Radio V.I.T.A. (Voices In The Air) is an Erasmus+ project yield by four organizations based in France, Spain and Austria motivated by their love for radio and their belief that it constitutes a powerful communication tool.
In the frame of this project, we are working with people who face discriminations (migrant people, women, seniors…) and whose points of view are not represented today in mainstream media. This project represents an opportunity for them to be empowered and express themselves during workshops by sharing their stories with peers while developing soft skills. From training sessions to the final recording of a radio show, workshops will be driven by collective reflections and by the practice and explanation of radiophonic methods. The radio show that will arise from their conversations will tackle preconceptions, stereotypes and prejudices about discriminated groups, and will thus help developing more inclusive societies. The different European actors of this project are convinced that people of different cultural background have a lot of richness to exchange, while the prevailing speeches in media are based on distrust.
The joint creation of a radio program is in a way a pretext for a meeting. The microphone releases the speech, and it serves as a memorial tool for the participants of the workshops. It is an opportunity to create a constructive dialogue, to question our daily environment and to address some taboos or overlooked topics related to social empowerment.
V.I.T.A. will set a new methodology to use the radio not only as a means for self-expression and representation but also as a creative way to address topics linked to social empowerment such as empowerment, equality, interculturality, identity, values and democratization process.
Our main objectives are:
- To promote the social empowerment of discriminated people through empowerment and the fight against stereotypes, from their own perspective and stories, with the use of radiophonic techniques.
- To support individuals in acquiring and developing skills and competences that they will be able to use afterwards.
- To generate radio and media content to raise awareness about discriminations in society with special attention paid to ageism, gender inequalities and other kinds of discriminations such as those based on sexual orientation or origin.
- To extend and develop the competences of educators and other personnel who support adult learners by providing a complete set of tools to easily reproduce the V.I.T.A. experience with their own groups. We will also provide them with the necessary theoretical background to better address key topics of social empowerment.