Stories of Home is an audiovisual-media project which gives voice to the experiences of migration and belonging for migrant communities in the Italian city of Catania, Sicily. It will explore participants’ diverse cultures and places of origin, as well as their feelings towards their new home in this increasingly multicultural city. Participants will learn to use voice recording, digital photography and video-editing skills to make their own narrated photo-stories, which will then be showcased through an ongoing series of participant-led web-radioshows, as well as the Stories of Home blog.
Topical focus:
Country:
What locality or neighborhood will your project focus on?
Catania
Describe the specific population with whom you will be working.
With 20 years of experience working with migrants, today ARCI works mainly with minorities from Morocco, Senegal, Bangladesh, Mauritius, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Afghanistan, as well as European volunteers (ages 16-45). These people form part of our association to varying degrees; some visit only for language lessons, others are active volunteers. Many use the computer at ARCI to keep in contact with friends and family, using Skype and Facebook. Computer literacy is of varying levels, as is their Italian language. We recognise the vibrancy and diversity that these groups bring to our association and city, and we want to provide training in I.T, sound and image-editing, web-radio and blogging, in order to integrate them more into our association and empower them to tell their Stories of Home.
Who else will be on your team to help implement the project?
Jamal Afshar (inter-cultural theatre, Immigration Assembly) www.facebook.com/assembleaimmigrazione
Peppe Bordonaro (youth worker, web-radio DJ, facilitator) www.machespaziomirappresenta.org
Sally Jane Hole (cultural mediator, web-radio DJ, project-writer) www.facebook.com/radiodelmovimento; ucl.academia.edu/SallyJaneHole
MariaGiovanna Italia (trainer) it.linkedin.com/pub/mariagiovanna-italia/86/111/71?trk=pub-pbmap
Mauro Maugeri (film-maker, trainer) mauromaugeri.it/en/
Saro Rossi (trainer) www.salto-youth.net/tools/toy/rosario-rossi.570/
Manuela Scebba (cultural mediator, journalist, blogger) manubigio.blogspot.co.uk/
Rodolfo Ungheri – (“technical wizard”/web-radio DJ) www.radiomatria.org/
Volunteer team of ARCI www.arcicatania./cms/
What kinds of news, stories and other content will be created?
Stories of Home is an audio-visual storytelling / narrative project. Participants reflect on what Home means to them, working to represent their own Story of Home through the creation of narrated photo-stories.
Multi-platform dissemination of stories will be via:
(1) participant-led weekly web-radio series, giving migrants the opportunity to put their stories on the airwaves, but also to cover other issues of interest to them, such as reviews of inter-cultural events, and roving-reporters interviewing the public;
(2) Stories of Home blog on which each radio podcast and photo-story will be uploaded. The blog will visually map all the stories collected, and will be update-able, facilitating spin-off future projects – for example, the mapping also of emigrants stories from our city.
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.
ARCI will use our established connections to raise the profile of the project and recruit participants, drawing on support from local schools, where we have led EIF and Fondazione Sud-funded education workshops, as well from a large network of human rights, anti-racism and youth-inclusion NGOs in Catania (Iqbal Masih, GAPA, Circolo Faber, Arci Misterobuffo, Arci Melquiades).
With experience in international collaboration, we have partner-organisations in other parts of the EU, including Lithuania, Spain, France and Germany.
ARCI disseminates information on our events/projects via its well-followed Facebook page, our website, our mailing lists, as well as flyers/posters we circulate in a network of independent businesses in the city, with whom we have agreed concessions.
How many participants do you think will be trained in your project?
Approx. 67 participants. Initial training core group: 15 participants, to set up blog; make first Stories; work in teams of 3 for web-radio; lead project. Once first Stories are ready and blog is taking-shape, these participants will present this work to the ARCI Italian language classes, as an opportunity to recruit more storytellers (approx. 20) and web-radio guests (32 – 2 per show). These recruits will undergo the second-wave of training/storytelling workshops, with the support of the original trainers and core group (peer education).
Given the responsibility of collecting stories and training support, the core group will have a strong sense of ownership over the project. Participants will see the opportunity to bolster their Italian language skills, as well as computer literacy.
Describe which technologies, tools, and media you will focus on when training participants.
We have chosen to minimise the use of written language, focussing on audio-visual media output because it is more accessible to our target population who often have low-level Italian literacy.
