Basseterre, St. Kitts (SKNIS): Fifteen members of the Volunteer Corps’ Media Team are undergoing a series of training to enhance their skill and understanding of video recording and editing, photography, social media, copyrighting, graphic design, and information reporting.
The training started on February 06 and is held several times per week. All of the students attend the main session on Saturdays where general concepts are covered. Courses in the various classes are then held throughout the week for members assigned to respective areas such as photography, news reporting, and others mentioned above. The classes are conducted by industry professionals.
Director of Youth Empowerment Pierre Liburd said that this training is the most in-depth session to date as the department seeks to employ a more robust promotional strategy for its programmes and activities. Corps members usually work alongside the department to document undertakings such as beach clean-ups, tree plantings, workshops, and more.
“It is pretty much a boot camp format so there is a lot of information shared in a short space of time,” Mr. Liburd stated, noting that COVID-19 protocols impacted the pace of the training sessions.
The main partner in this initiative is Naadiya Mills of Food for Creative Souls. Ms. Mills has a relationship with a US-based company that provides mentors to work virtually with the youth volunteers.
Mr. Liburd noted that the partnership is very fruitful with plans to continue strengthening the relationship with ongoing collaborations. This is particularly important as new volunteers are inducted into the Corps every year.
At the close of the course, slated for the end of March 2021, the media team will host and produce a Livestream on Facebook. The 15 volunteers will share stories about the intense training experience during the online broadcast.
