MEDIAtion
Start date: Jul 1, 2015,
End date: Apr 30, 2016
PROJECT
FINISHED
The multi-year experience of Info zone in the field of youth information, through which Info zone also develops youth media, has shown the need to create and develop youth media because youth media field of youth work has proven itself as an indispensable tool in youth work. The project MEDIAtion is designed as an international platform for the exchange of experience of youth workers, for their empowerment and competence increase in the field of youth media, as well as for the inclusion of young people through media projects. The name of the project implies improvement of competences of youth workers so that their media content would serve as a mediator between youth and and the public in general on one hand, and as a mediator among young people on the other hand.
The project would included 20 participants in total, from different cultural backgrounds (Croatia, Romania, Hungary, Montenegro and Bosnia and Herzegovina). All participants were youth workers with different level of experience in the field of youth media. Partner organizations have been developing (and are still developing) and applying diverse methods in youth work and youth media content creation. Other than the 5 partner NGO organizations, one partner organization (Spain) is a public body on local level with a Youth Department, which means that all the participants were introduced to problems, needs and potentials of youth in different backgrounds and from different perspectives and to different ways of media coverage of this subject. During the preparatory phase, the partner organisations made sure that all the dimensions (from form to content) of the central activity – seven day Training for youth workers in Split – were secured and prepared on time. During the training, the participants exchanged knowledge and experience through different methods, from workshops to debates, group and individual work, in closed space and in the open. The networking phase of organisations of all participants began after the training and it included working on communicating and applying the knowledge acquired during training in practice and work on dissemination of project results and increasing the visibility of the project. The final evaluation showed the measure in which the project goals were met.
Other than increasing the quality of youth work of the participants it also contributed to their empowerment in the field of development of youth media as a tool in youth work, which is why we can say that the project has had indirectly, a very positive impact on young people in all the communities of youth workers included in the project. In a long-term perspective, thanks to the work of partner organisations and of the participants we can say that this project also contributes to empowerment of youth media on the European level as well as to a stronger connection of youth workers dealing with youth media and, finally, to the empowerment of that part of the civil sector which deals with youth. One of the noticeable positive effects of the project is, undoubtedly the increase of the awareness of the participants regarding multiculturality. The other one is the establishement and the empowerment of connections between programme countries and partner countries of the EU.