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How to be productive while working from home in corona times

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Shifting to the ‘home office’ is the new normal for many of us while we try to flat the coronavirus infections curve, in the common effort to keep all of us safe.

You could choose to stay in your pajamas until noon for a day or two, watch movies, read that book you wanted to finish for a while, cook more meals than ever, or feed yourself with too many breaking news or in-depth analyses on coronavirus… or you can find your way out and start working from home in a very productive manner.

Whether you are a newbie or a work-from-home veteran, here is what we recommend you do to stay productive.

Take it seriously, like your manager or team members would be in your living room 

Just because you could lounge around in your pajamas or sweatpants, it does not mean you actually should. Keep the routine you had before, take a shower and dress for work. It does not mean you need to wear a tie, but you should feel that you got prepared and you are ready to start the work!

Set a separate workspace

It would be great if we all had a separate room at home for work, but it is not always possible. However, set an area that can mentally prepare you for the work mode, such as a small desk or a table you can dedicate for work these days. Ideally, for your own sane, try not to mix the relaxing space, like your bedroom or your sofa, with the workspace. For instance, working from your bed too often will negatively affect your sleep in time.

Inform your family or life partner when you are working

Your spouse or life partner or your kids should learn your work routine and respect it. They should know when you are available and not available to them. If you have to share the same room, make sure you buy some noise-canceling headphones. These will also signal the others that you are not to be disturbed or lured into conversations.

Develop a work routine

As you do not have to travel back and forth to your office, your brain needs to learn your new habits to get in the work mode. So, maybe you could start your work immediately after your morning coffee, and end your tasks with some exercises. In this way, you set some psychological borders that let you get in and out of the work mode, and help you to easily disconnect from all the job-related issues. Definitely, plan some break for stretching legs, relaxing your eyes and having some lunch.

Stay in constant communication with your manager and colleagues

Ask for an every day short call with your manager to kick off the day, make the plans with your team and fully understand your tasks. Also, try to keep the same level of communication you had with your colleagues by moving the conversations online. This will help you to stay motivated, fix the urgent things, clarify tasks, but most importantly it will make you feel connected and never alone.

Don’t hesitate to try out new channels of communication. If you were using so far only emails, now it is the time to try out new apps and productivity tools, such as Slack for professional chats and organizing work, Zoom or Google Hangouts for meetings, Google Drive and Google Suite to share files and folders.

Do not exaggerate with the news consumption especially during work time 

We have prepared for you a guide on how to manage your news consumption in times of crisis. Read it, and stay away from too many breaking news. Not only that they will constantly interrupt your workflow, but they will also make you feel more anxious and probably even more isolated.

“You’ll never walk alone”

Connect with your colleagues and friends constantly. Try to sustain, as a team, a semblance of normalcy and friendship in unconventional ways. Go out for virtual pizzas or cocktails, play online games or watch movies together. We are incredibly lucky to be able to connect so easily with our friends and colleagues! Call them, write them… never walk alone!

ENPower Workshop – learning about employment and entrepreneurial challenges faced by Ukrainian young people

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ENpower Workshop goal was to gain understanding of Ukrainian context in regards to youth sector and cross sector cooperation for supporting young people. The information and expertise collected during the one-day event was then used in adapting the ENpower training toolkit, training course and mentorship program to local challenges regarding entrepreneurship education and youth employment.

ENpower workshop was organized in 16-17 June 2018, in Lviv, Ukraine, with relevant stakeholders from private sector, universities, youth and student organizations, and partners’ representatives. The 15 experts supported ENPower partners in understanding challenges that both young people and employers/entrepreneurs face on the labor market and in the opening and running local businesses.

We learned that when they want to open a business, young people from Ukraine face the following challenges:

  • lack of valuable entrepreneurship formal or non-formal educational programs;
  • lack of career counseling in schools;
  • lack of the entrepreneurship initiative and entrepreneurship attitude (low levels of self-awareness, consciousness, autonomy, self-confidence, critical thinking and strategic thinking, creativity, risk taking, decision making were identified by the experts we interacted with);
  • high bureaucracy and taxes for running businesses and unstable political and economic system;
  • financial pressure that makes them to find a job as quickly as possible to support themselves and their families and give up any entrepreneurship initiative they might have;
  • lack of mobility from one region of Ukraine to another, caused by cultural habits;
  • lack of good and healthy business networks.

