Community Profiles -Taking It Global
Jo Anne Tacorda, Office Manager and Nick Yeo, Development and Communications Coordinator for TakingITGlobal
What is your organization about?
TakingITGlobal is an international non-profit youth organization that provides a portal for young people to find inspiration, access information and get involved in improving their local and global communities through the use of web-based tools. Our mission is to provide opportunities for learning, capacity-building, cross-cultural awareness and self-development through the use of Information and Communication Technologies. As a charity, we work with global partners that include United Nations agencies, major companies and youth-focused organizations. Our projects with these partners provide additional opportunities for over 185, 000 of our members to engage in a range of global issues.
How or did your organization form?
Rollerblading down Parliament Hill in Ottawa, while attending a youth conference, Michael Furdyk, the Director of Technology and Finance and Co-founder, and Jennifer Corriero, the Executive Director and Co-founder were reflecting on their different youth programs. They both have been lucky to have had some amazing opportunities – from participating in various programs, attending different conferences, working on unique community and web-based projects, to starting companies. They began to think “why can’t more young people find out about and get involved in these types of initiatives? If they could create spaces that fostered inspiration, information and involvement among youth, what would it look like?” The answer to these questions, combined with a passion for technology and a desire to foster global community, created TakingITGlobal.
What drives your programming?
Our programming is driven by our dedication and belief in our mission and vision. Our vision is to have a world where young people are more inspired, informed and involved in their communities on local, national and international levels. To help achieve this our programming provides opportunities for learning, capacity-building, cross-cultural awareness and self-development among young people through participation in activities, programs and projects
What type of programming do you offer?
TakingITGlobal’s five main program areas are Online Engagement, Organizational Partnerships, Local Engagement, Issue Based Initiatives and Education Programs. In each case, TakingITGlobal leverages its expertise to open up the venues of discussion and action for socially conscious youth around the world.
TakingITGlobal’s flagship program TakingITGlobal.org acts as the foundation for our online engagement initiative. TakingITGlobal supports young people in being a force for change both in the present and in the future, leveraging the power of social networks and digital media as tools for learning, collaboration, dialogue, and action. The TakingITGlobal toolset is unique among online civic engagement platforms for youth, combining basic social networking functionality such as profiles, blogs, discussion boards with project planning and organizational engagement tools, as well as rich information resources and databases on a range of issues. TakingITGlobal has more than 185,000 members and 2 million hits per day
In terms of organizational partnerships, TakingITGlobal has leveraged its technology and youth engagement expertise to support the work of a number of organizations including; Greenpeace, Oxfam, Free the Children, Journalists for Human Rights, Youth Challenge International, Global Youth Service Day, UN International Polar Year, Diamond Road Online, IDRC’s telecentre.org, UNICEF and United Nations Associations of both USA and Canada. Collaborations with partners have involved customizing and integrating TakingITGlobal’s interactive online tools in order to better achieve development outcomes.
Our local engagement programs recognize that, along with online activities, local engagement is also relevant and important to helping develop youth in effective leaders and global citizens. Our primary local engagement program is Creating Local Connections Canada (CLC) and Creating Local Connections West Africa (CLCWA). Both programs connect youth to youth-serving and/or youth-led organizations so that resources could be shared, duplication of efforts could be eliminated and a large-scale network of like-minded groups could be created. Creating Local Connections (CLC) supports local partners to develop youth information resources, support independent youth media initiatives, and offer training and capacity-building for youth leaders. CLC Canada is taking place across Canada and CLCWA is Operating in Sierra Leone, Nigeria, Guinea, Cote d’Ivoire, and Liberia. Additional local capacity building initiatives have taken place through the use of guidebooks and training materials developed by TakingITGlobal. For example, Open Forums on Youth Participation have been facilitated in Kenya, Sri Lanka, Singapore, Jordan, Egypt and China.
