Project's objectives
Empower Community Voices
Enable residents to share their personal narratives, fostering a sense of belonging and community pride
Preserve Local History
Document and preserve the diverse histories and experiences of city inhabitants for future generations
Promote Cultural Understanding
Enhance cross-cultural understanding and appreciation by highlighting the rich tapestry of stories within the city
Influence Urban Development
Inform urban planning and policy decisions with grassroots insights, ensuring that development reflects the needs and aspirations of the community
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Our team
Dr. Elena Stein
Lead manager
This is a generic paragraph. Urban participation methods have become influential for practitioners in numerous fields, including the arts, community development, and education. In these settings, place-based initiatives often seek to improve the well-being of local communities through creative, collaborative responses to local issues.
Vlad Mikhel
Assistant
This is a generic paragraph. Urban participation methods have become influential for practitioners in numerous fields, including the arts, community development, and education. In these settings, place-based initiatives often seek to improve the well-being of local communities through creative, collaborative responses to local issues.
Anastasia Puschkarewa
Project Coordinator
Timeline
May 2021
Kick-Off in Chelyabinsk with the participation of experts and project coordinators from Yekaterinburg, Chelyabinsk, St. Petersburg and Berlin.
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June 2021
Conducting a competition and selecting 50 multipliers, representatives of urban initiatives.
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3-4 July 2021
Introductory workshop in Ekaterinburg
Identify needs, requests and resources of participants/individuals for program development and “peer-to-peer” training.
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July - September 2021
Webinars and local seminars on the following topics: PR strategies, content development, professional use of social and audiovisual media, creation of media products (podcasts, zines, etc.).
August 2021
Pitching and selection of project ideas
10 best ideas will be selected, which will receive professional support from experienced media experts/-oks for further development
September - Oktober 2021
Mentor program
Participants and female participants will develop their media products with professional support of experts/women (5 sessions per project). In addition, 2 webinars will be organized for all participants.
27-28 November 2021
Mediaworkshop Acto Out Loud in Ekateringburg
with practical media workshops and public presentation of the project ideas developed by the multipliers
Project Overview
Bloggers are gaining increasing significance as opinion leaders in Russia. This trend is particularly evident in the field of urbanism and the engagement of urban initiatives, which play a crucial role as actors of civil society and social change. However, alternative and relevant topics, perspectives, and needs of marginalized groups—women, minorities, people with special needs, and other urban residents—often fade into the background.
Professional blogging and other media tools can provide these groups with strategies for enhancing public awareness of their concerns and achieving their goals. This is where the interdisciplinary project “Act Out Loud” comes in, operating at the intersection of new media, urbanism, and sociology. The project aims to strengthen media skills and visibility for bottom-up initiatives and activists in large and small cities across the Ural region, including Yekaterinburg, Nizhny Tagil, Perm, Ufa, Chelyabinsk, and others. It seeks to expand their participation in positive urban transformation processes while fostering the development of regional and interregional networks among participating cities and facilitating exchanges on common challenges and solutions.
“Act Out Loud” consists of a five-month media training program for 50 multipliers, including representatives of urban initiatives, activists, NGOs, small media outlets, and social entrepreneurs. The program includes pitching sessions, project development, mentoring, local and interregional seminars in Yekaterinburg and Ufa, and culminates in a media workshop as part of the “Night of Urban Initiatives” in Yekaterinburg.
The project is professionally supported by experienced media experts from Russia and Germany.
Project initiator: Center for Independent Social Research e.V.
Funding: The project is supported within the framework of the Eastern Partnership Program of the German Federal Foreign Office.
2023 / 24
Act Out Loud
Fostering visibility of urban bottom-up initiatives