The participants to the workshop also provided valuable information on the challenges faced by young people when searching for a job or by employers and entrepreneurs when they want to hire young people for the vacant position they have. The ENpower project does not aim and cannot to solve and address all the challenges identified in the Ukrainian context. Most of the challenges are structural, culturally, politically or economically determined. The project, through the training and mentorship programs, aims at addressing challenges related to the young people’s knowledge, skills, and attitudes, but also some of the challenges related to the lack of proper entrepreneurships education programs or career counselling programs. 

ENpower project – Bridges to ENpower. Cross-sectorial initiative to support the young people in their quest for ENtrepreneurship – is co-funded by European Commission, through Erasmus+ Programme (KA2 – Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices -Capacity Building in the field of Youth), and implemented by Rehionalnyj Blahodijnyj Fond “Rezonans” (Resonance Foundation, Ukraine, lead organization), Fundatia Danis pentru Dezvoltare Manageriala (Fundatia Danis, Romania), Norsensus Mediaforum (Norsensus, Norway) and Fundacja Aktywnych Inicjatyw Rozwoju (FAIR, Poland).

Bridges to ENpower aims to improve the quality of youth work in Ukraine, in the field of entrepreneurship education for young people, and to foster cooperation and exchanges between youth organizations from Ukraine, Poland, Romania and Norway.

Coop Project ends with big impact on cooperation between business and civil society

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CoOp project (Cooperate to Operate – bringing together youth organizations and SMEs through corporate social responsibility) supported youth organizations to diversify their funding sources by educating them in the field of CSR & fundraising from SMEs.

In 2017-2019, the CoOp partners from Norway, Greece, Ireland, Norway, Poland and Romania:

  • Developed research-based knowledge on the SMEs’ and youth organizations’ collaboration, and on the business’ capacity to invest in youth development and education.

Check the national CoOp Research Reports and the CoOp Comparative Report on SMEs and Youth Organizations Cooperation.

  • Developed innovative and attractive funding models & tools on CSR and fundraising, which can be used both by youth organizations and SMEs.

Download here the CoOp CSR and Fundraising Training Toolkit and the CoOp Ready Tools for Fundraising.

  • Identified and promote best practices and success stories on the SMEs’ and youth organizations’ partnerships.

Read the CoOp Best Practices Guide on SMEs and Youth Organizations Cooperation, and get inspired by the Success Stories and the Video Success Stories collected and promoted by the CoOp partners.

  • Proposed valuable public policies for boosting the partnerships between SMEs and youth organizations.

Check the Public Policies proposed by CoOp partners to enhance the cooperation between SMEs and youth organizations.

The project was co-financed by European Commission, within Erasmus+ Programme through Aktiv Ungdom (Norway). The project partners are:  Norsensus Mediaforum (Norway),  Asset Tec (Greece), Youth Work Ireland (Ireland), Fundacja Samodzielni Robinsonowie (Poland) and Fundatia Danis (Romania).

During the two-year project, the partners managed to reach with specific activities and open educational resources developed for youth organizations and SMEs, over 500 stakeholders from the five countries: NGOs working with young people, youth organizations, youth centers, young people, youth workers/educators, SMEs, large and multinational companies, public authorities, universities, business centers, business associations, NGO federations, etc.

At the same time, through the international training course on CSR and Fundraising, CoOp partners trained 25 youth workers from Norway, Greece, Ireland, Poland and Romania on how to get more SMEs support for their projects for young people. Then, these 25 youth workers shared the new knowledge and skills, and the CoOp educational resources, with other 148 youth workers and staff from their organizations or other organizations from their community.

To disseminate the project’s results and the open educational resources, partners organized 10 national events with 116 participants – youth organizations, SMEs, large and multinational companies, business associations, universities, NGO federations, etc.

