This project will largely increase the number of youth from 15 to 19 years old actively involved in youth programs through social media campaign. Young people are using social media non-stop. Less than 1% of them is using social media for education & making changes in their communities. They will learn about programs for the youth, opportunities they have and, most important, how to use different social media platforms to reach their goals. Together with them, we will plan one big campaign with the aim to increase the number of youngsters actively involved in the youth programs from 1 to 5%.
Topical focus:
Country:
What locality or neighborhood will your project focus on?
Pirot and Skopje
Describe the specific population with whom you will be working.
This proposal is being written by youth workers, activist and volunteers from 17 until 29 years old, individuals with a lot of experience in working with the youth or youth themselves. In daily work with exactly this target group (youngsters 15 – 19 years old), we noticed that lack of active youth is a big problem which leads to lack of active citizens, even bigger problem. Young people are pretty much online 24/7, but they are not being productive. High school aged youngsters are very important for the local community. Educated, informed and active, they can make changes in their community and, more important, their voice can be heard, they can be the change they want to see. Those active youngsters will became active citizens, who fight for their rights and care for their communities.
Who else will be on your team to help implement the project?
•Nemanja Zivkovic
www.facebook.com/dilimanac
www.twitter.com/dilimanac
www.alternadil.blogspot.com
www.pirotepublika.wordpress.com
•Jovana Georgievski
www.uperiprstom.wordpress.com
www.pirotepublika.wordpress.com
•Aleksandar Mijalkovic
www.twitter.com/salefrik
•Sashko Jovanov
www.facebook.com/sashe.j
https://twitter.com/jovanov_s
http://mppsmk.wordpress.com
http://amanmk.wordpress.com
•Elena Tasheva
https://www.facebook.com/Strumfeta.91
•Goran Janevski
https://www.facebook.com/goran.vin
What kinds of news, stories and other content will be created?
We will create the logo/photo of the campaign on which we will show our super hero, called the AT (Attention Please!?) super hero, the main promoter of our campaign. We will create the separate pages/profiles on different social networks dedicated to this campaign and merge them and organize photography workshop which will result with creative photos on how to be active, where to find info about youth opportunities and how to activate others. We will host offline and online exhibition from photos made during the photography workshop on our flickr account only for few hours. We will create facebook event to inform people about it and create you-know-you-want-to-be-there-atmosphere. We will use social networks and blogs to promote the campaign.
What technologies and digital tools do you plan to use in the trainings?
Describe the connections that you or your organization have already established or plan to establish that will contribute to the success of the project.
For 2 years we are working with UNICEF in Community Center in Pirot and our next mutual project aims on increasing the number of active youngsters actively involved in youth programs, as well as this project. So, we expect UNICEF to be actively involved in this project.
We are have an excellent cooperation with all high schools in Pirot Municipality and expect to cooperate with them in implementation of this project. Thos are 5 high schools.
We establish a great cooperation with ZIP Center from Pirot, as well with the youth office.
All in all, we have an excellent cooperation with all important organizations and individuals, including the Municipalities, who can help us implementing this project.
How many participants do you think will be trained in your project?
In our project 40 youngsters 15-19 years old will be trained, but we expect, through our online and offline campaign, to reach minimum 10 000 youngsters, at least, plus older and younger people who fill join
Describe which technologies, tools, and media you will focus on when training participants.
We will use social networks like facebook, youtube, flickr, instagram and blog. Youngsters are on social networks 24/7 and it’s the most secure way to reach them. Our first choice, when it comes to social networks, is facebook, because it’s the leadin social media platform in Serbia and Macedonia. That’s why we choose pictures and videos, but mostly pictures, to present the messages we want to deliver with our project and campaign.
Describe the facilities where you will hold the workshops.
We will host our activities in Youth Cultural Center and ZIP Center in Pirot and Skopje, both provided with great conditions, internet access (ADSL), more than 20 computers, great internet connection speed, sound equipment
What is your current relationship with the community with whom you plan to work? What makes you the most appropriate individual or organization to implement this project?
NGO “Pirot E Publika” is the most active organizations which works with and for youth in Pirot and region. Also, we are not just working with and for youth, we are youth organization, as our members are all under 30 years old. We are doing a lot of different thing for our community, especially for youngsters from 15-19 years old. We are recognized in Serbia as organizations which has excellent results, as we received the award “Young City” (Mlad Grad) for excellent work with youth from the vulnerable groups and our voulunteers work camp, organized on Stara Planina, the biggest one in Serbia and wider, is chosen as one of 10 most successful youth projects in Serbia in 2013 by Umbrella Youth Assosiation of Serbia.
What specific challenges do you expect to face when planning and implementing your project?
As our main part of the project in the online campaign, it is possible that someone won’t like it, that someone will try to sabotage it or make rude comments. As our answer, we will try to explain the importance of our campaign and convince them to become our fans and join us, or, at least, not trying to stop us. If those methods don’t give effects, we will report them
How will you measure and evaluate the project’s impact, specifically: your primary participants, the wider regional community, or the global digital community?
We will measure impact of our project of different criteria. Our goal is the raise the number of active youth involved in youth programs from less than 1% to 5%. So, we will use database of organizations, NGOs and all different actors in that field to see if the number of active youth in increased. Also, we will contact high schools as well and gather all the necessary information.
We will measure our online reach by the number of followers, people involved in our posts, outreach and number of shares. Also, by likes on youtube and facebook, favourites on twitter, number of likes and followers on blog and reblogs.
If your project were to be selected as a Rising Voices grantee, what would be the general timeline of project activities in 2014?
September
•Blog post presentation
•Training course “Social Media for Active Youth”.
•Start Attention Please!? campaign
•Make profiles on different social networks
•Make the official logo of the campaign
October
•Photography workshop
•Online photo exhibition on flickr.
•Unlish the facebook
•Post different photos and videos concerning the subject of the campaign
•Post good practices from all around the world
December
•Evaluation
•Press conference
•Provide project sustainability
Detail a specific budget of up to $2,500 USD for operating costs.
Training Material 2 (Serbia & Macedonia) x 130 = 260
Refreshments 2 (Serbia & Macedonia) x 216,44 = 432,88
Travel Costs for trainers (Pirot (Serbia) – Skopje (Macedonia), return tickets) 2 x 40 = 80
Coordinators payment 2 (coordinators) x 235 x 3 (moths) = 1410
Besides the microgrant funding, what other support can Rising Voices provide for your project to ensure its success?
Raising Voices can provide us promotion of our project and sharing positive experiences.
Contact name
Nemanja Zivkovic
Organization
Udruzenje gradjana “Pirot E Publika”
