The goal of this project is the active involvement through internet of the Obolon district residents into improving their living conditions.In order to achieve that goal we will create a website that will cover events, news and information on what is happening in this particular district. The content for the website will be provided by both professional journalists and residents themselves. In addition to the website we will be actively using Vkontakte and Facebook social networks. That will promote the self-organization of local groups within the decentralization of authority framework.
Topical focus:
Country:
What locality or neighborhood will your project focus on?
Kiev
Describe the specific population with whom you will be working.
The target audience are residents of Kyiv’s Obolon (total 306 000 res.) district who have access to internet. In the large cities people have a practical necessity of receiving quality information on their district: such things as traffic jams, road maintenance, various incidents and so on. At the moment there are no websites that would give information on what is going on in the district. Residents of a large city have a need for belonging to a local community. Available opportunities are limited. Among those who don’t have access to participation in improving their living conditions are those who rent their apartments. Users-residents of Kyiv who will have an opportunity to get undertanding ofwhat is going on in our district. We will provide a good example for residents of Ukraine.
Who else will be on your team to help implement the project?
PhD. Davydova Natalia – project coordinator. http://davydova-nataly.livejournal.com
Was development director (Publishing House «7я»). SPECIAL SKILLS: Project management, fundraising, analysis information, essays and scientific articles writing, office software , promotion in social networks, blogs, youtube.
Andrii Nikolov – sales manager. The Marketing diploma. Worked in Internal communications, HRD magazine (Kyiv). Special skills: public relations, social advertizing, controlling allocating resources. https://www.facebook.com/andriy.nikolov?fref=ts
Maksim Gardus – professional journalist. «Морские бизнес-новости Украины» – chief editor. «Інсайдер», «Реальна економіка» etc – correspondent. https://www.facebook.com/maxgardus?fref=ts. http://kurush1.livejournal.com/551246.html
What kinds of news, stories and other content will be created?
The website will cover events taking place in one particular district and will contain:
News of the district: events, crime reports, car accidents, traffic jams, housing and public utilities and real estate.
Leisure: restaurants, cafes, cinemas, entertainment for children, shopping.Food: supermarkets, farmer’s markets.
A unique section called “The Neighborhood Watch” will include opinions of local residents on kindergartens, schools, educational courses etc. A citizen will be able to participate in the life of his district as a responsible neighboor.
Classified:
Not-for-profit ads : exchange of various tools, children clothes, charity.
For-profit ads, This section will be important for local advertisers who are currently not able to afford expensive outdoor advertising.
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.
Preparatory work on making contacts with local Obolon small business and NGOs completed. Contacts are established with НГО “Студреспублика”, ООО “Промо групп”, ООО “Промо центр” etc.
How many participants do you think will be trained in your project?
During the first stage residents will be encouraged to participate in the project via a commission of 5 UAH if their piece of news has been successfully verified – i.e. they will need to send the piece of news and their phone number. It will stimulate to start use new website and also will be training and practical exercise of volunteers of Obolon district.
Expected 500 residents.
Describe which technologies, tools, and media you will focus on when training participants.
Networking, online journalizm, time manegement, NGO development, trainer’s skills, social networks activism. It will promote and increase citizen participation.
Describe the facilities where you will hold the workshops.
In our facilities are: office (Prspkt. Geroev Stalingrada 4 а). We have 3 computers, 3 modems, printer, scanner, fax and all required office technical features.
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?
At the moment Natalya Davydova (project coordinator) resides in Obolon and, as any other resident of this district, is constantly coping with various issues in the life of her home district.
During those several years that Natalya Davydova has been residing in this district, she has organized a group of active citizens who are ready to participate in the project and change their lives for the better.
What specific challenges do you expect to face when planning and implementing your project?
We view all the potential challenges our project might face as non-essential.
We might face certain difficulties at the website development stage (sometimes that process takes more time than initially anticipated. This is how we will mitigate this challenge. The website development process will be protected by a contract, according to which the developer will be obliged to complete his work on time and with needed quality).
We deem the risk of our website being unattractive for local residents to be very low. Throughout 2013 we conducted an oral survey of ca 100 Obolon residents (our neighbors, shopkeepers, service industry employees etc). The survey has shown that Obolon residents will use the website and engage actively into supporting the project.
How will you measure and evaluate the project’s impact, specifically: your primary participants, the wider regional community, or the global digital community?
We’ll determine the successfulness of our project by the size of our audience.
Moreover, our second goal is to make our website profitable thanks to advertise already in 6 months.
By active use of advertising (a special banner placed on the personal statistics page of the clients Ipnet and Localnet internet providers) we plan to attract an audience of 50 000 people in 3 months and 100 000 people in 6 months.
We will also make a one-time print promotion: we will advertise our website on envelopes with invoices for Ipnet and Localnet internet providers’ services. That will allow us to reach out to our entire target audience.
Our groups on Facebook and Vkontakte will attract additional audience.
If your project were to be selected as a Rising Voices grantee, what would be the general timeline of project activities in 2014?
Project duration is 9 months.
19-31 of May. Team meeting, working plan is ready.
01.06 – 31.07. Website developing. Website content preparing. Advertising campaing developing. Required contracts are ready. Results: Website is completely ready.
01.08 – 31.01. Full advertising campaign, work with local residence.
15.01 – 31.12. Evaluation meeting.
01.02 – 28.02.2015. Report preparation.
Detail a specific budget of up to $2,500 USD for operating costs.
Website creating – 1000 USD
Domen (6 monthes) – 10 USD
Hosting (6 monthes) – 50 USD
Project coordination – (8 month) – 600 USD
Website administration – (6 months) – 600 USD
Travel costs (journalist, sales manager) – (7 months) – 240 USD.
Total – 2500 USD.
Majority of our funding is our own financing:
Journalist – 1200 USD
Sales manager – 1500 USD
Social networking manager – 600 USD
Banner developing – 100 USD
Banner placed on the start page of local internet provider – 300 USD
Print advertize (one time on envelopes with invoices from internet providers) – 63 USD
Ofice rent – 1500 USD
Comission for news – 130 USD
Total: 5393 USD – co-financing.
Besides the microgrant funding, what other support can Rising Voices provide for your project to ensure its success?
We will be happy if any required consulting can be provided.
Contact name
Davydova Natalia
