On February 4th, activists from a group of civil society organizations from the Eastern and Southeastern regions, at a workshop in Shtip, began their training for the production of media content for the Local Community Media.

Citizen activists, organized by the RESIS Institute from Skopje, learned how to generate local topics worth publishing, how to think in researching the topics, how to support their stories and analyses, which are the possible sources they should consult to report comprehensively on the topic and what are the basic ethical issues they should take into account when creating and publishing the story.

The workshop, which was conceived and led by experienced journalists Vesna Kolovska and Vane Trajkov, was attended by 13 representatives from 10 civil organizations from the two regions: KHAM Delčevo, Bravura Cooperative - Delčevo, Association of people with vision imparement - Shtip, Mobility - Kočani, Educational Humanitarian Organization - EHO - Shtip, Women's Organization - Strumica, Polymat 13 - Bogdanci, Mobility - Strumica, Regional Center for Sustainable Development - RCOR - Gevgelija and Women's Action - Radovish.

Under the mentorship of the trainers, the activists of these civic organizations, in the next few months will create stories of importance for their local community, with particular emphasis on the problems faced by the vulnerable groups living in these two regions.

The workshop is part of a broader effort by the RESIS Institute to develop pluralism in the media sphere and in general to develop plural democracy – efforts that include building and strengthening neglected sectors within the media domain.

This marks the beginning of the second phase of the implementation of the project Encouraging civic engagement in local governance - LocalActiveMedia, whose goal is to improve access to the public sphere of vulnerable groups of citizens, through penetration to the public of issues related to their communication rights.

Earlier, within the framework of this project, Mapping of the communication habits, knowledge, needs, and interests of vulnerable groups of citizens in the Eastern and Southeastern regions was carried out, the findings of which will soon be published on the #LocalActive platform.

RESIS activities are carried out with the local support of the Local Community Development Foundation – Stip, and the project is supported by the non-profit foundation from the USA National Endowment for Democracy (NED). The event was held at the Civic Resource Center in Shtip.