We strive for greater visibility and recognition of civil society, the NGO sector, and ethnic and migrant groups through media engagement. We want to create a well-equipped community studio that would be accessible 24/7. Also, we want to create an online platform where the contributions and activity reports of various organizations and ethnic and migrant groups would be gathered in one place. We want to offer them our support in technical equipment management training and content preparation.

In four coastal Slovenian municipalities. Koper / Capodistria, Izola / Isola, Piran / Pirano and Ank

Most people don’t understand what non-profits are all about, how they work, and their purpose. This is a nationwide issue. False information and misconceptions are spread based on ignorance. It is widely believed that non-profit leeches are sucked into public funds and benefit from them and should be abolished. This view is also spread by some political actors, which is particularly worrying. In recent decades, our region has developed rapidly, mainly due to the international port. It thus brings many challenges, which are mainly reflected in the impact on immigration. Thus, our region has the largest number of immigrants per capita and without a concrete local/regional integration policy that would determine the dependence and inclusion of these people in local communities.

Our target group is non-profit organizations (NGOs), informal groups, activist groups, and ethnic and immigrant groups’ organizations. Our purpose is to provide them with media service and support for their campaigns. Many non-profit organizations do not even have their websites due to their costs, lack of professionalization, staff shortages, or ignorance of information technology management. On the online platform, you could find basic information about organizations and regular articles about their operation. Moreover, immigrants’ NGOs do not have the knowledge and opportunity to present their culture and activities, neither in Slovene nor in their mother tongues.

We would create a community studio for which we have already provided space provided by the municipality. We would develop a user-friendly online platform for publishing and finding information (design, front end, back end, and page architecture).
We will start preparing content for the online platform with many organizations operating in the region that have already shown interest in joining the community media project. We are also looking forward to involving ethnic and immigrant communities and send an open invitation to other organizations.
We will also design a training program for organizations to manage with multimedia and a journalistic approach. 
The last part of the project would be promoting and popularizing the online platform and community radio. It would be promoted in advertising spaces, in other local media, and at events.

1 A community studio that will be available to organizations and individuals in the local community. It will give organizations and individuals access to space and equipment, which would make it much easier to create content.
2 An online platform that would serve as a collection point for information on the functioning of civil society in the region with at least monthly reports from organizations in various fields and a representation of ethnic and immigrant groups in the area. Organizations would acquire a website, as some do not have one at all. It will also facilitate users to follow what was happening, as all the information would be in one place.
3 Increase the visibility of the activities of organizations and encourage public debate on the importance and benefits of non-profits.

Most organizations face the problem of gaining new members and visibility in the environment. On the other hand, there are quite a few individuals who do not know where to turn and where to look for information about the organization and the way of involvement. This would make all the information available in one place. The community would also acquire a new community space in the form of a community studio. Our overall goal is to become a community medium and to give a direct voice to civil society and the community. Expanding the media space would also increase civilian control and thus put additional pressure on decision-makers.

The team consists mainly of young adults, mostly with a university degree. For the last ten years, we have been quite active in the local environment in various fields of culture, social, sports, environment and youth. We worked in a former youth center. Due to the lack of community spaces, we occupied the an abandoned factory where we set up a community space, Creative Platform Inde, which was quite well received by the local community. Already there, we offered support to other organizations that approached us using the space itself, as well as volunteers and media support. In 2018, however, we set about creating a community media for the reason that we noticed the need for such a medium that would be the direct voice of civil society and the community.

Adaptation of the studio and equipments (laptop, camera, mixer, microphone etc.): 6000 EUR + 6000 EUR
Creating a web platform: 5000 EUR
Promotion of the web platform and community radio: 5000 EUR
Personnel costs (mentors, project manager, book keeper, community organizer): 10000 EUR

We would like to know if the idea is understandable at all and if there is anything we can do to present it better. We would also like to know if anyone knows a similar project.