About Video Volunteers
Community media – media that is of, for and by communities
Video Volunteers (VV) is working to create an alternative media landscape in which thousands of people around the world, living in slums and villages, are producing high quality video content that brings awareness to communities and empowers them to take action.
We create models of sustainable, locally owned media, and devise training programs that give communities the journalism, critical thinking and creative skills to run them. The result is communities, especially illiterate ones, that are empowered with a voice and platforms to dialog and solve problems; new creative content that shows the rest of the world how the world appears to its poorest citizens; and proven ideas for bringing the poorest of the poor across the digital divide.
History
The organization was started in 2003 by Jessica Mayberry as a project of the Creative Visions Foundation, and it is now led jointly by Stalin K. and Jessica Mayberry. Video Volunteers is registered as a non-profit company (501c3) in New York and Video Volunteers-India is registered as a Public Charitable Trust in Goa. Since 2006 we have trained over 200 people as Community Producers and Community Correspondents.
Awards
Our work has earned us several awards including the prestigious Manthan Award South Asia ‘09 and grants from the Knight News Challenge and the Echoing Green Foundation. Video Volunteers has also won a 2006 Tech Museum Award and the NYU Stern Business School Social Business Plan Competition in 2008. Video Volunteers is active in the US, India, and Brazil and has done projects in other places such as Africa.
Mission
Our mission is to empower the world’s poorest citizens to participate in the community media movement so they can right the wrongs they witness and become players in the global media revolution. Providing disadvantaged communities with the journalistic, critical thinking and creative skill they need, we create financially self-sustaining, locally-owned grassroots projects that teach people to articulate and share their perspectives on the issues that matter to them, on a local and a global scale.
Programs
Our main programs include Community Video Units, IndiaUnheard – Community News Service, Community Radio, Girl Powered Videos, Videoshala and Videos for Livelihood.
All of these programs are providing disadvantaged communities with the journalistic, critical thinking and creative skill that will all them to articulate and share their perspectives on a local and a global level.
We are currently recruiting more community activists for our IndiaUnheard – Community News Service. Click here if you want to join this network or if you want to nominate someone to it. The deadline for applications is 15th October 2010.
Impact
Video Volunteers’ programs have also created great impact and have helped local communities find solutions to their specific problems. Click here to watch a video on our latest impact story. However, we continue to work to empower more communities to raise their voices and lead, connect and change, to not only better their lives, but to make a better place for all.