Our forth program consists of Issue-Based Initiatives. In 2004 TakingITGlobal worked with United Nations Millennium Campaign and the Global Youth Action Network to empower young people to join in global efforts to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) through guiding young people interested in organizing local, MDG-related campaigns with relevant tools such as an interactive web-portal, http://mdg.TakingITGlobal.org/ and publications. Another significant initiative was in 2006 when Toronto hosted the XVI International AIDS conference. TakingITGlobal helped to recruit and support the involvement of 1,000 youth delegates, served as a member of the Toronto YouthForce Organizing Committee, led the YouthForce Media and Communications Task Force, designed and managed the conference Youth Pavilion, the official AIDS 2006 youth web site, produced a 25 minute documentary on youth participation at AIDS 2006 and held eCourses and Open Forum events in partnership with the Global Youth Coalition on HIV/AIDS to strengthen youth perspectives and representation at AIDS 2006. A third example is when TakingITGlobal partnered with UNESCO and the Salesforce.com Foundation to develop an initiative called “Language as Violence, Violence as Language” in 2005 where digital media workshops culminuated culminated in the creation of a creative magazine, an online art collection, a short multimedia video, and an interactive webpage
Our fifth and final program is our Education Programs. In 2006 TakingITGlobal for Educators (TIGed.org) was launched to deliver rich, interactive global learning experiences to classrooms around the world. A unique portal that is nested within TakingITGlobal.org, TIGed brings global perspective to the most innovative applications of educational technology and online social networking to create relevant, engaging, and student-centered learning.
What are some of your success stories?
Below are some excerpts from our “Member Stories” where our members let us know how TakingITGlobal has affected their lives:
Last year I was ranked as the third most active member on TakingITGlobal. It always gives me a reason to go back and to continue exploring and contributing to the community. One of my proudest achievements is having my “Npower,” be an inspiration to many other projects now tagged under the “Nigerian Dream.” I have begun to see TakingITGlobal as an academy of leaders-in-waiting and as the master key to the global village.
Akinbo A. A. Cornerstone (pscornerstone)
Male, 25 from Ile-Ife, Nigeria
Joined TIG: July 20, 2004
Through TakingITGlobal, I have mostly been contributing to Panorama, as my biggest passion is writing. I have become more knowledgeable about global issues like the environment, poverty and the MDGs, different cultures and religions, and how I could personally make a difference. It gives me so much hope and inspiration just to know that a network like TakingITGlobal exists, where thousands and thousands of youth making change in all corners of the world can connect with each other.
Laura Müller (Mullertime)
Female, 27 from Chihuahua, Mexico
Joined TIG: November 24, 2005
By supporting language and translation, people can promote their unique culture and share experiences with other nations! My dream is to contribute to this process and TakingITGlobal, which is now available in 12 languages, has been a great platform to support this goal. It is wonderful that I can contribute to the content on TakingITGlobal in Russian and translate the information and resources on the site in order to make them accessible to Russian-speaking members, who can then use them to get informed and involved.
Olga Pavolva (Roness)
Female, 22 from Kemerovo, Russia
Joined TIG: May 29, 2005
It’s really inspiring when I see what some of the TIG members have done, and it’s reassuring to see such a large number of young, global-minded people who care about the world. There are Iraqi youth who are really passionate about certain issues, but they haven’t been taking action because they don’t know how and this is where TakingITGlobal can have the most impact in our country.
Mohammed Jaafar Saeed (Hammodi)
Male, 24 from Baghdad, Iraq
Joined TIG: April 17, 2004
What are struggles do you feel youth your organization services are facing?
One of the major struggles for youth has to do with access to information. Restrictions to information include things like lack of money making education unaffordable to many. TakingITGlobal aims to support youth by providing a free internet portal where they can access a plethora of resources.
What would your organization ultimately like to accomplish?
TakingITGlobal’s vision is to see that Youth everywhere are inspired, informed and actively involved in shaping our world. To help realize this we aim to strengthen the capacity of young people as leaders and stakeholders, foster cross-cultural dialogue and understanding and increase awareness and involvement in global issues through the use of Information and Communication Technologies.
What projects are your presently planning?
TakingITGlobal is currently involved with 2 major international conferences, both taking place in August 2008: the 4th World Youth Congress (Quebec City) and the XVII International AIDS Conference (Mexico City). In both instances, our focus is on youth engagement around critical global issues. At WYC, 600 young people will be celebrating youth-led development, which is fast becoming accepted as an important facet of international development projects. At IAC, 2000 young people and delegates will be discussing and advocating a youth-centric agenda surrounding HIV/AIDS. Both are crucial opportunities for young people to have their voices heard.
Additionally, TakingITGlobal will be developing a 3-year project to deliver e-courses on youth leadership and project management, in a partnership with the Pearson Foundation. By providing young people with the opportunity build their capacity to lead organizations and projects, TakingITGlobal will not only use the latest technologies to accomplish this, but at the same time, perhaps develop a new pedagogy.
Fore more information visit www.takingitglobal.org
