The Drum Beat 258 - United States
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This issue of The Drum Beat focuses on communication action and thinking for social development specifically in the United States of America.
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1.Playing 4 Keeps
A team of youth leaders working to create socially conscious online games that educate their peers about social and human rights issues. 7 young people gathered in a computer lab to create a test summer gaming programme. This pilot role-playing game about discrimination against teenagers is called "A Day in the Life of Zit Guy". The game takes players through a scenario in which a teenager on a hunt for "zit" (acne) cream experiences various forms of rights violations on the part of adults who, for example, accuse him of stealing. Communication strategies, such as talking the matter out with a store manager, are modeled.
Contact Global Kids, Inc. info@globalkids.org
2.Los Chidos (The Cool Ones)
A graphic novel, similar to a comic book, aiming to reach Latino men with reproductive health messages. The novel is designed to encourage men to be more involved and supportive of their partners' decision to use a contraceptive method; to increase men's knowledge of contraceptive methods (including side effects) and reproductive anatomy; and to give tips on how men can get involved in their own reproductive health and support their partner when making and sustaining family planning decisions. The graphic novels will be handed out to males who come into clinics in Oregon, to female customers to take back to their male partners, and at community outreach activities.
Contact Alexandra Lowell alowell@psipdx.org
3.Newz Crew
A website combining an interactive approach to public policy education and online learning with NewsHour content in an effort to stimulate online dialogues between youth around the United States and the world. The Newz Crew website is a place where high school students can connect with each other and learn about the current events that affect their lives. Young visitors to the site may sign up to become members of intimate discussion circles. Groups who are at a loss for words may visit a resource page for discussion ideas. Every 2 weeks a new primary news article, created by the NewsHour, is added to the site. Newz Crew also features a Teacher's Lounge that provides educators with curriculum materials related to current events and enables them to involve their classes in the site's dialogues.
Contact Jonah Kokodyniak jonah@globalkids.org OR info@newzcrew.org
4.E85 Campaign
A 6-state public awareness campaign to promote greater use of corn-based ethanol fuel, E85, as an alternative to gasoline. Wisconsin, Missouri, Colorado, Minnesota, Michigan, and Illinois are participating in the education campaign, whose strategies include direct mailings, promotional materials, and online information for retailers and consumers. The direct-mail programme, called "I Fuel Good," addresses owners of 2002 and 2003 model year GM flexible fuel vehicles by giving them a US$40 debit card that can be used to purchase E85 fuel. Owners also receive E85 informational literature, a list of E85 refueling stations in their area, a window sticker, and a T-shirt. In addition, participating GM dealers receive assistance in educating customers about the benefits of using E85. The E85 campaign website includes signs, stickers, posters, hats, keychains, and other materials available for sale.
Contact Phillip J. Lampert plampert@e85fuel.com
5.National Network for Immigrant and Refugee Rights (NNIRR)
An alliance of local coalitions and immigrant, refugee, community, religious, civil rights, and labour organisations and activists. It provides information, works to bring organisations together, and engages in advocacy efforts to the end of promoting a just immigration and refugee policy in the United States and to defend and expand the rights of all immigrants and refugees. NNIRR's strategy involves networking - convening a "community of practice" and supporting it by offering forums for sharing information and analysis, educating communities and the general public, and developing and coordinating plans of action on immigrant and refugee issues.
Contact Catherine Tactaquin ctactaquin@nnirr.org
6.Do No Harm Radio Magasine
A radio magasine on medical ethics. Produced by the USA-based Duke Center for the Study of Medical Ethics & Humanities, each edition of Do No Harm is a 1-hour-long investigation of critical topics in the field. It is broadcast on public radio stations across the United States; selected programmes may be listened to online. Broadcasts focus on moral questions that arise in the medical context, with an emphasis on the choices that patients, physicians, and the general public confront - on a routine, everyday basis, or in crisis situations.
Contact csmeh@mc.duke.edu
7.Media for Democracy 2004
An online, non-partisan citizens' action campaign. Headed by MediaChannel.org, the initiative involves monitoring mainstream news coverage of the 2004 United States presidential elections and advocating fair, democratic, and issue-oriented standards of reporting. The project is an effort to educate and activate concerned voters by delivering e-alerts - breaking news and analysis of mainstream media election coverage - to build a constituency of people across the political spectrum that can engage in dialogue with news executives when their reporting strays from best practices for fair media coverage of elections.
Contact Timothy Karr tim@mediachannel.org
8.Drumbeat: Black Media Mobilization Campaign
This multi-year initiative to mobilise the Black media against AIDS centres around the production of a newsletter - the Drumbeat - as part of an effort to foster communication and awareness about HIV/AIDS among Black members of the United States community. Available in printed and electronic format, the newsletters focus on information about HIV prevention, testing, treatment, and research; subjects like stigma, women and AIDS, homosexuality, and AIDS in Africa; and the efforts of African Americans who have taken action to fight AIDS on local regional, national, and international levels.
