Application

First, choose what type of residence suits you best:

Types of Residencies

Internships

Internships are for activists seeking their first experience working with a professional organization. Join the Activersity team that creates educational materials to further its mission.

2 Week Internships

Depending on your interests and our agreements, your tasks may include:

Prepare flyers and ‘zines’ for the Activersity
Prepare social media posts, answer/filter comments
Prepare a list of groups active in a particular topic
Prepare a list of attempted solutions in a particular topic
Do the research to Identify a business that is an actor in a particular topic, and which is vulnerable to a boycott
PR – prepare lists of potential partners in Germany, European countries and the USA

1 Month Internships

Additionally to all of the above:

Record a series of tiktok-style motivational videos
Edit podcast recordings
Prepare and host podcast
PR – Contact potential partners for social media exchange, interviews, presentations

Activist-in-Residence

Residencies are for activists who have at least one developed skill and a clear, time-constrained project. You’ll help other residents and get help from them. Your particular project is to be defined by you and approved by the Activersity Board before arrival.

2 Week Residencies

Raise awareness of a particular aspect of your topic through social media, talks, and workshops.
Develop connections with related groups
Organize, promote, and carry out a workshop
Organize, promote, and carry out educational events

1 Month Residencies

Organize, promote, and carry out a demonstration
Carry out a fund-raising campaign

Extensions are possible and subject to board decision.

Scope & Requirements for Certification

You can choose a project from the list below, and if accepted, you may carry it out under the supervision of, and with the support of the Activersity team. It is expected that you have read and listened to all articles and podcasts of the modules we have already published.

In order to receive certification, the residency requires regular progress reports, like graduate school lab presentations, essays or videos. The final assignment is a video or written description of your project, its goals and its accomplishments. Chosen works from our students may be presented on this webpage and through our social media channels.

First, contact us via our contact form with your questions or request. Keep it short and sweet; you can provide details during a subsequent video call. You may also apply in a cool video format instead. Please stick with the maximum words/time detailed below.

Please apply with

a short self-description of max. 500 words or 1 minute video
desired status (internship or residence), residency dates, if possible with several options or a time window
up to five projects from proposed list, can be in prioritized order. If you are proposing your own project, describe it in 500 words or 1 minute, please add alternative project from list.
describe the reasons for your project choice, max. 750 words
general interests, and if you want to share, your social media accounts or online presence
your CV
references that we can call or e-mail: who can recommend you?

If your application is complete, your application is discussed within the Activersity team, and your profile will be sent to house residents, with whom you will live, who have veto rights against guests or their preferred length of stay. The most promising applicants will be invited to a video call if there are no vetoes against their stay by the house residents.

After the video call, you’ll be notified whether you’re accepted within four weeks.

Requirements

you must be over 18 years old
you must take care of necessary Visas on your own, and we cannot provide an affidavit
you’ve finished school or you have studied, formally or informally
you have always taken an interest in history, politics or activism
you are willing and eager to learn, willing to study hard, turn in your assignments on time
you are willing to follow the house rules
you must at least complete the first module prior to your arrival
you must have very good command of English (B2)
you must be able to prove your identity prior to your arrival
you must be able to pay for your transportation and insurance fees on your own
you must pay the commitment fees in advance – only then is your spot reserved
you must have the right to work and receive a salary in Germany, because the residency program pays you a volunteering allowance that counts as a salary, with which you will cover food and lodging.

Projects

Activists-in-Residence will choose from one of the following projects. You may apply with your own project in mind, but remember that Activersity only supports legal (nonviolent) direct action and political education, and it is subject to approval by our board members.

Because some of these projects are too large to manage within a month, you might only work on part of the project. This too will be considered

