Search for European Projects

Speaking out loud - Empowerment through community based media
Start date: Sep 1, 2016, End date: Aug 31, 2018 PROJECT  FINISHED 

- Background and Objectives"Speaking out loud - Empowerment through community based media" is a project that aims at improving the qualifications of the people who produce community media, especially women and migrants. Community media as a low threshold tool seeks to empower common people to make themselves heard. It is a media from the people for the people, giving them the opportunity to be active, engaged citizens. As community media is by definition a tool open to all, the organizations providing access to and producing community media - like the partners in the current application each have different "specializations", experiences, circumstances and cover a wide range of issues and target groups (women, migrants, students, activists, NGO-staff). This is especially relevant during the current time of high migration to Europe, rising conflicts between various social groups, and multiple changes in gender relationships in Europe. This project aims to:1) training and exchange of volunteers and staff - especially women and migrants - in producing community media.2) exchange of good practices in training methods.3) exchange of the thematic focus on gender, migration, and conflict resolution.4) presentation of the outcome products (media broadcasts and training material on a CD) at the end of the project for other stakeholders in Vienna.- Profile of PartnersThe three partners - Frauen*solidarität/Austria, Cyprus Community Media Center/Cyprus and Panjabi Centre/United Kingdom - are bringing together their specific expertise and experiences in working with women, ethnic minorities and on using community media as a mediator in conflict situations. Frauen*solidarität organizes and hosts event with international experts, publishes a quarterly magazine since 1982, produces a weekly community radio programme since 2005, implements projects, produces educational material (such as the "toolkit" series on labor rights, or a study on women's rights and media) and runs a library. They organize media trainings for women and girls. CCMC is the leading community media organization in Cyprus. In addition to running media and communications training programmes for civil society groups, CCMC has launched an online volunteer-based multilingual community radio station - MYCYradio - the first of its kind in Cyprus, specifically targeting and empowering communities and disadvantaged groups that are marginalised by the mainstream media. The Panjabi Centre runs a 24/7 community radio station and offers radio and computer training for men, women and young people across the community. They organise Panjabi cultural events to empower women through song, folk dancing, story telling and acting. The Centre implemented different projects funded by the UK's Heritage Lottery Fund.- Activities and MethodologyThe activities of the project include four transnational project meetings (including seven workshop days involving volunteers and other stakeholders) and one evening event within a two-year period. Based on the workshops, the partners produce a CD that will be made available through the internet and in print to interested organizations and individuals involved in community media. Contents include gender justice, migration and community media as a tool for conflict resolution. The transnational project meetings will bring together activists from different organizations. The workshops will provide spaces for exchanges between women/migrant activists to share experiences and we will provide a theoretical framework that connects women's and migrant's rights and conflict resolution with communication rights as well as with practical training exchange on the use of community media.- Results and ImpactsThe results of the project will be the exchange of knowledge and practice, the exchange of three thematic focuses, production of media outputs, awareness raising on the importance of community media, empowerment of other stakeholders and the presentation of the outcomes of the project to a broader public.We expect that the participants will increase their qualification to work within community media through the inputs of the international trainers. Within the trainings the partners' expertise such as gender, conflict settings and migration will give the participants a broader knowledge on the topics. They will be empowered to produce media interventions and get more involved in community media work. The impact on the organizations is a higher number of international cooperations and an intense exchange with new partners in a project. Therefore the organizations who all deal with international issues will work in a new international constellation during this project. The impact on the target group (students, activists, migrants, NGO-staff) will be the increased awareness of the existence and possibilities of community media as well as an increased interest in getting involved in the production of community media.
Up2Europe Ads

2 Partners Participants