For any information you might have about CoOp project, its results and the educational resources developed, please contact CoOp partners here.

 

Workshop: Design Thinking and Storytelling in Drammen

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Join us for a free workshop on how to use design thinking to improve your storytelling at individual and organizational level!

We invite NGO workers, entrepreneurs, activists, students, volunteers and young leaders to a two-hour workshop to discover the design thinking process and learn how to use it to deliver powerful messages to different audiences.

The workshop will take place in Drammensbiblioteket on October 10th, from 9.00 to 11.15

The working language will be English but we will also provide assistance in Norwegian for those who need.

Coffee, tea and snacks will be provided.

Deadline for signing up: October 8 from the form below:

Limited places are available so sign up is mandatory.

Meet the trainer:

Paula Beudean, Norsensus Mediaforum
Paula has more than ten years of experience in the nonprofit sector, in Europe, Canada and US. Through the various positions she held, she has developed sound expertise in storytelling, design thinking, fundraising, CSR, advocacy, strategic planning and project management for NGOs.

The workshop is provided in cooperation with Norsensus Mediaforum and Drammensbiblioteket

Tema: Design Thinking and Storytelling

Tid: Torsdag 10. oktober kl 9:00-11:00
Sted: Drammensbiblioteket, Grønland 58, 3045 Drammen


Personvern:
Ved å melde meg på samtykker jeg til at informasjon om mitt navn, organisasjon, stilling/verv deles med medarrangører på arrangementet. All informasjon lagres av Norsensus Mediaforum til oppfølging etter arrangementet og deretter slettes fra våre registre.

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Workshop: Design thinking and storytelling

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Join us for a free workshop on how to use design thinking to improve your storytelling campaigns!

We invite NGO workers, activists and young leaders to a two-hour workshop to discover the design thinking process and learn how to use it to deliver powerful messages to different audiences.

The workshop will take place on August 23rd, from 9.00 to 11.00. The working language will be English.

Location: Norsensus Mediaforum, Rådhusgata 20, 0151 Oslo

Deadline for registration: August 22. Coffee, tea and breakfast snacks will be served.

Apply today! Limited places are available.

Meet the trainers:

Paula Beudean
Paula has more than ten years of experience in the nonprofit sector, in Europe and US. Through the various positions she held, she has developed sound expertise in storytelling, design thinking, fundraising, CSR, advocacy, strategic planning and project management for NGOs.
 
Vedat Sevincer
Vedat has worked as journalist, project manager and trainer in the field of media literacy, intercultural communication, visual storytelling, media and communication strategy and media capacity building for NGOs and universities in Norway and 9 different countries.

Please fill out the form below to sign up:

Tema: Design Thinking and Storytelling

Tid: Torsdag 10. oktober kl 9:00-11:00
Sted: Drammensbiblioteket, Grønland 58, 3045 Drammen


Personvern:
Ved å melde meg på samtykker jeg til at informasjon om mitt navn, organisasjon, stilling/verv deles med medarrangører på arrangementet. All informasjon lagres av Norsensus Mediaforum til oppfølging etter arrangementet og deretter slettes fra våre registre.

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HOW CAN WE ENHANCE THE COLLABORATION BETWEEN NORWEGIAN SMES AND YOUTH ORGANIZATIONS?

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This policy brief explores the challenges of the cooperation between SMEs and youth organizations from Norway, and it provides solutions for improving NGOs’ capacity to better cooperate with the business sector, through a local development program.

  • READ THE FULL POLICY BRIEF OF NORWAY IN ENGLISH 
  • READ THE FULL POLICY BRIEF OF NORWAY IN NORWEGIAN  

ENPower Project Empowers Hundreds of Young People and Youth Workers in Ukraine

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ENpower took yourKITE project in Ukraine, and yourKITE developed further, grew, reaching new areas of work with young people and reaching more youth workers and youth organizations.

