CTS is a program for Arab and Jewish teens from Jerusalem to see a self-directed service-learning project from concept to completion. After a series of skill-building workshops teens will identify an issue in their community, design a service project and implement it collaboratively. Integral to CTS is a focus on generating shareable documentation (through multimedia citizen-mapping) in order to encourage dynamic sustainability of impact.
What locality or neighborhood will your project focus on?
Describe the specific community with whom you will be working.
What kinds of news, stories and other content will be created?
Teens will use Visual Understanding Environment (VUE) conflict-mapping technology to create an open-source, multimedia analysis of the issue they identify and the service project they propose. The map will incorporate images, videos, observations and analyses compiled and generated by the teens. It will be available through our website as a living project that evolves in concert with the region’s geopolitics, which are constantly in flux.
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.
Project Harmony partners with the Hand in Hand Jewish-Arab schools where the program takes place, and their US based 501c3 (American Friends) acts as our official umbrella sponsor. We have relationships with local schools and coexistence programs (Kids4Peace, Seeds of Peace, Heartbeat Jerusalem, The Jerusalem Youth Chorus) with whom we share resources. We are forming new partnerships with Jerusalem community centers in Katamon and Beit Safafa.
How many participants do you think will be involved in your project?
We launched CTS at the request of former campers who expressed a desire to hone and apply their leadership skills. We will continue to recruit from the Hand in Hand community as well as through the partnerships listed above. We have built sustainability into our very project design by a) responding to a requested need and b) affording the teens complete ownership of their project development. We expect to train 20-25 teens in summer 2013.
Besides the microgrant funding, what other resources and support are you seeking for your project to ensure its success?
CTS would significantly benefit from learning about other projects that centralize the affordances of new media to expand activist networks, both their successes and missteps. It would also be helpful if Rising Voices published evaluation reports and reflections of past grantees. Lastly, we would benefit from an online community (e.g. a messageboard) where ideas, resources, and tips can be shared between prospective and past projects.
