Training for leaders of public opinion in Veliki Preslav town
From August 31 to September 4, in Veliki Preslav, we conducted the second pilot training for public opinion leaders – MOLA, which colleagues from the Health and Social Development Foundation (HESED) developed for the ACTIon project. Participants in the training this time were boys aged 13-14, and the topic we analyzed was bullying at school, on the stand reet, and in the community. They made several videos on the subject, which they will share on social networks in the coming days. We are excited to see the finished materials, and how they will be perceived by their peers and friends. Each of them shared personal experiences: that they themselves were the object of harassment or witnessed it, incl. and on the Internet or in general chats when they were online in virtual classrooms. What is certainly missing is to talk about the subject. To know how to react, what help and where to seek. It is obvious that they spend a lot of time online. Their time is spent watching videos on TikTok (a fast-growing network) and YouTube. But “a large part of these videos don’t work” – shared the boys. “You look at one thing, then another, then another, and another. and more…. And you haven’t realized how hours have passed in watching.” Each of them has favorite authors because “they are funny”, “they teach me how to do…”, “I like his music”, they say. Two of them have even created their own YouTube channel and want to get serious about video production. But how to do it successfully? and above all – how to make the content of their videos useful and meaningful is a topic we discussed during the training.
We will see in the coming weeks what results the youth will achieve, and how the messages they chose to send to their peers and younger youth will be perceived.
ACTION is an Erasmus+ educational project that aims to improve the digital skills of young people in different social contexts and different learning environments (offline and online), encouraging participants to become active online citizens.
MOLA stands for “Opinion Leader Activation Model”. The key to this working model is to identify and train so-called “Opinion Leaders” – popular and well-liked members of the community who then influence the behavior and attitudes of other members of their group, thereby changing social norms within their community as a whole. MOLA – was developed by HESED with the idea that leaders can influence the behavior and attitudes of their friends and peers online.
The program was first piloted in Targovishte in June, and at the end of September-October, we will present it to teachers, social and youth workers from Shumen and Targovishte districts.
More about the ACTIon project – Promoting active citizenship through civic education and active online participation can be found on the website: https://www.erasmus-action.eu/
The project is financed by the European program: “Erasmus+”, KD3 Social inclusion through education
Project partners:
Nexus Institute for Management Cooperation and Interdisciplinary Research e.V, (nexus) Germany (Coordinator)
Health and Social Development Foundation (HESED), Bulgaria
Open Space Foundation (OSF), Bulgaria
ALL DIGITAL, Belgium
Action Synergia S.A., Greece
Coalition of Youth Organizations (SEGA), North Macedonia
