evens Foundation and brought together 25 academics and professionals to discuss a wide array of topics related to the programme. It was created and curated collaboratively by a 10-strong group of individuals working in the field of community arts.
3000 festival attendees
150 artists
35 people on the organisational team
10 curators for the Academic Congress
25 guests at the Academic Congress
A performance at the Festival de les arts Comunitàries de Catalunya, organised by BasketBeat. Photo by Enrique Escorza
Participants in the Academic Congress at the Festival de les Arts Comunitàries de Catalunya, supported via an Evens Foundation strategic grant. Photo by Enrique Escorza
EXPLORING THE PREVENTATIVE ROLE OF EDUCATION
Image via Euroclio
Regranting
In 2023, the Evens Foundation continued its collaboration with longstanding partner EuroClio, the European Association of History Educators, continuing a joint commitment to “open up spaces to challenge dominant national narratives and to engage with the complexity, multiplicity and transnationality of European history and history teaching”.
The Foundation co-funded grants for EuroClio member organisations, focusing on Regional Cooperation Projects and a pan-European gathering. The aim was to support transnational exchange and peer learning between history educators from the bottom up and increase the probability that initiatives also answer educators’ real needs on the ground.
Seven grants were awarded in total – one of €52,000 for a large-scale gathering of history teaching, which took place in November 2023 in Bergamo and Brescia, and six €6000 grants for regional projects.
The Pan–European Gathering in Italy focused on three key issues: climate change, migration, and inclusivity. Outcomes include the creation of an online open-source platform aimed at national and European institutions, scholars, and teachers, containing the topics discussed and the conclusions reached by the participants.
Recipients of the 2023 EuroClio Regional Cooperation Grants
Association for History Education in Greece (AHEG), “Approaching The Migration Experience: Albanians in Greece (1990-2023)”, 3-5 November 2023 in Athens, 17-19 November 2023 in Tirana.
Estonian History Teachers Association (EAUS), “The Estonian History and Civic Teachers Annual Summer School”, 8-10 August 2023, Pärnumaa.
Croatian History Teachers Association (HUNP), “Forum on History and Remembrance Education in the PostYugoslav Space“, 18-20 October 2023, Pula.
Society of Historical Sciences, Romania, “Journal of European Memory”, 2-4 November 2023, Bucharest.
Slovenian History Teachers Association, “How to Teach World War II and Cultivate a Culture of Commemorating Sensitive History”, 17 November, Ljubljana.
Association for Historical Dialogue and Research (AHDR), Cyprus, “Expert Seminar on History Education in the Eastern Mediterranean: An Interdisciplinary Approach to Cooperation on History Teaching in PostConflict Settings”, 13-14 December 2023, Nicosia.
€88,000 awarded
7 grants
6 local projects across Europe
1 Pan-European Gathering with 50 participants
20 countries represented
CONNECTING THROUGH JOURNALISM
Mexican-American author Jennifer Clement – a recipient of the Difference Day 2023 Honorary Title for Freedom of Expression – at the Difference Day gala.
Photo by Thierry Geenen
Difference Day
Difference Day takes place on World Press Freedom Day, 3 May. It is a Belgian celebration of freedom of the press and freedom of expression, honouring people and organisations that make a difference in protecting and promoting these values. In 2023, the ninth edition of Difference Day featured a programme organized around the theme "speak freely, listen respectfully, different opinions matter," with talks throughout the day and a gala dinner.
Guests included the Mexican-American author Jennifer Clement and Indian journalist Ravish Kumar, both recipients of the Difference Day 2023 Honorary Title for Freedom of Expression.
Difference Day is organized by Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Université Libre De Bruxelles, Erasmus Hogeschool Brussels, and Bozar, with the Evens Foundation as an organizing and founding partner.
150 gala dinner guests
12 international panel participants
2 award recipients
Small grants in journalism
3 strategic grants for 2023/24
€15,000 awarded 1 project delivered in 2023
6 partners in The Circle
100+ registrations for The Circle
In 2023, the Evens Foundation launched a new initiative: awarding strategic small grants to complement the project and advocacy work taking place throughout the organisation.
These targeted grants offered an opportunity to strengthen bonds with existing partners and explore synergies with potential future collaborators.
Unconventional journalistic initiatives: 3 x €5000 These microgrants were targeted at cross-border collaborations and engaging young audiences to spark their interest in political and social matters. The focus on journalism reflects the Foundation’s ongoing commitment to and belief in freedom of the media as a key tenet of a democratic society and a vital tool in holding power to account.
Recipient: Are We Europe for The Circle, Naples. Public Event at Riot Studio, 19 October 2023, 18.00 - 22.00
The Circle is a new approach to crossborder journalism and collaboration. Four European media partners — Are We Europe (NL), Hostwriter (DE), Arty Farty (FR), and n-ost (DE) — join forces to create media knowledge hubs in eight European cities.
