Podcasting-based social impact learning environment

Our consortium recognized that social impact—changes in people's lives due to actions by organizations or initiatives—had become a common topic in professional dialogues across various fields. Despite this awareness, professionals still struggled with defining, measuring, managing, and communicating their organisations' impacts. Traditional educational resources, such as university courses and handbooks, failed to keep pace with the field's rapid advancements. Additionally, non-formal channels like webinars often proved superficial and repetitive, prioritising promotion of the organisers over providing diverse viewpoints and meaningful learning opportunities. Acknowledging these educational shortcomings, we embraced podcasting, an adult education method that overcomes access barriers and creates a sense of intimacy among distant listeners, enabling the exchange of knowledge across various contexts. Also, the podcasts really became a mainstream channel during the Covid-19 era. Therefore, our project was designed to support the availability of quality learning opportunities for adults by helping them to: 1) understand social impact topics through podcasts, and 2) learn how to podcast about social impact topics.

The consortium started this project with a shared vision to increase the accessibility and impact of podcasting as an adult education tool across various sectors. The project used podcasting as a practical and engaging medium to address various social issues. The primary goal was to inspire and educate professionals in public, private, and third sectors involved in defining, managing, measuring, and communicating the impact of their activities. Additionally, the project aimed to empower adults to use podcasting to raise awareness about human well-being. Each partner brought specific objectives aligned with their mission: Geri Norai sought to use podcasting to raise awareness about social entrepreneurship and community development in Lithuania, aiming to inspire and educate adults more effectively. KUSIF focused on disseminating social impact knowledge through the creation of high-quality, "evergreen" podcast content. SEAL was dedicated to informing wider society about social entrepreneurship and enhancing the capacity of social entrepreneurs through storytelling. Stories For Impact aimed to enrich the podcasting landscape by introducing content that would inspire listeners and address complex social topics.

The project activities were organized to directly support achieving the three planned project results: 1. Compilation of Podcasts: a) Partners collaborated to finalise the topics for the podcasts, choosing those with the greatest potential to support social impact related adult education in their respective countries. b) Each partner produced a series of podcasts, including video formats, focusing on social and environmental issues to inspire and educate adult audiences. These podcasts were developed to high standards in both technical execution and content quality. c) While developing and implementing the activities related to country-specific podcast creation, the partners shared experiences and supported each other with ideas and resources, which included creating episodes in English. 2. Compilation of Reference Materials: A comprehensive set of reference materials was created for social impact podcasters. These materials systematically cover everything from choosing the right format to adhering to ethical standards when dealing with sensitive topics. 3. Guidance Material for Podcasting on Social Impact Related Topics: a) A guidance manual was developed to provide a concise resource addressing common questions from podcasters interested in social impact topics. b) The effectiveness of this guidance material, along with the reference materials, was tested during two transnational training events that involved both highly motivated beginners and experienced podcasters from all partner countries. Based on the feedback from the trainings, the materials were developed further.

The volume of informal adult education in the form of podcasting produced by the partners was: a) 213 episodes created, uploaded and disseminated, including 140 audio episodes (i.e. podcasts), and 73 video episodes (i.e. videocasts); b) 83 hours and 40 minutes of audio files, and 55 hours and 59 minutes of video files. The partners’ podcasts offered a diverse yet coherent view of the field, covering business models, challenges, and solutions in social entrepreneurship, impact creation and scaling, impact education in formal and non-formal settings, and mental health challenges and solutions. This education also helps professionals and activists support the enactment of European values in their daily work more effectively. A compilation of 32 reference materials about social impact podcasting titled “Social Impact Podcasting Tips and Tricks” was created in English, and translated to Estonian, Latvian, Lithuanian and Turkish. They provide a structured overview of the most important aspects that podcasters working with social and environmental topics need to take into account to be successful and avoid the main risks. The materials have been designed in a contemporary and attractive way, making them easy to read and use as checklists. They can be used as checklists both by podcasters who are starting to brainstorm about their ideas, and by experienced podcasters looking to further develop their concepts. To accompany the reference materials, a a guide for beginner podcasters titled “How to Create a Social Impact-Based Podcast?" was created, and also translated to all partner languages. As the reference materials are designed very visually and are keyword-based checklists, the guide is presented in a more traditional manner, providing context and definitions regarding the nature and possibilities of social impact podcasting. The guide covers the entire podcast creation process, from defining the podcast concept and planning episodes to recording, editing, and disseminating the content, while also explaining the significance of social impact. At the same time, we made sure that no topic would be duplicated, so both the guide and reference materials meet different needs of adult learners. To reach adult learners directly and in-person, two transnational learning events called social impact bootcamps were organised in Estonia and Latvia. The main goal of the bootcamps was to inspire and educate the participants to start or develop further their podcasts about social and/or environmental impact topics. In two bootcamps, more than 80 adult learners were involved. Their feedback was positive, and there are notable examples of the participants starting or developing further their social impact podcast. The examples can be found in the impact section of this report. The dissemination involved intensive communication on social media and successful events in all participating countries, where interest from the target groups exceeded initial expectations. Attendance at these events varied between 41 and 61 people, depending on the country, which is a very good result regarding the social impact podcasting still being regarded as a rather niche topic. The feedback from stakeholders regarding the concept of the project results has been very positive and has provided international dissemination opportunities beyond the official end date of the project. For example, a representative from the consortium was invited to host a workshop called “How to Make Choices in Social Impact Podcasting” at the EAGxNordics’24, an Effective Altruism conference organised by the Nordic and Baltic EA communities, on April 26-28, 2024.