Call for participation: Citizen journalists network

Get involved in LADDER citizen journalist initiative and be part of an internationally supported network!

The WHO & the WHAT?

· If you are a journalism lover and you practice it – or would be interested to practice - in a nonprofessional way (maybe you write on a local paper, or you run a blog, or you are part of a university radio, or… you tell us!)

· If you are interested on global issues (including migration, human rights, development, poverty eradication, citizens’ participation, youth engagement, solidarity, cohesion and mutual understanding, women’s rights, multi-culturalism etc) from a local/national/European/global perspective

· If you are tightly connected to the network of ALDA, being participant of one of our past projects

· If you are a citizen of any age (youngsters most welcome!) from the EU and its Neighbourhood

… then apply to this initiative!

The project LADDER intends to create a network of citizen journalists (approx 50 people) from all over the enlarged Europe (all the EU countries represented by LADDER partners) who are already or wish to be involved, non professionally, in journalistic activities covering development issues.

The WHY & HOW?

We are setting up this network of citizens’ journalist because we believe that citizens are the CORE element of every democracy and society. Covering/Writing/speaking/filming etc about development issues is one thing, being promoted is another. We believe in your skills & want to support your coverage! Each of our partners will select at least 2 citizen journalists in the respective country covered by the project LADDER, who will benefit from a dedicated support to promote their work (e.g.: booking a space on a newspaper, online blog, promoting the articles within its network, participation in local events etc.).

In parallel, a dedicated page on LADDER website will present the network of citizen journalists (at least 50 citizen journalists) and gather all relevant contributions produced, in order to ensure:

· A relevant visibility for the citizen journalists involved

· A European dimension for all outputs and contributions

· A wide outreach spread and disseminated not only through LADDER website & social media.

Last but not least, in order to strengthen & promote the citizen journalist network and ensure its operational capacity, a dedicated training will be delivered, which will gather a selection of the citizen journalists. The trainers will include both ALDA experts and external experts, and will enhance communication & journalism skills as well as development related topics knowledge. The date and venue of the training are under discussion and will be communicated once agreed. The costs for participation (travel & accommodation) for the selected participants will be covered by LADDER.

The citizen journalist network of LADDER will operate during the implementation of the LADDER project, until its completion in December 2017, and the pieces produced by the citizen journalists (interviews, articles, videos, cartoons, blog articles, etc.) will be widely disseminated through the communication channels of the partner of the country of origin, but also by ALDA and other LADDER consortium. In order to ensure a stronger impact and sustainability of the initiatives, actions will be taken to maintain and develop the network in order to become a platform for communication on global development issues.

TO APPLY: Please get in contact with the co-applicant / associate you know by 15 th July 2016

To apply, interested people can send their application to the national co-applicant or to ALDA (by emailing the project manager of LADDER – see below contact)

More information about the LADDER project

The project "LADDER – Local Authorities as Drivers for Development Education and Raising awareness" started in January 2015 and will be running until December 2017 (36-month duration), including 46 organisations across 35 countries, coordinated by ALDA. It’s an EU-funded project that intends to promote the action of Local Authorities & Civil Society to work on development education, that is raising awareness & promoting engagement of citizens on global issues (human rights, good governance, tolerance, eradication of poverty, development, mutual understanding & multi-culturalism, social cohesion, migration etc).

See the project website: http://www.ladder-project.eu/

Contact ALDA Project Manager, Nikos Gamouras: nikos.gamouras@aldaintranet.org