In November 2023, The Circle staged a Media Design Sprint in Naples. Media Design Sprints are a methodology developed by Are We Europe based on Google Ventures’ Design Sprints. Over two weeks, participants in each city work with the Circle partners to design solutions to the needs and challenges of the local media landscape. The Evens Foundation supported a public event as part of the programme, where participants discussed the landscape for aspiring journalists in Italy, exploring why many leave the country to launch their careers and what could change to support local, independent journalism.
Two further recipients were selected, with outcomes to deliver in 2024. Non-profit investigative journalism organisation Correctiv received a grant to support the Radio Sakharov project – a Russian language podcast platform launched in Germany by Russian journalists following the introduction of sweeping censorship laws that saw the shutdown of independent media outlets in Russia. Another grant was awarded to the independent journalism organisation Transitions (based in Czechia) for its ongoing development of Solutions Journalism – a branch of journalism focused on reporting about responses to society’s problems.
Radio Sakhraov
Building Trust in Journalism: Ukraine Media Report
On 10 July 2023, the final report in the Building Trust in Journalism series was launched by the Ethical Journalism Network (EJN) and the Evens Foundation, with a special event at the Press Club in Brussels.
The report – part of a series exploring the state of contemporary media in countries across Central-Eastern Europe – had been considerably delayed, partly due to the outbreak of war and the Russian invasion. In response, the Foundation worked with the EJN to conceive a series of five essays exploring some of the key challenges facing journalists on the ground and those reporting on the war internationally, which were published in English 2022 and 2023 and translated into Ukrainian and Russian.
The final report, Ukraine media: defiance and truth-telling, was based on texts by Lisa Clifford, who began work on the document before the invasion and edited by Aidan White, President of the EJN. It was published in conjunction with the essays collected under the title Building Trust in Journalism in Central Eastern Europe: Essays on the Ethical Challenges of Reporting Conflict.
The publication profiled the media landscape in Ukraine and called on the global community and the Ukrainian government to provide more support for journalists working within the country.
It also highlighted the risks faced by journalists who attempt to report from the frontlines of the war – including targeted killings – and the strain on a media industry that was already facing significant challenges before the Russian invasion, with recommendations to support the media community in the face of extreme challenges.
The launch event was hosted by Ethical Journalism Network’s founder Aidan White, with guests Lina Kushch, First Secretary of the National Union of Journalists of Ukraine, Andrey Kulikov, chair of Ukraine’s Journalists Ethics Committee, Jeanne Cavalier of Reporters sans Frontières (Reporters Without Borders), press freedom and human rights activist JeanPaul Marthoz, Adeline Hulin, Head of Unit, Media and Information Literacy and Digital Competencies at UNESCO, and Tom Law, Deputy Director of the Secretariat of the Global Forum for Media Development, the event was also live-streamed.
1 report
52 pages
5 essays
3 languages available
1 panel debate
Journalists in Exile video series
VIDEO
Journalists in Exile: video series
Journalists in Exile was a short video series launched in 2023 featuring the alums of the first Journalistic Voices Diversified programme. The Evens Foundation led this pilot programme in partnership with Brussels-based media organisation Are We Europe and Amsterdam-based journalism non-profit Stichting Verhalende Journalistiek.
The programme aimed to provide career support and development for journalists in Belgium and the Netherlands who are in exile from their home countries through mentoring and workshops. Displaced journalists frequently enter Europe with a remarkable range of skills but experience exclusion from employment circuits, cultural barriers, and various obstacles when trying to pursue their profession.
The pilot finished at the end of 2022, and a short documentary-style film was commissioned to profile each of the journalists who had completed the programme: Ahmed Gamal Ziada from Egypt, Opoka p’Arop Otto from South Sudan, and Luis Miguel Cáceres Ortiz from Venezuela.
The videos were published online and shared via social media. The project was also highlighted in a significant article by Toon Vos, published by VoxEurop in February 2023.
Why the perspective of exiled journalists is so important Europe provides shelter to large numbers of journalists who have had to flee their home countries after facing persecution for their work. But too often, writes Toon Vos, they don’t get the support they need to go on doing their job properly, and in the end some just give up.
“In many parts of the world, being a journalist means becoming a defender of human rights. Someone who persistently seeks out and reports the truth, even at the risk of harm and exile. Someone who raises a critical voice against oppression and violence. But doing so comes at a cost…”.
Read the full article.
Mayday Magazine 2023: Age of Crisis
Mayday is an annual publication produced through a collaboration between the Evens Foundation, the non-profit media organisation Are We Europe, and the cultural institution Bozar. It is published in conjunction with Europe Day each May. Each issue features content on a different theme, and contributions are invited via an open call. For 2023, the theme was Age of Crisis, and an open call was launched in February.