Bridges to ENpower (Cross-sectorial initiative to support the young people in their quest for ENtrepreneurship), shortly ENpower project aimed: to improve the quality of youth work in Ukraine, in the field of entrepreneurship education for young people, and to foster cooperation and exchanges between youth organizations from Ukraine, Poland, Romania and Norway.

The project was coordinated by Rehionalnyj Blahodijnyj Fond “Rezonans”, and implemented with partners from Norway, Poland and Romania: Norsensus Mediaforum, Fundacja Aktywnych Inicjatyw Rozwoju, and, respectively, Fundatia Danis pentru Dezvoltare Manageriala. The activities of the project took place in October 2017-March 2019.

ENpower specific objectives were:

– Professionalize youth workers from Ukraine in delivering workshops on entrepreneurship education;

– Enhance the capacity of youth organizations from Ukraine to provide mentorship programs for young people, in order to increase their interest, knowledge, and competencies related to entrepreneurship, and to foster their employability;

– Professionalize youth workers from Ukraine in establishing sustainable and efficient cross-sectorial partnerships on the labor market (with companies, SMEs, universities and students associations);

– Foster cooperation between the partner organizations from Ukraine, Poland, Romania and Norway, through common work on developing open educational resources, and through the internationalization of partners’ expertise.

 

Main results of the project are:

 

ENpower Toolkit for youth workers, which is based on the partners’ previous experience within yourKITE project.

The toolkit is designed for youth workers/young trainers, and adapted to the Ukrainian context. This helps the youth workers in delivering entrepreneurship education to young people by developing several competencies areas, based on practical activities related to volunteering, visual communication, entrepreneurship, and career counseling.

Check the ENpower Training Toolkit here:

Ukrainian version – https://enpower.yourkite.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/ENpower_Toolkit.pdf

English version:

https://enpower.yourkite.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/ENpower_Training_Toolkit.pdf?fbclid=IwAR0N1jE-aIgFp5HWBBpb02eiXf1d4TX64RA2yzlX8ZkAdvnXJQ2DVDeN2TE

ENpower training was offered to 29 youth workers, most of them from Ukraine. The training professionalized youth workers on how to use the ENpower Training Toolkit and the ENpower Mentorship Program for young people. The training took place in Poland, in January 2019.

In support for youth workers that could not attend the face-to-face training, the yourKITE online training was translated in Ukrainian and made available to them.

Check the photos from the training course here:

https://flic.kr/s/aHsmCnFKY4

ENpower mentorship program is based on the previous expertise of the partners in internship and business mentorship programs.

The mentorship program was developed by the partners, and adapted to the Ukrainian context. The program goes beyond an internship program, because it aims both to increase young people’s employability and enhance their entrepreneurial skills, knowledge and interest.

Check the ENpower mentorship program here:

Ukrainian version:  https://enpower.yourkite.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/InternshipProgram.pdf

English version:

https://enpower.yourkite.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/ENPowerMentorshipProgram-EN.pdf

Read more about the other activities:

ENpower is co-funded by the Erasmus+ Programme of the European Union.

ENpower came to life based on the EU co-funded project – yourKITE, developed and implemented by Norsensus Mediaforum (Norway), Fundacja Aktywnych Inicjatyw Rozwoju (Poland), and Fundatia Danis pentru Dezvoltare Manageriala (Romania).

ENPower Conference brings together stakeholders and youth workers to support young people from Ukraine

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ENpower conference brought together over 50 relevant stakeholders from private sector, universities, public institutions, youth and student organizations from Ukraine. Throughout the two-day event, we presented the results of the ENPower project, and shared with the participants the ENpower Training Toolkit and the ENpower Mentorship Program. Also, participants from the ENpower training course joined the conference to share their learning experience with other youth organizations from Ukraine, but also to follow-up on the changes the training course brought into their professional life.

The conference took place in Lviv, Ukraine, on 22nd-23rd of March 2019, and it included presentations, panels, world cafe forums, short workshops and a small competition for the participants in using digital education tools for young people. First, ENPower partners introduced the participants the project and its more relevant outcomes – ENPower Training Toolkit and ENPower Mentorship Program. Then, during one panel, partners and participants in the ENPower training course that took place in January 2019, in Poland, shared and talked about the importance and professional impact of the international training course experiences for youth workers. Also, partners and participants in the conference presented best practices in the field of youth, entrepreneurship education and youth employment.

