The Drum Beat 679 - Thanking and Inviting CI Associates

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Issue #

679

Thanking and Inviting CI Associates: The Drum Beat 679

With this issue of The Drum Beat, we welcome you to 2015 by highlighting and honouring the communication for development (C4D) work of organisations that support The Communication Initiative (The CI) as CI Associates and invite you to join them in keeping The CI processes, including The Drum Beat, flourishing. Here, we acknowledge the generous support of our current CI Associates with the hope that, by reading about them and what they do, you might find something that resonates with you and/or inspires your work in new directions in 2015 and beyond.

From The Communication Initiative Network - where communication and media are central to social and economic development.

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We thank our renewing CI Associate:

Health Communication Resources (HCR)

HCR is an international not-for-profit "specialising in training grass roots community practitioners to utilise the power of community radio for positive social change. HCR's mission is to 'equip communities and partners with the skills and resources to support community transformation and well-being through community-centred radio programming'....HCR provides support at all stages of the project cycle from project development to implementation to monitoring and evaluation."

In addition to HCR, our long-time CI Associates (in alphabetical order) are:

1. Breeze FM
Operating out of Chipata, the provincial headquarters of the Eastern Zambia, Breeze FM is a public interest radio station combining education, information, news, and entertainment. Overall, content is oriented towards community and small business development.

2. Communication and Development Studies, Ohio University
Offered in the United States, this Master's degree programme "emphasizes the use of communication to promote positive social change....The 'Comm Dev' curriculum encompasses core courses that emphasize topics and proficiencies in areas that include Communication and Social Change; Development Theory; Communication Theory; Participatory Research Methods; and Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E)....[S]tudents have specialized in areas that include, among others, health communication, participatory video, the digital divide, gender and development, conflict resolution, and the political economy of media. The program encourages original research..."

3. Early Childhood Development Virtual University, University of Victoria
ECDVU offers a "multi-faceted approach to addressing Early Childhood Development (ECD) leadership needs in the Majority World. It is a unique training and capacity building programme using distributed learning methods including the internet, CD-ROM and face-to-face seminars, and is a programme of the School of Child and Youth Care at the University of Victoria." ECDVU produces a yearly publication [PDF].

4. Equal Access International
Equal Access (EA) "combines the power of media with direct community engagement to address the most critical challenges affecting people in the developing world in the areas of youth life skills & livelihoods, women's & girls' empowerment, agriculture & economic growth, health, democracy & governance, and human rights....As media makers and community dialogue facilitators, EA's ability to inspire social change is rooted in the universal tradition of storytelling."

5. iMedia Associates
United Kingdom (UK)-based international media development and communications company iMedia works with "rapidly converging media to tackle communications challenges presented by conflict, fragile governance and poverty." iMedia works with donors, non-governmental organisations (NGOs), mobile phone companies, and broadcasters in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. iMedia provides a range of consultancy services, including media assessments and specialist training, as well as management and evaluation of media interventions.

6. International Development Research Centre (IDRC)
"A key part of Canada's foreign policy efforts, IDRC supports research in developing countries to promote growth and development."

7. Internews
Having worked in over 90 countries since its formation in 1982, Internews "is an international non-profit organization whose mission is to empower local media worldwide to give people the news and information they need, the ability to connect and the means to make their voices heard....Internews trains both media professionals and citizen journalists, introduces innovative media solutions, increases coverage of vital issues and helps establish policies needed for open access to information."

Many thousands of people turn to The CI each year - from major funders to small local organisations to individuals in economically impoverished locales. Staff and others from those agencies: submit knowledge for sharing within the network; access knowledge in support of their work; identify and make contact with people and organisations that they pinpoint as being able to support their work; and express, share, and debate their views and opinions on a range of development challenges. Perhaps you have recently made use of this community of practice yourself.

The CI is largely supported and sustained by a group of partners that guide the strategic direction of the organisation. In addition, The CI is bolstered by a cadre of CI Associates. These organisations and individuals provide some level of financial support while also offering additional diversity of perspective, increased network contacts, and C4D information from which The CI network can draw upon for knowledge sharing globally and locally.

The CI Associates process is designed to enable organisations and offices that recognise the value of The CI to provide a small level of financial support for that process: from US$100 for very small organisations and individuals to US$5,000 for the larger ones. These amounts are roughly the equivalent of sending a staff member to a training event or conference, producing a small publication, researching an issue, etc.; these trip- and research-related processes are parallel to the connections made through The CI (and you get to stay home and keep working!). We welcome you to become an Associate so as to help us sustain and grow our platform in support of your work. If you have any questions, please contact Victoria Martin vmartin@comminit.com

8. Shayna Plaut
Shayna Plaut is a graduating doctoral candidate at the University of British Columbia; she will be defending her dissertation in September 2014. Her area of focus is on the intersections of journalism, human rights, and social change with people who identify with being transnational.