Choose Project	Activersity Style Direct Action	Traditional Approach
Advertising Poster Crowdfunding	The crowdfunded money will pay for a high number of giant poster ads such as the ones in Bus and Tram stops. The messages will be political. Already the crowdfunding campaign creates a big buzz. The proposed posters are created in advance. Possible topics can be Climate Change, Financial System, Proposing/Advertising alternatives.	Organize a demonstration and demand that educational institutions and media teach the population the right things. Squat the streets to form a traffic blockade. Pass out flyers to explain why you are being annoying. Hope that they will support your movement although you’ve destroyed their day.
Create Cargo Bikes building project	A Cargo Bikes Building project for a neighborhood is created. The aim is a space where cargo bikes are built with old bikes and materials from a regular construction store. Customers can build their own cargo bike, rent cargo bikes or rent out the cargo bikes they have built or bought from the project.	Petition to the government asking for funding to pay for expensive cargo bikes
Community Garden	The Neighborhood is engaged by flyers and networking to a) make their urban gardens or garden plots available for planting edible plants, and b) to manage all the gardens that have been made available by the entire group (in shifts, but together with several people). The crops are shared and the project is presented throughout via social media channels	Petition and demand bees saving policies.
Housing Foundation	A Foundation is created to which old people with no heirs can bequeath their house to. The foundation promises by contract that the house will be (partly) forever used for the purpose the bequeathers intended – a good cause of their choice. This way, their house is not automatically bequeathed to the city, and the people can rest in peace, knowing their house will be used for good. Society benefits because theses houses are taken from the speculative market forever, and intentional housing groups will manage the houses, making sure that the intended cause is fulfilled, and guranteeing stable and affordable rents.	Petition for stable rents. Go to the streets and demand lower rents. Demand from goverment to make social housing available.
Independent Apps and internet services	The project provides open source, encrypted and secure messaging, cloud, e-mail and collaboration services. Ready-to-use Raspberry Pis (mini computers without case) are programmed with the needed servers and applications and offered for a fee to customers whose security and independence concerns are of high priority to them. When ther eis a problem, the SD-cards are simply swapped and the services are good to go again.	Sign petitions to demand better internet security or less data privacy issues. Complain to your peers that internet applications have become very aggreesive in their contracts. Write open letters complaining that companies have gone wild.
Maker Space	A maker space is created where people can hang out and work on their projects, while sipping a coffee or enjoying their tea – rather than only sipping coffee and enjoying tea.	Petition and wait for the EU to make laws against obsolesence.
University Movement	Assemble a supporting team of students, professors and lecturers and organize privately held lectures about topics that need to be discussed in the University environment. Only if the University is unwilling to make space available for such lectures, make a big stink and demand it publicly. It’s likely that they will make space though.	Squat the university main auditorium and demand that the lecturers and professors take responsibility for their role in fighting climate change.
Alternative Currency	Organize an alternative currency to be used in a neighborhood/city to exchange local goods and services.	A number of alternative currencies are in circulation.
Very funny TikTok Channel about Financial System	Shoot and edit educational and fun videos about the financial system that people can understand and are going to be likely to share. Set up a website with sources and longer explanations.	A few such channels exist with varying success.
Campaign for Decentralized Social Media Platform(s)	Make Flyers, Social Media entries, Blog Posts, Pamphlets and organize and invite to community bonding events, campaigning for joining a decentralized, non-commercial social media platform, such as Mastodon.	Demand from the governement to regulate Facebook.
Build a Compost Toilet	An urban non-stinky compost toilet is built (for the house, or it can be donated to other projects if more are made). A sustainable future consists of many different water and energy saving practices, also in an urban environment.	A number of compost toilets have been built!
Build a Grey Water System	Grey water from sinks, showers and/or laundry machines is collected and repurposed for toilet flushing tanks.	Check for prototypes on YouTube
Build an automatic sprouter	Fresh water that wants to go fill up a toilet tank is pre-routed outside of the room (or otherwise far away from the toilet) to flush a sprouter with fresh water each time someone uses the toilet. This tiny little indoor garden provides locally produced fresh vitamins with almost no amount of work. This reduces the dependency from vegetables that are shipped from far away.	Check for prototypes on YouTube
Build a Spirulina Tank	The algae Spirulina provides important nutrients, and we could grow it ourselves, fertilized by our own urine! Fresh, it is tasteless and can be consumed as a smoothie, or dried and compressed to tablets or left as a powder. This reduces the dependency from vegetables that are shipped from far away.	Check for prototypes on YouTube
Build an Aquaponics System	On the top, plants grow, in the bottom, fish grow. The fish poop in the water, which fertilizes the edible plants. You can eat both the crops and the fish. This reduces the dependency from vegetables that are shipped from far away.	Check for prototypes on YouTube
Open-Source Computer Party	Organize an event where people can bring their laptops or phones to. Programmers and Open Source savvy people help people who come to install open source software and encrypt their devices.	Demand from the governement to regulate popular apps. Petition to stop the government from spying on our data.