The Global ICA Channel

By Svitlana Salamatova, Sergey Suchoboychenko
and Yuliya Kriventseva


 

Just two years after ICA Ukraine was established, it has become so well known that it has logged 2 million search results on Google. In comparison, UNICEF, which has worked in Ukraine for 23 years, got only 400,000 hits.


Going live on air
In February last year, we held a ToP methodology training for NGOs in Nikolaev, where we had set up Ukraine Social Community (USC), our first media project. USC (https://plus.google. com/u/) is an Internet channel for communities. It has a weekly 60-minute programme on leadership called “Visiting ICA Ukraine”. We have broadcast more than 35 programmes and participated in more than 50 produced by other groups. In one of our programmes, viewers participated in a live dialogue with representatives of the Ukrainian regional government. This led to the signing of a partnership memorandum on cooperation between a local community and the Kharkov region government.

In May this year, Kharkov had planned to host a delegation of mayors and city managers from Minnesota for a dialogue. It fell through because of the war. Richard and Irina Fursman of Minnesota, who had helped us establish ICA Ukraine, sent us a message in June saying Ukraine needed peace and active dialogue now more than ever. We too felt the same.

We organized a P.E.A.C.E Summit within a month. It was held at the Hilton hotel in Kiev on July 4th and 5th with 250 people from different regions of Ukraine and 14 facilitators from France, the Netherlands, Germany, Britain, the US, Taiwan and Ukraine. The topic – uniting through decentralization.


Our ability to get 250 people to the summit was due to our work with the USC channel and active presence on Facebook. In August, 50 of them organized a strategic planning session for the long-term economic development of the Cherkassy Region. It gathered more than 200 participants.

The media tools we are using can be extremely useful for ICAs in other countries as well.

The Global ICA Channel



In September, Sergey launched the Global ICA Channel . It aims to unite ICAs in various countries and help them in their organizational development. We plan to start a new program, ICA Ukraine Hosted, where we can talk about the goals of our organization, its history, achievements, projects and plans. Our idea is to introduce one ICA a week. Each of us possesses priceless experience which can be useful for all of us.

The Global ICA Channel is unique because anyone can join our program on air and participate in the dialogue. Any conference, seminar or training can be transmitted directly to this channel. That will allow us to create a powerful educational resource and help each other in developing our organizations. Each ICA which wishes to develop its organization using this media channel will be given administrator access, allowing it to develop online programmes independently.

The value of this project is that ICA members around the world can not only meet on air but also produce new ideas and projects which can help us overcome intercultural borders and barriers. We will be able to establish an active dialogue between our organizations, which will positively influence global ICA development.

The Global ICA Channel can also become an example for other multinational organizations, which are looking for innovative solutions and are also using Google+Hangouts

Google+Hangouts is a new platform integrating four projects: Google Talk, Google+ Messenger, Messaging (the standard SMS application for Android) and Google Voice. Thanks to the latest improvements, anyone who wants to use video conferencing no longer needs a g-mail account. Google is also producing a cheap Chromebook costing just US$200 per unit. These have gained 50 per cent of the educational market share in the US alone.

At our organizational meetings, we use Google Drive for creating documents and presentations. There are more than 240 million people using Google Drive today. Google+Hangouts lets us communicate through a group video conference format. You can hold group meetings, webinars and video chats. You can show other participants what you have on your computer screen. You can also share Google Drive files, make notes for the meeting and put down ideas on a common virtual board. Everything is convenient, pleasant and minimalistic.

Of course, a certain amount of skill is required. We will be happy to train you “how to become a media tycoon in your own organization”


Svitlana Salamatova (svetasalamatova@gmail.com),
Sergey Suchoboychenko (sergli2008@gmail.com) and
Yuliya Kriventseva (yulyakriventseva@gmail.com)
are NGO ICA – Ukraine members. Svitlana heads the organization, Sergey helps with online tools and media channel development, and Yuliya helps with English translation and development of other ICA Ukraine projects.





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