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[Closed] Call for Participants: ‘Training of Trainers’ for Journalists and Other Media Professionals

This call is for journalists and other media professionals from the European Union who are interested in enhancing their training expertise and workshop design and development skills to deliver knowledge to peers, students, organisations, newsrooms, and other beneficiaries.

Tactical Tech’s Exposing the Invisible project is offering a free online Training of Trainers (ToT) program spanning from the end of March until the end of June 2022, including:

  • interactive sessions with expert trainers,
  • hands-on practice,
  • mentoring,
  • access to self-learning materials and tools
  • networking and collaboration with like-minded participants.

Exact session schedules and timelines will be arranged with selected participants.

The program is open to journalists and other media professionals (freelance or affiliated to newsrooms, NGOs, etc.) from the following EU regions/countries: Baltic states (Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania), the Visegrád Four (Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia), and Southern Europe (Greece, Italy, Spain).

The ToT program is part of the “Collaborative and Investigative Journalism Initiative” (CIJI), carried out in partnership by Reporters Without Borders (RSF), Free Press Unlimited (FPU) and Tactical Tech (TT), which aims to support journalists to conduct safer cross-border, cross discipline research and investigations.


The ToT program will include

  • training, mentoring and learning resources on skills and methods of workshop facilitation and workshop design - aiming to equip you with methods, tools and best practices for training others
  • thematic sessions to learn how to apply the acquired skills to specific topics and areas relevant to journalistic and investigative practices, such as safety and risk management, digital investigation techniques, methods of working with human sources, etc. 
  • practice sessions where you can apply your newly acquired skills by testing workshop curricula provided by Tactical Tech and / or creating your own.

By attending this online ToT program, you will learn how to best apply research and resources on investigative techniques, digital safety and other related topics - such as those included in the Exposing the Invisible project, and more - in your specific context, as well as develop best practices in adult learning / teaching methods, workshop design and development both for online and offline environments. There will also be time for skill-sharing with other participants, collaborative sessions and access to a trainer’s kit to make use of after the training. 

Please note: You do not need to have any specific digital safety or tech-related skills to join this program. The training and workshop preparation and facilitation skills you’ll learn can be used in many different contexts, including soft skills and non-technical workshops.


Apply if you

  • are a journalist or other media professional who wishes to develop their training and workshop design skills to share knowledge with others;
  • are working in one of the following EU regions/countries: Baltics (Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania), the Visegrád Four (Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia), Southern Europe (Greece, Italy, Spain);
  • have developed experience in journalism, investigation and research on issues of public interest and you are now interested in acquiring knowledge, skills and competencies to further transfer your knowledge to others in your communities and networks;
  • wish to connect and share knowledge with a network of experienced trainers, investigators and practitioners and meet like-minded peers;
  • are advanced or fluent in spoken and written English as well as in at least one of the languages of the above-mentioned countries (ToT sessions will take place in English);
  • have an interest in or work on local/regional issues and have fewer opportunities to access cross-national collaboration and skill-sharing events.

You can expect to be part of

  • Training of Trainers and mentoring on generic methods and skills related to workshop design and delivery to various audiences, as well as on specific topics such as safety and security for investigations, digital investigation methods, collaborative investigations, managing sources and much more;
  • Skill-sharing among participants, and practice-based sessions to test workshop curricula and new resources you can use in your own post-program work and trainings;
  • Networking with peers and opportunities to start new collaborations across topics and borders;
  • Access to our CIJI regional network for collaboration and peer-support facilitated through the following three media hubs: OBC Transeuropa from Italy, the Baltic Center for Investigative Journalism (Re:Baltica) from Latvia, and Fundacja Reporterow (FR) from Poland.

Dates and times

The online workshop sessions and events will be divided in several short series:

  • The first series, which will provide you with the essential training methodology and workshop design skills and tools will take place across 5 days, between 28 March - 15 April 2022, with a maximum of 3 hours a day for live meetings/workshops.
  • Follow-up workshops focused on applying participants’ acquired training skills to specific investigation topics and methods will take place throughout May-June 2022.
  • In between workshops and meetings, additional expert mentoring and networking with peers will take place.

Language

The sessions will be in English and require a good command of the language.

Application form

CLOSED


Selection process

We aim to bring together 60 participants, with approximately 20 participants from each of the above-mentioned regions.

Shortlisted applicants will be contacted for further information and possibly brief videocalls with the organizers between 9 - 20 March 2022.

Please note: this training course provides a free learning and collaboration opportunity, and we cannot provide stipends or grants for attending the online training sessions.

Contact

Please reach out to us with any questions about the application process and/or the project by writing to: eti-at-tacticaltech.org (GPG Key / fingerprint: BD30 C622 D030 FCF1 38EC C26D DD04 627E 1411 0C02).

About the project

This call and collaboration is part of a one-year long EU-funded pilot project called the “Collaborative and Investigative Journalism Initiative” (CIJI), which will equip independent media outlets and individual journalists with resources, innovative networking infrastructure and standards-based methods that enable them to practice high-quality, ethical and accountable collaborative and investigative journalism. CIJI is carried out in partnership by Free Press Unlimited, jointly with Reporters Without Borders and Tactical Tech and aims to become a network-based initiative that promotes ethical standards, offers training and capacity building opportunities and a fora for collaboration and peer-support. CIJI is currently being developed in the following regions and countries: Baltic states (Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania), the Visegrád Four (Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia), and Southern Europe (Greece, Italy and Spain.)

About Tactical Tech and Exposing the Invisible

Tactical Tech is an international non-profit organisation that engages with citizens and civil-society organisations to explore and mitigate the impacts of technology on society. Exposing the Invisible is a Tactical Tech project that develops resources, training and collaborations promoting investigation as one of the most important forms of public engagement.



The Training of Trainers is part of a one-year project co-funded by the European Commission under the Pilot Project: "Supporting investigative journalism and media freedom in the EU" (DG CONNECT).

This text reflects the author’s view and the Commission is not responsible for any use that may be made of the information it contains.