Film Making for Inclusion and Development

The Corona crisis and changes in the educational system have lead to a lack of commitment to school in combination with a sense of being less prepared to enter the work force. Youth that lack skil...

The main objectives of the project were to produce the planned resources and carry out the activities in a high quality, high impact and sustainable manner, reaching a large audience. Goals as defined over the priority section were (1) to strengthen the employability of young people, with special attention to marginalized youth, (2) addressing digital readiness, resilience and capacity of youth and youth workers, (3) increasing quality and innovation of youth work, blending a creative and technical perspective and skill sets. Project partners set out to build an innovative and profound knowledge hub and then use it to inspire and educate youth and youth workers and spread the word of the knowledge hub to increase the good it can do. In order to achieve the objective, a number of different qualitative and quantitative indicators were set in the areas of promotion, trainings and impact. Examples for quantitative indicators are: 12 youth educators will be trained in delivering the In-service training programme. Reached: 14. 18 young people, with special emphasis on marginalized youth will complete the Transnational Film-making Masterclass. Reached: 18. 120 stakeholders will attend the MEs. Reached: 168.

The main activity strand to achieve the aims of the project has been: In PR 1, 2 and 3 – the development of the products, test and translate them and make them accessible to the public in the right format. For the most part, a waterfall methodology has been used with the process of: (1) requirement collection and documentation – including desk research and surveys of the target groups, ending in a framework document, (2) analysis - of step 1 outcomes by all partners and getting prepared to execute resources, (3) development - of resources including translation, (4) testing – internally with peer feedback, testing over local advisory groups and through pilotings and LTTAs. Steps 3 and 4 were an iterative loop process. (5) Delivery - PR 1 and 2 were uploaded to PR 3 and results were promoted. (6) Maintenance - project results are maintained content wise by the coordinator and is being held technically available by the technical partner CARDET. To highlight project events: The LTTA in Germany was conducted for staff, teaching how to conduct video making training with youth. PR 1 was piloted by marginalised youth in partner countries where they developed videos. The videos were shown during the local film festivals (MEs). A winning team was chosen in each partner country through inclusive voting – in most cases, the participants themselves voted for who should be the winner. The winners went to Madrid for a one-week masterclass, learning more about filmmaking. Partners met during three personal meetings and during the final conference held in Germany at project end. Main activities were supported by an array of project management activities. Partners prepared, updated and shared a series of legal and financial documents, such as cooperation agreements, a budget plan, payment request sheets, time sheets and event reporting sheets. JFV coordinated the dissemination, submission, appropriate filing and compliance of the documents. Partners also developed a management plan and a Gantt chart with an overview of all project content. It includes the commitment and roles of each partner with a timeline for outputs and activities. In addition, a to do list was developed with upcoming to dos, broken down into a more detailed perspective. Partners used these documents to track project progress and completion of components. Partners set up a risk overview with different concerns such as time, quality, communication and force major events. These were estimated on Likert scales of likeliness and severity. The risk management was done before every project meeting and discussed with partners during meeting. There were six online meetings that were funded by the project management budget. Partners prepared the meeting – sending out an agenda and a zoom link. One partner was responsible for writing minutes at every meeting and the coordinator did a to do list update after each meeting. All partners made an effort to prepare their topics before each meeting and often brought a presentation. Meetings were mostly 90-120 minutes as partners took the time to talk through all project aspects each time. Project documentation on local servers and on the project dropbox was set up by the coordinator and maintained by partners throughout the partnership. Partners set up a quality plan, coordinated quality assurance regularly and delivered a quality final report at the end of the project. They developed an impact plan at the beginning of the project. Project impact was evaluated by all partners mid-project and at the end of the project. A comprehensive impact final report was done at project end. Partners developed a promotional plan and coordinated the activities. Partner delivered reports every six months and took every chance to promote the project during events, meetings, social media, press and more. Partners set up branding, a branding guide, templates and a project presentation deck in power point. They developed the project webpage and coordinated the translation into all partner languages. Translations of the webpage and the presentation deck were made. They set up the Instagram channel and the YouTube account. Partners posted on their own social media and on their company webpages. The project was disseminated on EPALE. Partners used every opportunity to disseminate the project in their available channels.

All project results (PR1-3) and promotional materials are available in English, German, Greek, Polish, Portuguese and Spanish. There are three main project results for the new skill acquisition for both target groups: 1) PR1 – Video-making resources for employability and development of young people 2) PR2 – In-service training programme and handbook for youth educators 3) PR3 – Bespoke e-learning portal The usage of these resources leads to: - Young people increasing their digital literacy levels, with a focus on video and audio production - Young people increasing their skills and knowledge base that are needed at work and in everyday life, such as research, planning, critical thinking, cooperation, and creativity. Including knowledge about storytelling, business development, advertisement, social media, personal branding and more. - Young people can use these skills professionally in personal business endeavours or as employees. - The branding and self-presentation skills help them in the job searching process. The first result provids young people with a comprehensive suite of resources (456 resources in different formats counting translation) to use in formal and non-formal settings (also, adapted to online or face-to-face learning). The resources for young people are divided into four main areas, covering video creation, production, and usage in four contexts: 1) Advertisement 2) Storytelling 3) Business development 4) Personal branding. In this approach, the learners can use the newly acquired skills according to their current needs – to express themselves, monetize their skills, sell products, or seek employment. This aspect is especially important for young people from communities in danger of exclusion. The second result is aimed at front-line youth educators. They need the proper resources to provide media production and usage training to young people. The bespoke in-service training programme for youth and community educators increases their digital literacy levels and helps them understand the online reality that is usually more intuitive for younger consumers and creators. The educators can gain skills and competences to: - Reach the marginalized youth effectively and have the empathy to support them to the best extent with their struggles - Provide young people with high-quality training in video production and usage, using the most relevant open-source software and commonly available hardware - Feel comfortable with delivering such advanced training using blended and online environments, with full awareness of their strengths and threats connected to it. Both educators and young people have an opportunity to support their learning process using the bespoke online environment created in the project (PR3) entailing all project outcomes. Project results (PR 1 and PR 2) are available over the e-learning platform: https://www.elearning.fmid.eu/modules/. A project overview with links to the Instagram and Facebook account of the project is available over the project webpage: https://fmid.eu/. Project videos are available over the e-learning platform, but also over the YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@filmmakingforinclusionandd9070 . Also, videos made by youth have been uploaded to the channel, but to protect their identities, they are only available via direct link, not publicly. An LTTA was carried out in Schwerin, Germany with participants of the staff category (14 participants for 3 days, goal was 12 participants). Youth piloted PR1 with the help of staff who took part in the LTTA in Germany. They created videos (on average 10 per country or 60 in total – as per target). The videos were screened during the local film festivals (MEs) where a winner was selected. The goal for MEs was 120 participants. In total, 168 persons attended the MEs. The winners of the local film festivals won a trip to Madrid to attend a week of masterclasses. As planned, 18 persons attended the masterclass. The results and impact of the project has been great. Although quantitative goals have for the most part been met or exceeded, it is the qualitative outcomes that have been the most impactful in the project. This is how the coordinator describes project impact it its area: “The main impact for JFV/Germany was achieved through the process of local film festivals including marginalized youth (mental disabilities) and how a team of pupils from that school won and received a significant prize. It impacted a lot of people in many ways: it changed the outlook for the youth and their care givers, it created attention for the project and its topics through media coverage, it improved our and their network and more. We now work with the health department of the rural office of administration for one. This winter, during the week of persons with disabilities, some of the movies from youth will be shown as a trailer at the movie theatre in Parchim, reaching Parchim citizens in a broader way.”