Building on JHR’s successful model of empowering local voices through training journalists overseas, the project will engage a team of 30 at-risk youth in Toronto to develop journalism skills and produce citizen media on themes of barriers to development and empowerment, through training and a field reporting trip. Stories produced will provide a kind of ‘visual census’ of the issues at-risk youth face, engage stakeholders, and source solutions.
Topical focus:
Country:
What locality or neighborhood will your project focus on?
Toronto
Describe the specific community with whom you will be working.
We will work with at-risk youth in Toronto, with an emphasis on the African-Canadian youth community who tend to be underrepresented online. This group faces numerous barriers to personal and professional development and suffers from disproportionately high levels of youth unemployment and gang violence. Building communication skills in multiple media is crucial to building confidence and securing employment. This pilot aims to meet those needs.
What kinds of news, stories and other content will be created?
Participants will create audio-visual stories within their local neighborhood focusing on questions of human rights. This content will be showcased at a launch event for the project and in an online gallery, which will present the project and stories as a set of intercepting issues, discourses and themes.
What technologies and digital tools do you plan to use in the trainings?
Describe the connections that you or your organization have already established that will contribute to the success of the project.
This project will build on work already initiated by Schools Without Borders, an excellent Canadian organization that did similar work but has ceased functioning due to lack of financing. We have also opened discussions to partner with Pathways to Education , a Canadian education organization that focuses on helping youth in low-income areas with a comprehensive set of academic, financial and social supports.
How many participants do you think will be involved in your project?
We plan on training 30 participants in a single pilot of a single school in downtown Toronto. Building on our international model, we will sustain participation through the establishment of a ‘press club’ within the school, ongoing publishing opportunities through www.speakjhr.com and mentorship from our university chapter program. Training will use technical resources that are relatively readily available.
Besides the microgrant funding, what other resources and support are you seeking for your project to ensure its success?
Rising Voices can help link at-risk youth trained within the project with other youth globally to build a larger, collaborative international conversation regarding issues of barriers to development and empowerment. Using Rising Voice’s and Global Voices extensive international network, amplify participants work through social networks and website.
Contact name
Josh Boyter
Organization
Journalists for Human Rights