We wish to publish online an e-book about Boca de Rua, which has been for nearly 14 years the only newspaper written and sold by homeless people in the world. We also pretend to develop a series of workshops in order to integrate the redaction group of Boca de Rua to the edition/promotion process.
Besides introducing to a new media (internet) the street population of Porto Alegre – where Boca de Rua has been edited since 2000 – our project aims to encourage other groups of any country and city to tempt a similar experience.
Topical focus:
Country:
What locality or neighborhood will your project focus on?
Porto Alegre
Describe the specific population with whom you will be working.
We will be working directly with a group of homeless people of Porto Alegre (Brazil), all of them members of Boca de Rua newspaper and fully involved in the process of writing, editing and selling it, as well as in any decision and activity that has been built up around it – such as video editing, music composing, book writing…
Homeless people do not have any access to internet and when we started working with them, they had no access to any media at all. They are absolutely underrepresented in the common media. Therefore, our first goal is not to help them to escape the street or drug addiction, but yes to make them getting back their citizenship, giving them access to communication tools.
Who else will be on your team to help implement the project?
The project will be executed by the NGO ALICE – Information, Citizenship and Education Free Agency – www.alice.org.br / FB: Alice Porto Alegre
Under the coordination of Charlotte Leclerc, independent filmmaker and volunteer with Boca de Rua since 2007 – www.opidafol.eu / FB: Charlotte Dafol
It will also count on the collaboration of Marcus Schleder, web developer – www.sensodesign.com.br / FB: sensodesign
And Rosana Pozzobon, independent designer – FB: Rosana Toniolo Pozzobon
What kinds of news, stories and other content will be created?
The book will tell the story of Boca de Rua newspaper from its very beginning, in 2000, its evolution, success and failures.
A first part may thus be both an anthology and a methodology of the whole process of creation of our street newspaper. It will have a chronological structure, in which several texts written by the participants themselves may be inserted.
A second part would gather ten old editions of the newspaper that will be selected by the redaction group itself.
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.
Alice has a large network of partners in the state of Rio Grande do Sul that we might call for assistance in case of necessity. See the list here: http://www.alice.org.br/parceiros/
Rosina Duarte, member of Alice, will represent the NGO in this project. She is one of the creators of Boca de Rua and still coordinates the redaction meetings today.
Boca de Rua is member of the International Network of Street Papers, an organization gathering 122 Street Papers sold – but not written! – by homeless people. The INSP would be both a partner and a main target for the publication of the book.
The video and communication workshop may count on the support of Coletivo Catarse production (www.coletivocatarse.org.br), that has not confirmed its participation yet.
How many participants do you think will be trained in your project?
About 150 people passed by Boca de Rua since its creation. All of them will indirectly benefit from the online publication of old editions of the paper, that will possibly make them heard all around the world.
Today, the newspaper has 28 redactors who may directly participate to the redaction, edition and promotion of the book, through several workshops that would occur during some of the weekly meetings of the group.
Part of the budget will grant their participation by funding the newspaper. The group itself will decide in a democratic process – as it always does – how the money will be used.
Describe which technologies, tools, and media you will focus on when training participants.
The participants will be trained through three different workshops:
– introduction to internet, focused on the potential diffusion network of the book. The session would start by a presentation of the media and then give the participants the opportunity to access the web by themselves.
– brain-storming for the design and edition of the book, including an introduction to informatics and computer use.
– video-making and communication in order to broadcast a promotional video for the e-book.
Describe the facilities where you will hold the workshops.
The workshops will either take place in one of the usual meeting places of the group (either GAPA or Casa de Cultura Mario Quintana), that offers a free internet access, a computer and a videoprojector.
A digital camera (provided by the NGO ALICE) will also be used in the video workshop.
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?
Alice created Boca de Rua newspapers 14 years ago and keeps developing it, coordinating the meetings of a group of about 30 homeless people.
That long time of collaboration has established a very special relationship of trust, support and fellowship between the NGO members and the paper’s participants.
And being the only streetpaper in the world to be written and sold by homeless people, Boca de Rua is no doubt the only example that can be used to publish a book about such an experience.
What specific challenges do you expect to face when planning and implementing your project?
- Giving access to a new way of communication means also catching the attention of the group about the importance and power of internet, which is nothing obvious for people living in the street. That’s why we would start the whole process by an introduction workshop to the new media.
– Before encouraging and supporting other similar groups all around the world to start the experience of writing and selling a newspaper, we will have to reach them. Our partnership with the International Network of Street Paper may thus be crucial to solve that problem.
How will you measure and evaluate the project’s impact, specifically: your primary participants, the wider regional community, or the global digital community?
The number of visitors / downloads on the e-book website will give us a good idea of its diffusion.
The first part of the book will expressly invite the reader to create a new street paper and let us know about it. We hope then to get a certain idea of the impact of our publication and possibly answer any question to support those initiatives.
If your project were to be selected as a Rising Voices grantee, what would be the general timeline of project activities in 2014?
May –June-July: soon after the selection, will start the redaction meetings and the introduction workshop to internet.
In the same period, the coordinators will decide the book structure and select the archives to be inserted.
August: The editing workshop with the group.
September: video workshop and finalization of the book.
October: online publication of the book and broadcast of the video.
Detail a specific budget of up to $2,500 USD for operating costs.
TOTAL amount : $ 2,200 USD
Detail:
General coordination Charlotte Leclerc $ 250
Book Editing Marcus Schleder/Sensodesign $ 250
Book Design Rosana Pozzobon $ 250
Text Edition Rosina Duarte $ 250
Internet & Editing workshop Marcus Schleder/Sensodesign $ 250
Video workshop Charlotte Leclerc $ 250
Redaction Boca de Rua $ 700
TOTAL………………………………………………………….. $ 2,200
Besides the microgrant funding, what other support can Rising Voices provide for your project to ensure its success?
Thanks to its network and communication platform, Rising Voice could let us follow any group in the world that would create a similar newspaper, and advice them all along their experience.
Contact name
Charlotte Leclerc
Organization
ALICE (Agência Livre para Informação Cidadania e Educação)