1. Through discussion the partnership evolved based on the principles of local control; mutual benefit, and inclusiveness. The partners are the Community Education Network; L'Association Regionale de la Cote Ouest; Port au Port Economic Development Association; Stephenville Lions Club; Cormack Trail School Board; Burgeo Broadcasting System; Ramea Economic Development Corporation; Ramea Broadcasting Company; Bay St. George South Area Development Association; Long Range Regional Economic Development Board; Communication For Survival/Communiquer Pour Survivre; Sir Wilfred Grenfell College (Memorial University); College of the North Atlantic; Communities In Schools; Conservation Corps Newfoundland and Labrador, and Ryakuga. We would expect to add more partners during the replication process.
2. Sharing Our Future will utilize participatory communication tools (community television/radio and internet communication including webcasting; web boards; email and video conferencing). It will be implemented by local community communication facilitators working primarily with youth but focusing on the whole community (inclusivity and cross generational participation are important). The goal is cultural celebration and interactive discussion of local issues. To ensure sustainability, we have identified two strategies - a collaborative project management model where the facilitator will work for both Communities In Schools and SOF, and a local funding model where the facilitator will be required to raise a salary percentage in the community. Much of the training and reporting procedures for the facilitators will be adapted from the CIS Newfoundland model. We have developed job descriptions. Most of our required funding is to seed the community communications facilitators.
3. We have designed a pilot project in two phases. In year one we will work with local communication facilitators in five communities of our region (zone 9). In year two we will develop replication guides and replicate the process in two communities outside the region.
4. During the developmental stage we identified a need for community development (economic, education and communications) professionals to improve networking. We have included a program of internet communication (email, web boards and video conferencing) on a phased in (regional to Atlantic) design. Our plan to initiate discussion with other Atlantic rural communities will begin at the professional level.
5. The program will publicize itself locally but we have also developed a plan to advertise provincially and nationally. We have already begun to make contact with expatriate Newfoundlanders and link to their web sites about Newfoundland. Our webcasting strategy has been initiated with a video broadcast on the internet by Sir Wilfred Grenfell College. We plan to nationally advertise and webcast community forums from rural communities. We have consulted local press and the national magazine for Newfoundlanders.
6. The developmental stage allowed us to design a comprehensive strategy of goals, objectives and success indicators. This forms the basis for our evaluation process which is both qualitative and quantitative. The latter is informed by our reporting procedure while the former will be implemented according to the participatory evaluation guide. The evaluation committee has been identified. The evaluation process will inform the replication model and guides.
7. We modified our approach to partnership during the developmental stage. The importance of local control became apparent while it was also obvious that people were not going to give the same credence to a developmental stage proposal as a pilot project in progress (participatory communications is also more meaningful as an experience than as a presentation). This has a number of ramifications. Some of our prospective partners were slow to join the initiative. We decided to proceed with an advisory group and wait until the pilot project to establish an overall steering committee. Instead of travelling about the zone describing the initiative, we decide to model its implementation in Lourdes and Stephenville and to produce a number of Sharing Our Future community television events with a minimum of outside interference). It also became apparent we need to have a pilot project underway before we can initiate meaningful dialogue with other Atlantic groups and communities.
8. During the past six months we have experimented with emerging internet communications microtechnologies (some of the software only became available during our developmental stage). Our criteria is that the technology must be accessible and inexpensive - for the user, at least, the software should be freeware. We have experimented with two leading webcasting technologies and identified a free video conferencing software. We have produced a website; interactive web board; streaming video webservers, and we are developing a participatory web server. During our Sharing Our Future community television events in Stephenville, we plugged a web-connected computer into our participatory "portable, television studio" (POP VDO).
9. The Sharing Our Future developmental stage may be perceived as another step in the almost two decade history of participatory communications in sou'western Newfoundland. The two year pilot project will develop capacity for community learning through interactive forums throughout the region; legitimize the process provincially and nationally, and produce a replication model and guides.
10. Sharing Our Future web site: www.ryakuga.org/share
Interactive web board: www.glinx.com/~ryakuga/sharing/sharing.html
Internet videos: www.ryakuga.org/real
Participatory webserver: http://145warp76.newtel.com
Internet radio: www.ryakuga.org/live