Co-creation Hub (CcHUB) has partnered with Facebook as the Sub-Saharan Africa accelerator partner for the 2021 Facebook Community Accelerator cohort.
The Community Accelerator program helps community leaders to harness the power of their community to turn impactful ideas into action. The program helps community leaders with access to training, one-on-one coaching, new products, and funding to drive community initiatives.
Over 130 participants across nine regions have been selected to participate in the 2021 Facebook Community Accelerator program.
Facebook will work with GlobalGiving to fund participants’ project plans and to help set them up for success in the program. Selected participants will each receive up to USD $50,000 for their participation in the program and to fund their community initiatives during the eight-month program and could be eligible to receive part of the $1 million USD of additional funding available to further fund their community initiatives. Up to $7.5 million USD will be awarded to program participants in total.
According to Facebook, the programme is a call to aid: “In our discussions with community leaders over the last few years, we’ve learned that many of them are looking for support and guidance in how to grow their communities’ impact. We want to take a holistic approach to supporting these communities. So in addition to building the tools and educational resources that they need, we’re also building programmatic ways to provide training, support and funding to enable great communities to make an even greater positive impact in the world.”
This programme is open to communities that have a presence in Facebook Groups with leaders who are 18 years of age or older and reside in Nigeria or any of the following countries – Argentina, Colombia, Chile, Peru, Mexico, Brazil, United States, Philippines, Indonesia, Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, United Kingdom, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, South Africa, Kenya, Egypt, Morocco and India.
Applying Communities must have existed for over one year and must have a minimum size of 1,000 members.
The programme will be conducted in Portuguese (Brazil), Spanish (Colombia, Chile, Peru, Mexico and Argentina), German (Germany, Switzerland and Austria) and English for all the other markets.
Organisers state that participants of the 2020 Community Accelerator are not eligible to apply, however participants in other Facebook programmes are welcome to apply as long as they meet the programme requirements.
According to the organisers of the programme, programme participants will be selected after filling out application forms indicating their interest to participate, sub,itting a video presentation and going through a final interview session. “The selection committee will look for communities who would benefit most from the unique programming offered and have the capacity to engage fully in the program.”
Participants will develop and/or refine their community’s mission, member and stakeholder engagement strategy, Theory of Change, and more. They will learn skills to lead effective teams, engage members in projects that further community goals, manage volunteers, and more. Participants will also learn best practices for community income generation and options for organizational structures that help maximize community impact.
Facebook further assures that participants get early access to new products aimed at helping community leaders manage and activate their community.
In a reaction, CcHUB stated: “We are excited to work with Facebook as the Sub-Saharan Africa accelerator partner for the 2021 Facebook Community Accelerator cohort.”
