“Let's talk” is a platform of dialogue and free speech for minorities in Europe. Migrants, women, LGBT, Roma, young… everyone is welcome to join this virtual co-working space. We encourage the dialogue between different communities and offer media training, language courses, law assistance. Participants are invited to share practices with the others (IT or language skills, art and culture, cuisine etc). The aim of “Let's talk!” is to bring together members of underrepresented categories in Europe and help them speak with one voice.
Topical focus:
Country:
What locality or neighborhood will your project focus on?
Paris
Describe the specific population with whom you will be working.
The categories we want to involve in our project are: migrants, women, LGBT, Roma, young people. The members of our organization are each part of at least one of these categories. According to the Council of Europe reports, immigrants represent 10% of the EU population but they appear for less than 5% in the news. LGBT people account for 6% of the population of the UK but are represented as less than 1% on screen. In Europe, these minorities appear less than 5% in political coverage. Migrants and mainly Roma are associated with crime in the mainstream news all over Europe.
The target population is familiar to Internet, social media and the basic use of computer programs (Microsoft Pack).
Who else will be on your team to help implement the project?
Fabien Carlat Twitter @FabienCarlat
Ovidiu Tataru https://tataru.jux.com/
Andreea Dumitrascu Twitter @eigidi
Gil Roy http://www.gilroyphotographe.net/#!une-vie-de-rom/c1lb3
Willy Totoro Twitter https://twitter.com/TOTOROWILLY
Angela Ilie Bednarovschi
What kinds of news, stories and other content will be created?
The content of “Let's talk” will be multimedia : text, photo and video. Participants will be invited to create campaigns of crowdsourcing, trying to involve a maximum of subjects in their reports and keeping in mind the importance of the diversity of their sources : gender representation, ethnic diversity, LGBT, persons with disabilities.
The content of the plateform will be diverse, the creativity and innovation of the participants is highly encouraged : interviews, reports, portraits, slide shows, webdocumentaries. The topics may include art and culture, Europe, environment, human rights…
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.
Existing partnerships : Casa Regional Valenciana in Paris (http://www.crvparis.com/), Maison d'Europe et d'Orient (http://www.sildav.org/), ARRCY (http://www.arrcyprus.org/about-us.html), Bouge Mag
Future partnerships : ROI (http://aroi.ro/), Habitat-Cité (http://www.habitat-cite.org/)
How many participants do you think will be trained in your project?
Between 8 and 12 participants will be trained.
With the help of our partners and social media, we will launch a call to participation, targeting persons from underepresented minorities in France and in Europe. A number of 8 to 12 participants will be selected, taking into account their motivation and commitment, gender representation and ethnic diversity.
Describe which technologies, tools, and media you will focus on when training participants.
We will bring journalistic skills and expertise : writing skills in several languages (English, French, Spanish, Romanian, Italian, Romani), video editing, use of social media (microblogging), artistic photography, organisation of cultural events and debats, how to launch and lead a participatory media campaigne.
Describe the facilities where you will hold the workshops.
Workshops will be held in a 60 m² open space, with 3 computers, 1 projector, 3 cameras. There is an ADSL Internet connection, with WI-FI option, at a good speed (normal level in France).
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?
Our organization has developed several citizen media projects, involving migrants in France and Cyprus, Roma people, reports on LGBT rights. Our last campaign “Je suis roumain (aussi)” was very well welcomed by the community of migrants and by the press (http://cafedesroumains.com/dans-la-presse1206/).
Our team is formed by 4 young professional journalists and 2 photographers who have already been involved in citizen media projects and human rights campaigns.
What specific challenges do you expect to face when planning and implementing your project?
The selection of the participants may be a challenge, as we want to have the best representation of minorities through the selected persons. The decision will be taken in coordination with our partners.
Fostering the dialogue between the different communities and the space distributed to each of them can also be an issue. We want to make sure that during the implementation of the project, the participants feel they are part of the same group and want to reunite their voices, into one stronger one. Therefore, we will encourage reports concerning different groups done with the participation of people not members of that specific group (e.g. Roma people can work on topics concerning the LGBT).
How will you measure and evaluate the project’s impact, specifically: your primary participants, the wider regional community, or the global digital community?
The content produced by the participants will be the first evaluation method. The feedback from the regional and digital community is also essential, as it gives us an idea on the impact the reports had. Media coverage is another element that we will take into account, as well as the interest shown by NGOs on our project.
Participants will be encouraged to develop their own projects or come with ideas of citizen journalism practices.
If your project were to be selected as a Rising Voices grantee, what would be the general timeline of project activities in 2014?
June 1 : launch of the call to participation
June 20 : selection of 8 to 12 participants
July 1 : start of the media and language workshops (3 workshops/week)
September 1 : launch of the Let's Talk! plateform with the first reports posted
October : debat with the participants and public on the issues concerning minorities and their representation in the media
November : projection of a 50 minutes movie by and with the participants
December : Event organized at the end of the project : impressions of the participants and organizers, public and press
Detail a specific budget of up to $2,500 USD for operating costs.
Hardware (audio recorder and video camera) – $1,000
Transport to trainings for participants : $500
Besides the microgrant funding, what other support can Rising Voices provide for your project to ensure its success?
Promotion of the project in the network of Global Voices
Contact name
Madalina Alexe
Organization
Café des Roumains
