NANM gets EU funding for social media project

Posted by Rachel Rowney, NANM programme manager

We’ve just found out that the NANM, along with a number of European partners, have been successful in their grant application to the European Union. Together we will run a programme supporting neighbourhoods with high levels of ethnic diversity use social media to improve communication between communities and with local public sector bodies.

Although we wrote the bid over a year ago now, in a very different political and economic climate, we actually think that this programme has become even more relevant. We know that social media is not only a relatively cheap method for communication, but is increasing the number of people - especially young people – that are engaging in civic society. It gives them access to information, a voice, a platform to exchange ideas and start conversations with each other. In some cases it has even been a means in which communities have developed solutions to local issue. At a time when there are likely to be fewer, formal support mechanisms for these communities social media has a potentially very important role to play but there are issues around digital inclusion and capacity. We have been impressed by the work being done in Lozells, Birmingham where the community are being poised to take over the local website and blog when the neighbourhood management team is disbanded at the end of the month.

So, in the next few months we’ll be looking to identify and work with a small number of neighbourhoods to help them drive forward the use of social media on the ground, and looking at how we could work with a wider group of stakeholders/neighbourhoods to develop the programme further.