Contact Phill Wilson phillw@blackaids.org
9.Retired Thoroughbred Prison Programme
In 1983, the Thoroughbred Retirement Foundation (TRF) began partnering with correctional institutions throughout the United States to give young and adult prisoners an opportunity to learn how to care for "retired" horses who would have otherwise gone to slaughter. In addition to saving horses, the goal of the project is to rehabilitate prisoners by giving them new skills and knowledge, helping them find a sense of purpose, and healing emotional wounds through human-animal connection. TRF's programme also reaches out to troubled youth. In 1991, TRF established a retirement farm in partnership with Maryland's Department of Juvenile Services. Incarcerated males aged 14 to 17 - many who have experienced rough physical or emotional treatment - learn how to provide daily care and therapy for horses.
Contact trfinc@msn.com
10.The Girls Project
From USA-based nonprofit organisation Women Make Movies (WMM), a collection of films and videos centred on girls' lives around the world. Recognising the need for alternative, more complex portrayals of young women in media, WMM assembled this collection as a response, a challenge, and a call to action. Designed for use in classrooms and community centres, these works will - organisers hope - increase the visibility of girls' experiences and celebrate their individual strength and collective power to effect change. A broader purpose of The Girls Project is to bring independent media to young people, encouraging them to think of women as media makers.
Contact Wendy Cohen educate@wmm.com
11.My Voice Counts! Sex Education Campaign
Created by and for young people in the United States, this online activism campaign demands comprehensive sex education that includes information about contraception as well as abstinence. The campaign, which was launched by Advocates for Youth in 2002, brings together youth working in the field of sexual health to create a movement to fight for "honest sex education" in USA schools. The campaign's first goal was to gather 50,000 signatures on a national petition in support of comprehensive sex education. Throughout 2004, youth activists will organise community-wide conversations on sex education, using community forums, speak-outs, rallies, and media activities such as letters to the editor and press conferences - all culminating in a national advocacy day.
Contact Jonathan Stacks jonathan@advocatesforyouth.org OR questions@advocatesforyouth.org
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PULSE POLL
To increase community participation, a budget line for "research video" (digital camera + monitor) should be included in all development projects, for staff briefings, community broadcast and as a substitute for monthly reports.
[For context, please The Drum Beat 256]
Do you agree or disagree?
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12.Impact Data - Emergency Contraception Promotion Project (ECPP)
During weeks in which the EC radio advertisements aired, calls to the hotline (which was promoted in all EC messages) tripled in the Portland and quadrupled in the Sacramento area. Provider attitudes that were favourable toward ECPs increased significantly from pretest to posttest. There was an increase in the number of providers who gave advance prescriptions or supplies of EC to their patients after attending Population Services International EC trainings. In Sacramento the percentage of providers doing so rose from 15.6% at pretest to 45.5% at posttest.
13.2003 Florida Youth Tobacco Survey: Monitoring Program Outcomes in 2003
by Youjie Huang, Zhaohui Fan & Marie Bailey
The Florida Youth Tobacco Survey (FYTS) is a statewide school-based confidential survey of Florida public middle and high school students. The FYTS tracks indicators of tobacco use and exposure to second-hand smoke among these students and is a primary source of data for monitoring and evaluation of Florida's youth-focused Tobacco Control Program. This annual evaluation was administered in March-April 2003 and is organised around the broad Florida Tobacco Prevention and Control Program goals of prevention and reduction of tobacco use, and the elimination of exposure to environmental tobacco smoke.
14. A Review of Out-of-School Time Program Quasi-Experimental and Experimental Evaluation Results
by Priscilla M. D. Little & Erin Harris
"This Snapshot provides an overview of what the quasi-experimental and experimental evaluations in the [Harvard Family Research Program's Out-of-School Time Program Evaluation] [D]atabase reveal about the impact of out-of-school time [OST] programs on an array of academic, prevention, and youth development outcomes. It also includes a resource list of other OST evaluation reviews and related evaluation information..."
15.No Come Nada
by Richard S. Garcia
In this article, a Mexican American pediatrician practising in California, USA explores the issue of physician-patient/parent communication around childhood obesity. Based on his experience, he argues that sincerity, empathy, and "cultural competence" in the area of healthcare communication are not always adequate to support healthy patient outcomes.
16.E-Government and Democracy: Representation and Citizen Engagement in the Information Age
by Steven L. Clift
Commissioned to assist drafting of the United Nations World Public Sector Report, this report articulates democratic outcomes in e-government - from a United States perspective. The paper is based on the premise that local communities should have the opportunity and responsibility to use the Internet to enhance citizen participation and improve government decision-making. As the author states, this influence is based on the fact that citizens are close enough to their local governments to seek and receive real feedback on the effectiveness of online tools in their political participation. 13 case studies are provided.
17.US Teenage Sex Education Wars - Texas Style
by Amber Novak
According to this article, United States President George W. Bush spent a record US$120 million on promoting abstinence in 2003. He and other advocates of abstinence-only sex education assert that abstinence prevents teen pregnancy, that condoms do not work, and that sex outside marriage is immoral. But, from the perspective of advocates of comprehensive sex education, condoms do prevent the transmission of HIV if used properly and consistently. Texas, President Bush's home state, has the 4th highest number of reported AIDS cases in the country. During his years as state governor (1995-2000), Bush sought to curb teen pregnancy by allocating over US$6 million in state funds to support abstinence-only education. Nonetheless, the USA has the highest pregnancy rate in the developed world and in Texas 80,000 teens become pregnant every year.
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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.
Please send material for The Drum Beat to the Editor - Deborah Heimann dheimann@comminit.com
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