The project From Readers to Leaders: Citizen Journalism Superheroes – Empowering Civil Society through Citizen Journalism will produce a model training program and experiment with sustained engagement techniques to help NGOs & other civil society actors harness the storytelling & advocacy power of their beneficiaries & target groups, to amplify organizations’ visibility & credibility and, ultimately, enhance their impact on the community they serve.
Citizen journalism is the phenomenon in which the people who are not professional journalists or trained reporters employ media tools to inform one another. The democratization of information dissemination through New Media & the Web 2.0 revolution has opened up new avenues for ordinary individuals to become the storytellers of our times, or else, citizen journalists. The project aims to respond to the modern demands, by building the capacity of NGOs, community workers & adult education providers to train citizens, in responsible & impactful citizen journalism. The final, overarching result, envisioned the project to have, is to support community workers, trainers & adult education professionals in empowering adult learners to participate in public discourse via citizen journalism, by developing relevant, innovative education material & tools tailored to abide by adult learning principles.
The objectives of the projects are:
- to empower NGOs & adult educators by enhancing their capabilities to engage citizens effectively in impactful citizen journalism
- to produce & spread innovative educational materials & tools, grounded in adult & transformative learning theories
- to equip individuals with the vital skills for the responsible use of participatory media & support organizations unlock the potential of their beneficiaries as multipliers of their messages, mission & calls to action
Duration: November 2024 – February 2027
Partners: KulturLife (Germany) – leading partner, Asociación Moviéndote por la Integración y la Participación Ciudadana (Spain), Foundation for Entrepreneurship, Culture and Education FECE (Bulgaria), Asociatia Monomyths (Romania), Asociacija TAVO Europa (Lithuania).
The project is funded by the European Commission under the Erasmus+ program.