At the same time, ENPower partners and former participants in the training courses delivered workshops on digital education tools, storytelling for young people, funding sources for youth cultural projects, entrepreneurship education games, and new forms of education for young people. Finally, the conference included short workshops for youth workers and other participants who wanted to learn how to use the ENpower Toolkit and ENpower Mentorship Program.

 

Ukrainian Youth Workers Meet in Poland for ENPower Training

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26 youth workers from Ukraine were trained on how to conduct valuable workshops for youth, within ENPower training course, as part of the ENPower project, supported by Erasmus+ Programme.

The training course, organized by Norsensus Mediaforum (Norway), FAIR (Poland) Fundatia Danis (Romania) and Resonance Foundation (Ukraine), took place in Poland, at the end of January 2019.

The event brought together youth workers from the four countries. During the six-day training course, the youth workers learned and developed essential skills on how to conduct workshops for young people. Then, they learned the specifics of conducting training courses on entrepreneurship, visual communication, volunteering and career counselling. Moreover, the youth workers learned about how to organize mentorship or internship programs for young people, involving universities, schools, youth organizations/students unions, and companies and SMEs from their communities. In the last days of the training, in teams and using the ENPower training toolkit, the youth workers conducted small workshops, learning by experience how to put into practice the knowledge and skills gained.

Check here some of the photos from ENpower training course:

 

ENpower Project Launched to Support Young People and Youth Sector in Ukraine

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We launched a new project for young people and youth workers from Ukraine! ENPower project takes yourKITE project in Ukraine, and it further develops the entrepreneurship educational resources for young people.

Bridges to ENpower (Cross-sectorial initiative to support the young people in their quest for ENtrepreneurship), shortly ENpower, project aims: to improve the quality of youth work in Ukraine, in the field of entrepreneurship education for young people, and to foster cooperation and exchanges between youth organizations from Ukraine, Poland, Romania and Norway.

The project is coordinated by Rehionalnyj Blahodijnyj Fond “Rezonans”, and implemented with partners from Norway, Poland and Romania: Norsensus Mediaforum, Fundacja Aktywnych Inicjatyw Rozwoju, and, respectively, Fundatia Danis pentru Dezvoltare Manageriala. The activities of the project take place in October 2017-March 2019.

In the following 18 months, the project partners will develop:

  • ENpower Toolkit which is designed for youth workers/young trainers, supporting them to provide high quality entrepreneurship education to young people, by developing several competencies areas based on practical activities related to volunteering, visual communication, entrepreneurship, and career counseling.
  • ENPower Mentorship program that aims to support youth organizations to enhance young people’s employability and their entrepreneurial skills, knowledge and interest.

 

Also, the partners will organize specific activities dedicated to relevant stakeholders from Ukraine, such as universities, public agencies, youth organizations, NGOs, students unions, companies and SMEs: a workshop for understanding better the challenges Ukrainian young people face when searching for a job or opening a business, a training course and a conference for sharing best practices and working educational tools in the field of youth entrepreneurship.

 

ENpower project – Bridges to ENpower. Cross-sectorial initiative to support the young people in their quest for ENtrepreneurship – is co-funded by European Commission, through Erasmus+ Programme (KA2 – Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices -Capacity Building in the field of Youth).

 

Visual Education – Key Competences of Cultural Promoters in Romania and Norway

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In recent years, organizations active in the field of culture and arts have become increasingly aware of the need to improve their knowledge in the visual education domain. In creative industries, professionals need to be able to operate with elements of aesthetics, whether they are images, complex graphics or various representations of advertising production.

In order to be able to decode the basic elements of different types of visuals  –  in terms of structure, metaphors, design, atmosphere or story behind the visual composition, culture professionals (museographers, librarians, artists, filmmakers, storytellers, etc.) require a set of visual education competences.