The photo-stories training, led by film-maker/youth worker Mauro Maugeri, will require only a camera-phone/digital camera, dictaphones, and editing software. Web-radio and blog-making training (using Audacity, SoundCloud, Wordpress) will be led by youth-worker/”technical wizard” Rodolfo Ungheri, an expert in Linux OS, who has set-up web-radios, blogs and websites.
Project team also includes experienced non-formal education trainers, youth workers, cultural mediators, web-radio DJs. A sister Facebook page will be created to advertise the project, and QR Codes will be used to link publicity to blog.
Describe the facilities where you will hold the workshops.
Training workshops will take place at the ARCI centre in central Catania, where we will have access to two classroom-sized rooms, as well as the radio room, where the radio-training/show will take place.
The centre will make available to the project: internet connection (ADSL 16Mbps-1Mbps), PC x2 (Linux OS), 1 server, 1 switch 10/100, 1 AP, 1 USB mixer, 1 professional cardioid microphone, access to printer/fax/scanner, 1 small PA system, 1 projector.
We will utilise the camera-phones of those participants that have them, and would like to buy 1 digital camera and 2 digital dictaphones in order to realise the photo-stories.
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?
ARCI Catania has many years of experience working with migrant groups; it is an important community space which offers various inter-cultural initiatives, language classes, inter-cultural theatre workshops, a weekly legal advice drop-in, an immigration assembly.
As an association that promotes social integration through collaboration and active participation, we are largely volunteer-led and always encourage those that use our ‘services’ to become more involved in the association and the running of projects.
This project aims to give migrants who already frequent ARCI the opportunity to use this space as their own, by taking ownership of a web-radioshow and blog.
What specific challenges do you expect to face when planning and implementing your project?
One challenge will be effectively training the participants at the computer. It will be necessary to do the on-computer training in small groups, so each can properly follow the instructions. This is just one of many reasons why the training sessions will need to be well-organised and structured. We have experienced trainers in our team, however, as well as language teachers.
Another problem could be the tailing off of interest of participants, also considering the summer break in August. First, we need to make sure we have sincerely motivated participants from the-off. Then, to keep up momentum and give participants a deadline to work towards, we will ask participants to be ready to present their stories and blog to the new year of Italian classes in October 2014.
How will you measure and evaluate the project’s impact, specifically: your primary participants, the wider regional community, or the global digital community?
Impact on primary participants: we will gauge success based on whether the blog and Facebook page continue to be maintained, whether participants continue to actively search for new Stories or continue to run the web-radio. Participants will also give feedback on the whole project, its organisation and their experience.
Impact on wider community: if people tune into the radio, follow the Facebook page and blog, are receptive and engage with roving-reporters in the city centre.
Impact on global community: if the blog and Facebook pages are followed, if we receive interest from other Microgrant projects and build more networks.
If your project were to be selected as a Rising Voices grantee, what would be the general timeline of project activities in 2014?
May – advertising + recruitment of core participants
June – (1) “Making Stories” x2 sessions (storytelling workshop + technical training on taking photos/using dictaphone/finding music on YouTube/uploading/creation of Facebook page to advertise project, technical training/editing for creating photo-stories)
July – (2) “Our Stories On-Air” x2 sessions (training on using radio equipment + making other radio stories: interviews, on-air Skypes)
August – summer break
September – web-radio goes on air on weekly basis
September – (3) “Blogging our Stories” x2 sessions (training on creating/managing blog, uploading material, adding to the map of stories)
October – (4) core participants present Stories to new language students, recruit more storytellers
November – (5) second-round of training x2 sessions (new storytellers, as session 1 but with active guidance of core participants)
December – completion of blog, evaluation, celebration, assessing if project wants to continue collecting stories
Detail a specific budget of up to $2,500 USD for operating costs.
Purchase of 1 digital camera = 420,00 $
Purchase of 2 digital dictaphones = 280,00 $
Travel costs of participants to the training workshops = 540,00 $
Workshops and training + trainers fees = 850,00 $
Stationary and printing materials for workshops and training = 200,00 $
Web-radio server space cost = 70,00 $
Cost for internet line = 120,00 $
Besides the microgrant funding, what other support can Rising Voices provide for your project to ensure its success?
Rising Voices gives us a peer learning platform; to draw inspiration, network with other interested parties, and make partnerships. We would welcome feedback on our grant application, our project idea, and any approaches to create collaborative projects in the future.
Contact name
Sally Jane Hole
Organization
ARCI Catania
