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Description
The aim of the project is to engage young people in participatory activities and building democratic culture. We want to create a space for young social activists and citizen journalists through a web portal and a podcast channel. The portal will be a place for exchange of ideas and joint search for solutions in the field of local community development. In addition, as part of the project we will conduct workshops for 24 citizen journalists, develop an online publication (ebook) about social activism of young people, produce about 50 podcasts, as well as Q&A sessions and two live broadcasts. The project was inspired by discussions we had with young residents of Silesian cities during our participatory projects. Thanks to them we found out that young people had many ideas for changes in their immediate environment, but they lacked knowledge and experience to implement them on their own. In order to reach the young audience we will use our skills in creating modern forms of media: podcasts, ebooks and interactive events. In the portal, we will provide structured information on social initiatives that are the basis for building a democratic culture. We will present micro-stories and interviews with social activists who initiate change in their local communities. Much space will be dedicated to actions and projects whose strength is their simplicity, feasibility and motivating effect. The direct beneficiaries of the project are secondary school pupils and students from the Silesian Province. This group is connected with a common place of residence – post-industrial areas with high population density that experience many problems. The project will involve partners from Poland, Norway and Romania. Foreign partners will be responsible for conducting consultations and producing podcasts about activists and civic projects carried out in their countries.
Summary of project results
Among young people, there are many social activists involved in the life of local communities. However, they need the support of other young people to implement their projects and ventures. The project "Mission Participation: young citizen podcasters" was a response to such needs. The project was based on two key assumptions: firstly: young people are best inspired by other young people, secondly: communication among young people is different than among older generations.
Hence the idea to create a podcast channel on the Spotify platform and a website containing various materials, tips and advice for young social activists. Podcasts were created by young activists who first participated in podcasting workshops. Their interlocutors were activists and social activists of various ages, but mostly young people. The project showed how many young people get involved in original, non-standard projects that build civil society at its core. He showed how much they feel the need to build lasting social relationships, cooperation platforms, and are looking for identity and strong bonds. The choice of the form of communication - podcasts resulted from the enormous popularity of this form of transmitting ideas among young people in Poland.
The project activities produced the following results:
a. "Mission participation" channel on Spotify. As part of the project, 52 podcasts were created.
b. Multimedia e-book entitled "Participation mission. Local youth activism." The e-book includes statements by young activists about their activities, street surveys, a research report on youth activism and texts about pro-social activity of young people in Norway and Romania.
c. Project website containing all recorded podcasts with transcriptions in Polish and English, a guide for young activists, a film report from the conference summarizing the project and a multimedia e-book and information about current events for young social activists.
d. Conference summarizing the project entitled "Spaces of activism: science-education-society" (November 16, 2023, University of Silesia in Katowice). The participants listened to lectures by nine people, six of whom were 20-21 years old. The spaces of activism in which young speakers moved were ecology and climate change, technology for society, identity problems and social communication.
An important dimension of the project was its impact on the institutional development of the Agere Aude Foundation.
Over a period of 2 years (2021-2023), the foundation''s associates participated in training to strengthen the team and the competences of its members.
The foundation team has created the AGERE AUDE Foundation Development Strategy for 2023-2027 and a cooperation program for interns, volunteers and interns. These documents had a significant impact on the organization''s activities, especially in terms of efficient management, development of competences of the foundation''s collaborators, increase in the level of strategic thinking, effectiveness of cooperation with the media and communication in social media.
Additional institutional development outcomes include the foundation''s new website and the AGERE AUDE Foundation''s Gender Equality Plan for 2023-2025.
One of the most important results of the project was the discovery of how many valuable values for society are created by young people. This was especially visible during the conference summarizing the project, attended by approximately 100 young people. Young speakers enthusiastically presented their activities - pro-social, scientific and artistic. The speech of an activist from Rwanda, whose experience of activism was extremely different from that of Europeans, made a great impression on the young audience.
The project undoubtedly influenced the sense of agency of young people who learned how to create podcasts and produced over 50 of them. This required them to acquire organizational, technical and journalistic competences. Recordings are a rich resource that allows it to be developed in other projects (which is what is happening).
For the project implementers (people aged 20 to 50), it was an excellent lesson in establishing intergenerational cooperation and communication, discovering and respecting the needs of others, and the way representatives of different generations view the world (sometimes very different and surprising).
Summary of bilateral results
The project was implemented with the Terram Pacis Foundation from Oslo. The Partner''s fulfilled following tasks:1. preparing an opinion on the training program for young citizen journalists;2. preparing a text for an e-book on ways of engaging young people in social life in Norway;3. placing information about the project and the source of financing on the Terram Pacis website https://www.terrampacis.org/projects/current-projects/mission-participation,-young-citizen-podcasters-157.html?fbclid=IwAR3PkgiAVNkzIuSZzxPt4Me_YwF673gBfPNdpCn_Dw3PknSB5ns-Ro4Qgp c4. preparation of 3 podcasts with young activists from Norway.The partner completed all activities required by the partnership agreement. A representative of the Terram Pacis Foundation was also one of the speakers of the summary conference as part of information activities on November 16, 2023 in Katowice.The cooperation with the Partner went very well.