9. Shirley Ann Sullivan Educational Foundation (SASEF)
SASEF's mission is to "provide education to children and youth throughout the world. Through continued research of educational programs, we identify and implement solutions impacting the development of children and youth. We collaborate with youth serving organizations that support our vision in developing self-sustaining people improving the quality of life for future generations..."

10. SoChange
"SoChange is a team of experts empowering and equipping both Canadian businesses and charities to maximize their impact for social good." Its purpose is to "help you and your team to create the kind of healthy, dynamic change that makes your team better - and makes the world better."

11. Strategies for Hope Trust
"The Strategies for Hope (SFH) Trust produces books, films, and training manuals on community-based approaches to HIV prevention, care and support, especially in sub-Saharan Africa....They include, for example, the film 'What can I do?' and the 'Called to Care' toolkit, which are designed particularly for use by faith-based organisations but are also used by many secular NGOs and community groups. They also include the 'Stepping Stones' training package, including the 'Stepping Stones PLUS' manual..."

12. Temple University's School of Media and Communication (SMC)
"The mission of SMC is to provide leadership in advancing the role of communication in public life. The mission is pursued through the training of students for leadership careers in communication and media, through advancing research and creative activity in these fields and through serving the public need for free and open communication."

13. The Healthy Aboriginal Network
"The Healthy Aboriginal Network creates comic books on health and social issues for youth. Their work is innovative in that they create rough animations to focus group test their draft stories on YouTube with youth and professionals."

14. The Manoff Group
The mission of the Manoff Group is to "help families improve their wellbeing by using their own resources to practice healthy behaviors. To achieve this, we provide expertise in Social and Behavior Change (SBCC) and Knowledge Management (KM) to programs throughout the developing world."

15. The Media Studies and Journalism Department of the University of Liberal Arts Bangladesh (ULAB)
Located in Dhaka City, ULAB "aims to continuously produce graduates who are globally competitive, critical in thinking, problem solvers, excellent communicators and professional through a curriculum that is liberal arts-based and devoted to communication, journalism and media studies."

16. University of Guelph
Ontario, Canada's the University of Guelph provides "learning for local and international development education and research....The evolution of communication studies and its nexus with development studies (i.e. community development and international development) are key dimensions of our teaching. In class, we examine the fundamental principles, theoretical perspectives and practices existing currently, and historically, in the field of communication for social and environmental change."

In recognition of the value that your office or organisation gains from The CI process, please consider joining the individuals and organisations above by contributing to the growth and sustainability of The CI's social network and knowledge sharing platform. To join the above organisations in sustaining The CI/Soul Beat Africa/La Iniciativa de Comunicación, which offers you information (over 36,000 summaries with links to people and resources) and our e-magazines, including The Drum Beat, The Soul Beat, and Son de Tambor, please click here or contact Victoria Martin at vmartin@comminit.com

Thank you!

This issue of The Drum Beat was written by Kier Olsen DeVries.

The Drum Beat is the email and web network of The Communication Initiative Partnership - Partners: ANDI, BBC Media Action, Bernard van Leer Foundation, Breakthrough, Calandria, Citurna TV, DFID, Eldis, FAO, Fundación Imaginario, Fundación Nuevo Periodismo, Heartlines, Iberoamericano (FNPI), IFPRI, Inter-American Development Bank, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health Center for Communication Programs, MISA, Open Society Foundations, Oxfam Novib, PAHO, The Panos Institute, Puntos de Encuentro, The Rockefeller Foundation, SAfAIDS, Sesame Workshop, Soul City, STEPS International, UNAIDS, UNDP, UNFPA, UNICEF, USAID, The Wellcome Trust, World Health Organization (WHO), W.K. Kellogg Foundation. The Drum Beat seeks to cover the full range of communication for development activities. Inclusion of an item does not imply endorsement or support by The Partners. Chair of the Partners Group: Garth Japhet, Founder, Soul City garth@heartlines.org.za Executive Director: Warren Feek wfeek@comminit.com

The Editor of The Drum Beat is Kier Olsen DeVries.
Please send additional project, evaluation, strategic thinking, and materials information on communication for development at any time. Send to drumbeat@comminit.com The Drum Beat seeks to cover the full range of communication for development activities. Inclusion of an item does not imply endorsement or support by The Partners. To reproduce any portion of The Drum Beat, click here for our policy. To subscribe, click here. To unsubscribe, please send an email to drumbeat@comminit.com with "Unsubscribe" in the subject line.

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