The Communication Initiative
Development action with informed and engaged societies
The Communication Initiative
After nearly 28 years, The Communication Initiative (The CI) Global is entering a new chapter. Following a period of transition, the global website has been transferred to the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits) in South Africa, where it will be administered by the Social and Behaviour Change Communication Division. Wits' commitment to social change and justice makes it a trusted steward for The CI's legacy and future.
 
Co-founder Victoria Martin is pleased to see this work continue under Wits' leadership. Victoria knows that co-founder Warren Feek (1953–2024) would have felt deep pride in The CI Global's Africa-led direction.
 
We honour the team and partners who sustained The CI for decades. Meanwhile, La Iniciativa de Comunicación (CILA) continues independently at cila.comminitcila.com and is linked with The CI Global site.
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Urban Voices - New York, USA

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Global Action Project (G.A.P) offers a variety of youth media training programmes operating on site and throughout New York City, including programmes for refugee youth, girls, and pre-professional training for youth aged 16-20. Falling under the umbrella "Urban Voices", these programmes support G.A.P's mission, which is "to provide youth with the knowledge, tools, and relationships they need to create powerful, though-provoking media on local and international issues that concern then and to use their media as a catalyst for dialogue and positive social change."
Communication Strategies
Urban Voices' after-school media projects take place at G.A.P's facilities as well as on campus at schools across the city, 5 days a week. As of this writing, there are 10 key projects associated with Urban Visions (projects shift slightly from year to year):
  1. UVTV Pre-Professional Program - These intensive 3-hour training and production workshops are offered twice per week from September through June for high school students interested in careers in the arts, journalism, and digital media. The sessions focus on digital video production and distribution and peer leadership. Projects have included broadcast-quality public service announcements (PSAs), dramatic and documentary responses to social issues important to youth.
  2. Teen Power - Middle school Latino youth at a school in Washington Heights (NY) meet twice a week (2 hours each session) during this year-long programme to produce videos about sexual health and education. Topics have included teen pregnancy, peer pressure, and parent-teen communication. This project is an ongoing collaboration with New York Presbyterian Hospital's Center for Community Health Education.
  3. Teens Acting Out (T.A.O.) Video - High School students from Media & Communications High School in Washington Heights meet twice a week (2.5 hours each session) during this year-long programme to produce videos about the effects of smoking on teenagers as well as a new initiative focusing on HIV/AIDS awareness. Videos are then utilised in peer education campaigns. A collaboration with New York Presbyterian Hospital's Center for Community Health Education.
  4. Eye Level - A 2-year-long programme designed for selected G.A.P. youth as part seminar, part advanced independent study. Meeting 2 hours once per week at G.A.P, this programme works intensively with talented high school students interested in pursuing careers in the media arts and offers artistic development, mentoring, college prep, paid internships, and opportunities for social engagement and leadership. The goal is to develop participants' capacity to successfully transition from high school to either college or a career in the media arts. This project is stipended.
  5. Youth Advisory Board Leadership Project - Meeting monthly throughout the year, youth representatives from G.A.P.'s programmes advise and participate in organisational decision-making (e.g., staff hiring and student policy), engage in peer leadership (e.g.. coordinate youth retreats and lead media workshops), and present publicly on behalf of G.A.P. at panels, in conferences, and at screenings as youth leaders and mediamakers. This project is stipended.
  6. New Immigrant Media Project - Starting Winter fiscal year (FY) 2005 and meeting weekly from 4:00 - 7:00pm at G.A.P., this project is designed to engage a diversity of immigrant youth from Arab, South Asian, Mexican, and Haitian communities, among others, to explore globalisation, the role of the U.S. in international affairs, movements/trends towards global democracy and understanding, and the root causes of migration. Youth share their learning and media with both U.S. and international communities through screenings, workshops, and conferences.
  7. Summer Media Institute (Summers, 3dys/wk, 10:30am - 4:30pm) This advanced intensive is an 8-week programme that engages youth recruited from G.A.P.'s existing school-year programmes in the art, politics, and business of digital media production and extends G.A.P.'s curriculum through real-world media-based internships. This project is stipended.
  8. Global Voices - Since its inception, G.A.P. has collaborated with partners worldwide to create opportunities for youth to travel, present, exchange, and produce media with other youth abroad in countries such as Cuba, Northern Ireland, Mexico, Guatemala, Ghana, Costa Rica, Israel and Palestine, and Dubai (U.A.E.). Click here to read more about this project.
  9. Youth Empowerment and Human Rights Media Project (Spring FY 2005) - Through an ongoing community partnership with the Baccalaureate School for Global Education, G.A.P. offers an after-school video programme that enriches and extends an in-school human rights elective. Youth meet twice a week at the school for 2 hours each session to participate in video production, media literacy, and the creation of short documentaries on a global human rights theme.
  10. Urban Visionaries Youth Media Festival - A founding member and lead organiser, G.A.P. is also the sponsor for a youth media festival that provides New York City youth with a forum to discuss social, economic, cultural, and political issues through the exhibition of youth-produced media. A collaboration between the city's youth media arts organisations and The Museum of Radio & Television, it is the produced, curated, and presented by young media makers.
Development Issues
Youth, Sexual Health, HIV/AIDS, Rights, Tobacco, Media Education, Intercultural Understanding.
Partners

International Rescue Committee; Columbia University; NY Presbyterian Hospital; Brooklyn School for Global Studies; EVC; DCTV; TRUCE; and El Puente Academy for Peace and Justice.

Sources

GAP website; and emails from Pilar Valdes to The Communication Initiative on August 18 2004 and November 18 2004.

Comments

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Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Tue, 11/23/2004 - 01:27 Permalink

THANKS FOR THIS PAGE AM MARK STEPHENS FROM KAMPALA UGANDA AM 26 AND AM WORKING WITH RADIO SIMBA A COMMUNITY FM RADIO IN KAMPALA UGANDA AS ANEWS REPORTER BUT NOT TRAINNED BUT JUST B'SE I LOVE JOURNALISM I WOULD LIKE TO GO FOR A COURSE BUT I CAN NOT AFFORD THE FEE I DO THE WORK LIKE A TRAINNED ONE BY EDITOR TELLS ME SO BUT AGAIN I NEED THE TRAINNING THIS IS MY ADDRESSE MARK STEPHENS HUNTER,RADIO SIMBA,P.O.BOX 31564,KAMPALA,UGANDA,AFRICA EAST E.MAIL stephens@simbamail.fm
LOOKING FORWARD TO HEARING FROM YOU PLEASE