Being the mother of a disabled child, I understand that is to be in an information and emotional vacuum. When you raise a child with special needs, you need (as well as expert advice or medical help) real stories of real people. This may encourage more than statistics and it also helps to build strong community. The blog will be not only a platform for discussion or forum or social network. I see it as an opportunity to speak, to write The Family Story, to discover creative potential of mothers and fathers of children with disability.
Topical focus:
Country:
What locality or neighborhood will your project focus on?
Kazan
Describe the specific population with whom you will be working.
First – parents, grandparents and relatives of children with special needs. Second – all the people, who are interrested in the issue and do care about building a tolerant society.
I want to organise experience of parents and prevent newcomers of mistakes. My target population mostly use internet and social media and have PC at their home.
Who else will be on your team to help implement the project?
I'm a member of http://dendd.ru/ – group of volunteers, who make projects to help disabled children and their families. (social taxi, cinema parties, special furniture etc).
Also I plan to interview some parents of my son's school and write some case studies.
What kinds of news, stories and other content will be created?
- The Family Story (Blogs)
– Interview
– News
– Photo Album
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.
I'm a member of this community myself, and I stay in touch of many parents (mostly mothers) of disabled children.
How many participants do you think will be trained in your project?
I expect 15-20 participants (bloggers) per year. Many parents are suffering from not having such a platform to tell the story of their children. But more of them are just waiting for good example of another person. Unfortunately, we have more children with disability from year to year, and I suppose, number of people who want to tell the story, will just rise.
Describe which technologies, tools, and media you will focus on when training participants.
Skype, VK.com, Flickr, Mail.ru, Gmail.com, YouTube – all the services are well known and convinient. I prefer online services, because for parents of disabled children are usually hard to go outdoor.
Describe the facilities where you will hold the workshops.
I proceed from the condition that all authors have a computer. In this case, I can organize a Skype conference or group dialogue at VK.com. I need USB modems to provide internet and buy web-cameras.
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?
I have a great experience of blogging at livejournal and working in PR field.
What specific challenges do you expect to face when planning and implementing your project?
I suppose, first, I will have to teach participants how to write and expound their thoughts and it will take time. Second, I will definetely face the financial difficulties
How will you measure and evaluate the project’s impact, specifically: your primary participants, the wider regional community, or the global digital community?
I nees at least 10 “family stories” of each group (tags):
– young mothers (under 20)
– working mothers (fulltime job)
– mothers of children suffering from cerebral palcy
– mothers of autists
– fathers
If your project were to be selected as a Rising Voices grantee, what would be the general timeline of project activities in 2014?
I will start from September'14 (beinning of school year) and plan to create the first content by the end of October'14 and then continue to fill all the rubrics weekly
Detail a specific budget of up to $2,500 USD for operating costs.
USB-modems: $15 * 20 = $300
Internet-access: $10 (monthly plan) * 20 = $200 * 10 (monthes) = $2000
Other (books, stationery): $100
Besides the microgrant funding, what other support can Rising Voices provide for your project to ensure its success?
I would like to learn about other projects, related to parents of disabled children, women rights, single mothers etc
Contact name
Dilyara Khusnetdinova