“From Brexit to Covid-19, war in Ukraine and inflation, the climate emergency, the energy crisis. The challenges we face appear to have arrived at the same time. They feed on each other, creating the overwhelming feeling that it’s impossible to do anything about them… This magazine wants to challenge that.” Teresa O’Connell and Bozar co-ordinator Karl van den Broeck.
The issue launched with a special event as part of Bozar’s Europe Day programme. Participants included Giuseppe Porcaro (Italy / Bruegel), Tinatin Tsertsvadze (Georgia / Open Society Foundations), Latifa Oulkhouir (France / ~ le mouvement), Anuna De Wever (Belgium / Climate Action Network), Stefaan De Rynck (Belgium / Representation of the European Commission in Belgium), Shada Islam (Belgium / Independent commentator and advisor), Lisette Ma Neza (Netherlands / slam poet) and KIM (Belgium / cartoonist).
59 pages 15 articles, interviews, photo essays, recipes, and poems
5000 copies in circulation
MENTAL HEALTH
Global Youth Progress Index
Mental health is a new area of focus for the Evens Foundation, reflecting its current focus on young people and the future of Europe. The objective is to find ways to make a positive impact in this underfunded area by leveraging the Foundation’s existing network and making strategic interventions and partnerships to effect change.
In 2023, the Foundation began its exploration of this space by partnering with the world’s largest youth platform—the European Youth Forum—and supporting its Youth Progress Index. The Index is a data-rich set of indicators that looks at the quality of life more generally, exploring the context around the youth mental health crisis. It aims to track these indicators over 12 years to build a complete picture of the complex challenges facing today’s youth and how they respond to societal shifts and challenges. Alongside this, the Foundation commissioned a specific report on mental health.
The index was launched at Bozar on 18 October. Guests at the launch event included Bora Muzhaqui, Minister for Youth and Children, Republic of Albania, who explained that the index was an essential tool to measure progress and ensure that Albania was delivering for young people in their region.
IN THE PHILANTHROPIC COMMUNITY
Passes from the Philea Forum 2024.
Photo by Joe Elborn
Partnerships have long been a critical part of the Evens Foundation’s DNA. Alliances with larger partners in the philanthropic community can help lay the foundations for scaling up interventions and initiatives. Similarly, pooling funds with other public benefit and non-profit organisations can multiply impact significantly.
In 2023, the Foundation focused on furthering its relationships across the philanthropic sector in various ways, reflecting the organisation’s hybrid identity as a “blended” Foundation—a project initiator and developer, prize giver, advocate, and grant-giver.
Activities in 2023 included active engagement with Networks hosted within Philea, the principal association for philanthropic organisations in Europe:
Philea Children and Youth Network
The Evens Foundation was elected as co-chair of the Children and Youth Network
Participated in Philea’s Bridge programme, 16-18 January, which brought together the leadership of all 14 thematic networks.
Supported the ‘future chair ’ initiative, encouraging foundation Boards to incorporate more young voices and perspectives in their decision-making systematically. Delivered a dynamic workshop for over 60 foundations during the Philea Forum Šibenik, focusing on finding common ground between generations.
Philea Democracy Network
The Evens Foundation was selected as a Member of the Network’s steering committee.
The Foundation initiated a whitelist of engaging / impactful work around the EU elections curated by and for foundations. Presented key data around European elections at two learning sessions for the Network.
Philea Futures Philanthropy Network
The Evens Foundation supported and co-designed a major philanthropic survey unpacking underfunded areas and megatrends in philanthropy; 238 organisations participated. The Foundation supported a session on crisis scenario planning at the EuroPhilantopics event for over 100 participants and invited the important thinker Peter Turchin to present his work on Cliodynamics (the movements of societies across time).
Participated in the first gathering of future philanthropy leaders in Spain, bringing together 30 foundations from 22 to 25 June.
Conclusion
2023 has laid a solid foundation for an exciting journey ahead. The broad reach of the Foundation’s projects and support was on full display. We supported research, published, engaged in novel processes, looked at the digital world and deployed projects to support education and journalism.
Internally, the Evens family and the new leadership team created strong and trusted relationships. We aligned on the core elements of a new mission and vision, recognizing that this is an ongoing process of refinement and growth through trial and error.
With a surer footing in terms of our guiding stars, we engaged widely with the philanthropic community in various constellations, taking up seats on several steering committees related to democracy, foresight and youth.
As we look to 2024, we know it will be a big election year. Democracies across the world will be tested. In Europe, we will be active around the EU election. We will dive deeper into the nexus of our digital world and democratic functioning and continue to focus on novel engagement strategies in education. Our ultimate goal is to support young people's engagement with democracy— however that may look for them—so we can co-create a better future for everyone.
A big thank you to the Evens Family, the team and Board members for their trust and support to engage on this important mission.
Joe Elborn, Executive Director