Community Media and your Refugee Week activities    

Brief guide ~ for the Refugee Week conference, 22 January 2010  

1. Community media - 'the media' with a difference

~ participatory - ordinary people taking part as guests / in production / in training
   = opportunities for you and your members to get involved

~ approachable - serving a local community (eg. an area, a common identity)
   = interested in all kinds of stories from your project / the work of your organisation

~ has a commitment to achieve 'social gain' (eg. social inclusion, training etc)
   = can fit well with your own aims / projects (eg. ICT, ESOL, integration etc)

~ growing - over 200 new licensed radio stations + online and short-term broadcasts
   = there should be something going on near you / within one of your networks

2. Examples

~ Refugee Week partners: 
  - British Red Cross - Look Beyond the Label podcast - downloaded and played on air
  - Brighter Futures (Save the Children) - pre-recorded interviews with young refugees
  - LEAP project (the Children's Society) in Leeds - young people took part live on East Leeds FM

~ Radio projects and reports - online sharing of material, as well as live:
  - Bolton - young people, refugees and local-born, met and interviewed each other
  - Lewisham Refugee Network - refugee women in an ESOL class talked about their lives
  - Bournemouth University student - reported on a refugee support project in Southampton
  - Soundart Radio in Devon - workshops about food (in planning for 2010)

~ Live studio guests and full shows including: 
  - Colourful Radio, London - Life with Rosemary Laryea - live guest Almir Koldzic 
  - Westside Radio - Gerdy Rees live interview - edited for playing again on other stations
  - Camden Community Radio, London - community magazine show 
  - 209 Radio, Cambridge - special programme for Refugee Week
  - Future Radio, Norwich - community show 
  - Preston FM - community show
  - 10Radio, Somerset - music show
  - Phonic FM, Exeter - music show + community show 

3. Steps:
 
a. Timescale - LONG - weeks not days in advance 
   = plan early - get talking to community media from the start of your own planning
 
b. Contact - find out who is the best person - eg. community show producer or volunteer manager
   = get to know someone who deals with both the station and the community
 
c. Talk to this contact about your ongoing work (as well as about your Refugee Week event)
   What would you be happy to do?
   ~ could you be a guest on a live radio show? 
   ~ could you take part in a pre-recorded interview or report beforehand? 
   ~ would other members of your organisation also take part?
 
   ~ if it goes well with your contact, you could also discuss wider ideas eg. training sessions, partnership 
     projects etc

4. Information links:
 
~ Community Media Association 
  
~ Ofcom list of UK community radio stations 
 
~ Refugee Week Radio - from London Link Radio, 
   Cathy Aitchison, tel: 020 8684 2445, cathy [@] londonlinkradio.net