Inclusion Through Media

Inclusion Through Media (ITM) is a major programme of work costing £4.3 million, funded 50% through Round Two of EQUAL.

EQUAL is the European Social Fund’s ‘laboratory’ for testing innovative ways to promote employability, entrepreneurship and engagement in lifelong learning, especially for people disadvantaged in the labour market.

ITM is a “Development Partnership”, led by Hi8us Projects and including 25 UK partners and 6 European (transnational) partners. In the UK, 12 projects will be run, primarily in London, Birmingham and Leeds. An additional 6 projects are planned with our transnational partners.

ITM aims to provide increased opportunities to marginalised people who have failed in, or have been failed by mainstream education and training. It seeks to give them the means to overcome social exclusion and to develop the skills to work in the media industry. ITM will also support employers in the media sector to enable them to engage with socially excluded people.

ITM’s planned programme, which is constantly developing, includes:
Collaborations between international directors and young people from London’s East End on a series of short films.
Interactive drama developing Hi8us’s innovative EDRAMA software.
New applications of L8r, an interactive soap opera broadcast by the BBC, in which young people address issues around teenage parenthood and relationships.
Productions with young people from East Leeds, one of the largest areas identified for regeneration in Yorkshire.
A scheme to develop sound and music for the screen, with a particular focus on visually impaired musicians, developed by Musicians in Focus.
A digital storytelling scheme delivered by Mental Health Media.
Audience development and distribution for work by young people.
DigiTales, a digital storytelling project with our transnational partners across Europe.

WHEN DOES IT HAPPEN?

ITM was approved on 9th September, 2004. Since then, Hi8us has been seeking and working with partners to develop a full programme of work, both in the UK and in Europe. This phase of the programme is known as ‘Action 1’, which completed on 30th June 2005.

We are now entering ‘Action 2’, in which the partners will deliver their programme of work individually and together, sharing their results as the projects progress over a two year period. Action 2 completes in July 2007.

‘Action 3’ of ITM begins in September 2005. This phase is for ‘dissemination and mainstreaming’ – getting our results out to those who can effect change for the better. This includes employers, other practitioners, policy makers and funders.

Our key partner for Action 3 is Creative Clusters, the reknowned annual conference and networking event for creative industry development people from around the world. It provides a major platform in front of leading policy makers and practitioners in the creative industries. Inclusion Through Media is a Creative Clusters Conference theme over the life of the partnership, until December 2007. This year’s conference takes place in Belfast from 24th – 26th October.

LINKS

UK Production Partners

Creative Clusters – www.creativeclusters.com
Mental Health Media – www.mhmedia.org
Musicians in Focus – www.musiciansinfocus.org
PAL – www.pallabs.org

Transnational Partners

http://www.multicultural.net - On Line: More Colour in the Media network (The Netherlands) (Transnational co-ordinators)
http://www.miramedia.nl - Miramedia (The Netherlands)
http://www.debalie.nl - De Balie (The Netherlands)
http://www.prointecra.de - Prointegration, Germany
http://www.yle.fi - YLE Finish Broadcasting Company, Finland
http://www.acec.sk - Living Together, Slovakia
http://www.dimitra.gr - Dimitra, Greece

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