Considering this need, the partners consortium formed by Alliance for Regional Economic Development (ARED), ANBPR and the ALMA RO Association from Romania and, respectively, Norsensus Mediaforum, from Norway, initiated the project entitled “CULTURE FUSION – an intervention on cultural heritage conservation through a knowledge sharing event between cultural operators from Romania and Norway “.

Through this intervention, funded in the context of EEA Grants 2009-2014 – Fund for bilateral relations – Measure B: Creating bilateral relations and exchanging experience, the project partners organized a two-day workshop in Oslo on visual education, design and creative thinking.

During this workshop, the participants had the opportunity to experiment, under the guidance of Romanian and Norwegian experts, different methods of using and interpreting visual messages, critical thinking techniques, and they took part in artistic communication exercises using different types of images.

It was a true revelation to discover that the Romanian experts, with vast experience in culture field, have a very good expertise on visual education and we have been honored to contribute, through the participation of Norsensus Mediaforum at this intercultural exchange, to the enhancement of visual, design and critical thinking skills of our collaborators, cultural operators in Oslo.

On the occasion of this Romania-Norway mobility, held between August 13-18, 2017, we discovered new valences of immaterial heritage of Romania, we had a very beneficial exchange of experience in visual education area and we identified new opportunities for partnership with this country, with great prospects to develop large-scale joint projects in the future.

 

Fighting Hate Speech with Graffiti in Bulgaria

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Norsensus Mediaforum was represented in the project Stop Hating Start LOVEing, dedicated to promotion of No Hate Speech Movement and fighting hate speech in a non-violent way, with graffiti. The project was organised by Bulgarian partners – Alternativi International in Bansko, Bulgaria on the 20-27th of May in the framework of Erasmus+ KA1.

 

During this week 30 participants from Estonia, Bulgaria, Hungary, Portugal, Macedonia and Norway learned more about hate speech, its causes and consequences, through sharing experience and knowledge from different economical and geographical backgrounds. They have also discussed how to fight hate speech in a non-violent way – through graffiti – and shared information about current situation with hate speech in their countries as well as existing good examples of fighting it.

[aesop_gallery id=”9338″]

 

In the course of the project participants organised a public action in the city of Razlog, 5 km from Bansko, and created graffities in order to demonstrate how hate speech can be fought in a visual and peaceful way.

 

 

Norsensus Mediaforum joined No Hate Speech Movement Online in August 2014, becoming official Norwegian partner of the movement. The No Hate Speech campaign values are closely related to the mission of Norsensus, which is to help development of media literacy skills in the society – an important ingredient of the remedy for hate speech and discrimination.

Since then Norsensus Mediaforum worked with No Hate Speech Movement in Romania as a partner of the project “Digital Literacy for High School Students to Fight Hate Speech and Discrimination in the Media”, run by the Center for Independent Journalism (CIJ).

Your KITE Project Visit in Cluj, Romania for entrepreneurship

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Norsensus Mediaforum, Fundatia Danis, FRSI and Information Society Development Foundation met up in Romania for training, team-building and further development of the YourKite Project. Cluj is a city with focus on education and entrepreneurship and was the perfect location for learning more about this.

We visited young entrepreneurial projects like Cluj Makers and older structured NGO’s like Civitas. We got a peek on how it can be in the beginning for such organisations and how it is when they are already well developed.

Your Kite Prosjekt i Cluj
Your Kite Prosjekt i Cluj

In our training, we learned about different kinds of leadership and the kind of qualities they can bring to projects and organisations. We also learned about the benefits of structuring projects, life or businesses in concrete steps. The dean of the local university visited us to tell us about the promising school-system in Cluj.

Many of us learned that our impression of Romania in advance could not be applied to Cluj, a city with blooming advances in both education and  and with a positive attitude towards the future.

Text: Sven Inge Røste

The project is funded by the EU program Erasmus +: Youth. These materials contain recipient’s opinions and views. Neither the National Office for Erasmus +: Youth or the European Commission may be held responsible for the content.
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8 DIY Smartphone Photography Tips

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Watch photographer Richard Schabetsberger demonstrate some creative smartphone photography tips & tricks.

