The project seeks to create an open online platform (blog) for mapping, sharing and exchange of knowledge and experiences about women’s rights by presenting facts, news, data, stories, and video and photo documents in social and online media. The project creates the conditions for building skills in digital competences among young people with aim to boost women’s activism. We accentuate the intense work with young leaders from marginalized Roma communities, young people with migrant and LGBTIQ background whose visibility is dramatically unrepresented in public life including public media.
Topical focus:
Country:
What locality or neighborhood will your project focus on?
Bratislava, Kosice
Describe the specific population with whom you will be working.
The project is primarily focused on young people from diverse environments with significant creative leadership potential for development of human/women’s rights agenda in Slovakia. The project wants to facilitate the coordination of mutually inclusive activities as well as the dialog between these different groups of young people in the area of women’s rights activism through active participation in educational activities focused on (1) human/women’s rights and (2) digital/online communication. Through the project activities they will be more sensitized about their rights and the human/women’s rights issues including of how to use social and online media for positive social action and campaigning.
Who else will be on your team to help implement the project?
The project is designed as participatory, so the implementation will be ensured by the participants themselves (motivated university students and young people from marginalized groups).
The implementation of the project will be supported by selected university radios and newspapers (http://www.eurocampus.sk/joomla/index.php/studentske-radia-a-tv).
There will be other important actors in the project such as university teachers and human/women’s organizations representatives. From the social and online media perspective the project wants to cooperate with the active bloggers and social media activists and experts (Ivana Catajska: https://www.linkedin.com/pub/ivana-catajska/5/674/18b; Alexander Krisko: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexanderkrisko ).
What kinds of news, stories and other content will be created?
The project will communicate the practice of human and women’s rights through facts, news, data, stories, videos and photos.
The project will map the existing realities of various social groups and individuals linked to human and women’s rights agenda. The idea is to make the communication platform very sharable and interactive for as many people as possible. The content and the messaging will be created by young people participating in the project. They will be supervised by the enthusiasts and experts involved in the project as advisors and mentors. The project will bring these media outputs: complex blog with particular sections for articles, photos and videos. Blog posts will be promoted via social media. After ending the project the blog will be fully managed by young people.
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.
In order to implement the project we need to establish the connection with bloggers, social media enthusiasts and experts and journalists. We have already had existing partnerships with some of them. They will be act as trainers, mentors and supervisors for young people creating and feeding the blog. The partnerships with consultant organizations (TRIAD: http://www.triad.cz/; MarkOut: http://www.markout.sk/) and IT education centers in Bratislava and Kosice are planned to be established. We will be initiating the intense cooperation with the Google (one of the Slovak-Czech Women’s Fund board member is PR and Communication expert of Google CR and SR).
How many participants do you think will be trained in your project?
Primarily there will be 30 young people participating in the project. They will be trained in these areas: (1) human/women’s rights issues, (2) work of civil society and human/women’s rights organizations, (3) digital skills and competences and how to use social and online media for action. We want to seek them through our formal and non-formal networks while working at the university and non-profit sector.
The trainings will be provided by human/women’s rights experts, representatives of human/women’s rights organizations and online/social media and digital communication experts.
As a result of the project the ground for building and supporting the community of young people prepared to act as future leaders for human/women’s rights will be established.
Describe which technologies, tools, and media you will focus on when training participants.
Young people participating in the project need to familiarize themselves with the content management system focused on blog: i.e. content building, texts edition, work with pictures and videos. They need to know how to share and organize information presenting via social media effectively and how to lead the discussion.
Describe the facilities where you will hold the workshops.
The workshops will be held in various places in Slovakia (Bratislava, Kosice) so there is not possible to describe specific technical equipment now. The fact is that many training centers have standard technical equipment such as computers, data projectors, internet connection, interactive tables, etc.
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?
The project is designed with regards to the needs of human and women's rights organizations we are reflecting as women’s rights activists, practitioners, university teachers and trainers. We have long-term experience of working in non-profit sector and with young people. We decided to run this project with the aim of connecting people (young people with activists and experts) and sectors (people with diverse backgrounds and contexts, from academia, non-profit sector and ITC/media sector) by creating a safe space for their mutual understanding, cooperation and recognition.
Moreover, we believe that this project creates the conditions for the promotion of youth volunteering in the area of human-women’s rights activism by building and developing digital communication skills.
What specific challenges do you expect to face when planning and implementing your project?
There are no specific challenges just financial resources to cover the costs.
How will you measure and evaluate the project’s impact, specifically: your primary participants, the wider regional community, or the global digital community?
The project’s impact will be evaluated by these quantitative indicators: number of articles published on blog, number of Facebook visitors, number of blog visitors, and number of people directly participating in campaigns. Preliminarily we determined to prepare a campaign within 16 Days of activism against violence against women in November and December 2014. The project will also be seen as successful when we will see: vivid community of young people, readiness of young people to become part of a wider community of human/women’s rights activists, the ability of young people to map, capture and express their observations and ideas from the human/women's rights field through the new social and online media.
If your project were to be selected as a Rising Voices grantee, what would be the general timeline of project activities in 2014?
Timeline of the project activities:
June – July 2014: identifying the participants (young people, human/women’s rights activists, social and online media experts)
July – August 2014: working on the training agenda (methodology, profile and detailed content), preparation of materials, documents and practical exercises with tasks
September – December 2014: trainings with young people on digital and social media communication, mapping the fields of human/women’s rights in Slovakia
September – December 2014: postings the facts, news, data, stories and photos from the field of human/women’s rights in Slovakia
November – December 2014: active preparation of the campaign 16 Days of activism against violence against women and its continual presentation on the blog.
Detail a specific budget of up to $2,500 USD for operating costs.
Office supplies/stationery needs: office paper, markers, pens, pencils, stickers, notebooks/ notepads: 50 USD
3 Photo-cameras: 250 USD
3 Mini video cameras: 250 USD
Technical support: creating/locating blog on the website: 400 USD
Travel costs: 200 USD
Coordination and assistance: symbolic remuneration for experts (3 human/rights activists, 3 social/online media experts: per person 200 USD = 6 x 200 USD = 1200 USD)
Other expenses will be covered by our organization.
Besides the microgrant funding, what other support can Rising Voices provide for your project to ensure its success?
For the project to be successful we need to be in contact with international community and trends in human and women’s rights activism. Since we feel a strong need for raising awareness about human/women’s rights among young people we would be happy to get to know best practices in effective and transparent online activism from the world. In particular, we are interested in practices and examples effective in online communication. Since this kind of project is very unique for us we would be happy for having a chance to have advisory from bloggers and social and online media experts.
Contact name
Miroslava Bobakova
Organization
Slovak-Czech Women's Fund