Oslo People Shared Christmas Joy with the World

Our annual Christmas campaign has been finalized with sending Christmas cards to all over the world.

This year, we again received hundreds of messages from allover the world and exhibited them in our design tent at Karl Johans Gate last week. In return,   the people of Oslo visited the tent, saw the warm messages, picked up a random name who sent message and wrote a specailly designed Christmas card to be sent to that person.

All the cards were designed by talented youths between 14-18, who attended to Faktuell media and design workshops. Thanks to the campaign the artwork of the youths from diverse backgrounds were appreciated and made the best out of media and communication tools and design.

We thank all participants from Norway, US, UK, Ireland, France, Germany, Nepal, Cambodia, Chile, Argentina, Belarus, Russia, Denmark, Turkey, Italy, Portugal, Jordan, Phillipines, China, Georgia, Romania, Bulgaria, Poland, Iceland, Canada, Malesia, Serbia, India, Uruguay, Spain, Austria, Brazil, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Latvia, estonia, Lithuania, Lebanon, Australia and New Zeland.

As Norsensus Mediaforum team, we are looking forward to next year campaign and wishing all a wonderful and peaceful new year.

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Stop-Motion! This is how youngsters made animation films

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The most exciting and funny workshop was held on Saturday, when the teenagers learned the new visual technique – Stop-motion. Stop-motion is an animation technique, where one person moves the objects, while another one takes pictures one by one to create an illusion of independent movement in a coherent film.

Firstly, Abdurrahim and Vedat showed several simple movies, where the stop-motion technique was used, and explained how these films were made. Some of them were very funny and quite primitive; others demanded more time and patience.

Stop-motion videos can be made in a mobile app Stop Motion Studio. Firstly, the youngsters worked on the script of their films and created the clay figures. Afterwards they started to take pictures with the mobile phones one by one, while moving their figures. It was a pretty hard work, but in the course of 2 hours everyone managed to take around 100 pictures, which became a movie.

image

At the end of the workshop all the participants could watch their freshly made films on a big screen. The majority admitted that it was the most creative and entertaining workshop of VISUALIZE IT project. Everyone used his imagination to create something beautiful and useful.

The participants learned from this workshop that the most important thing is always to have a good idea. In the modern world there are plenty of technical possibilities to bring your ideas to life. The only thing needed is to be creative.

Launching Ceremony of Faktuell at Oslo City Hall

Faktuell project launching ceremony was held in Oslo City Hall on 17th of June with the participation of the project team, stakeholders, students and their parents.

The young project participants from various backgrounds presented their journalistic works they prepared in the end of 4 week intense journalism training. The ceremony started with the welcoming speech of Oslo Municipality Information Chief Erik Hansen.

Afterward, 9-year-old Matias Rugsveen showed his talents with his accordion. The program continued with the talks of Norsensus Mediaforum director Abdurrahim Gunaydin and Faktuell advisory board members, Robert Wallace Vaagen, Heidi Biseth and Kristin Beate Vasbö.

The participants also got chance to see an exhibition consisting of the journalistic and photographic works of the Faktuell journalism students. In the end of the program the youngsters who attended to the training received their diplomas.

About Faktuell

Faktuell is a youth generated media project whose main objective is to strengthen young people’s media literacy and help them to run an online publication. The project is aimed at young people aged 14-18. The project intends to create social and political engagement, and strengthen young people’s interest in freedom of speech and democracy in action. This will be achieved by channelling their digital skills into the production of a meaningful media product.

The main objective of the project is to train young people in journalism, as well as stimulate them to express themselves freely and share their ideas and opinions effectively with a real and broad audience. We use the media as a tool for young people to lead an active social involvement in their communities and the world.

In this frame, Faktuell was started as a pilot project in April with the participation of 15 youngsters aged 14-18 and the participants received an intense training in basic bews writing, media ethics, photography and news design. In the end, the participants prepared news articles on different issues including real estate market and its effect on integration, the issue of school nurse in Oslo and euthanasia.