Gorm Media is an award-winning social enterprise on a mission to unify across differences and advance belonging for marginalised communities. Gorm's vision is to spark a movement of unity and shared understanding through innovative intercultural education, creative media, and events that captures the stories, nuances, and experiences of different and diverse people to advance social cohesion and belonging in society.
National
Ireland
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Mainly urban
It refers to other types of transformations (soft investment)
Yes
ERDF : European Regional Development Fund
EYY Micro Grant
No
Yes
As a representative of an organisation
Name of the organisation(s): Gorm Media DAC Type of organisation: Social enterprise (Designates Activity Company) First name of representative: Mamobo Last name of representative: Ogoro Gender: Female Nationality: Ireland If relevant, please select your other nationality: Ireland Function: Founder & CEO Address (country of permanent residence for individuals or address of the organisation)<br/>Street and number: Office 8, Second Floor, Rua Red Arts Centre, Blessington Rd, Tallaght Town: Dublin 24 Postal code: V94 T8R2 Country: Ireland Direct Tel:+353 89 963 9488 E-mail:mamobo@gormmedia.com Website:https://www.gormmedia.com/
Gorm’s Social Mission
Gorm Media is an award-winning social enterprise on a mission to unify across differences and advance belonging for marginalised communities. Gorm's vision is to spark a movement of unity and shared understanding through innovative intercultural education, creative media, and events that captures the stories, nuances, and experiences of different and diverse people who want to unify across cultural, social and political differences. Through our unique expertise in cross-cultural psychology and creative media, we aid in the sustainable goals of (10) reducing inequality and (16) peace justice & strong institutions.
Problem Statement:
We are becoming a more diverse society, yet we are becoming increasingly divided. For example, though 1 in 10 people in Ireland are of culturally diverse backgrounds, and that number is increased within the gen-z population, research has shown that discrimination, racism and hate is on the rise, particularly in the extremes of the political spectrum. While Ireland grapples with the new and existing multicultural reality, it is buckling under the weight of toxic polarisation, high mistrust towards the ‘other’, and out-group scapegoating—divisions that are now being exploited in online and social media spaces.
Solution Statement:
Gorm's vision is to spark a movement of unity and shared understanding. Gorm aims to address these problems by creating a digital media platform (video, TV and Film that share the stories of the “other”), engaging events (both virtual and in-person) and high-quality education that fosters belonging, espouses the idea that difference does not mean division, and fosters ways for audiences to bridge across differences.
Unity
Intercultural Education
Social Cohesion
Democracy Building
Intergroup Relations
Inclusion of different communities and the unique voices they represent and support is a key part of sustainability. To make the world a better place, communities need to work with people outside of their echo-chambers in order to reach and achieve sustainable goals. Therefor a key objective of our initiative is (through evidence based trainings & education), teach the intercultural skills needed in cultural interactions.
Key Objectives:
- Ensuring that diversity and inclusion is centre to sustainability insentives
- Teaching stakeholders intercultural skills achieving sustainable goals
- Broaden positive influence and reach.
- Bring in new strategies and perspectives to sustainability though intergroup engagement
What does it look like to bring diversity into sustainability?
It values strength in diverse voices. The results are better when there are more people involved. Collaboration is better when there are many different ideas and ways to achieving sustainable goals. More people in the communities that sustainable actions affect get to enjoy their benefits. Therefore through Gorm's expertise in intercultural education & cross-cultural psychology, through intercultural education, we support communities in effectively engaging across lines of difference to achieve sustainable goals.
Aesthetics and quality of experience for people (through design, positive emotions and cultural benefits) are met through our digital storytelling projects that highlight the voices of underrepresented communities in Ireland. For example, our 'This is "them" Project.
This is Them" aim to see through the lens of people of different social communities in Ireland. The series aims to bring in everyday community members (specifics based on age, gender, ethnicity, religion etc. depend on the episode) to take part in a series of recorded tasks/games which ultimately allow them to critically engage in issues pertaining to their community, these issues may not be known by the wider community; and presenting such activities to an public audience through digital media channels, it would allow for the wider public to critically engage with such issues and ultimately gain incite to issues going on in such social groups. The objectives of this project are to (1) make connections with local community organisations, NGOs etc; (2) produce a high quality production; (3) create impactful content that is engaging and allows the audience to critically think and positively engage with people outside their "belief bubble"; (4) allow communites who are traditionally "talked about" to own their narrative and voice.
See on : www.youtube.com/gormmedia
At Gorm Media, diversity, equity, and inclusion are at the core of who we are. Our commitment to these values guide our intercultural approach to building unity. They are central to our mission and to our impact. With an understanding that difference does not mean division, we realise that having varied perspectives helps generate better ideas to solve the complex problems of a changing and increasingly diverse world. We ensure accessibility and affordability for all to inclusive governing systems, design for all principles or new societal models by having our providing free online intercultural education (informed by our PhD level researchers & psychologists) to our community.
Gorm Media is guided by the following principles in realising our vision of unity and shared understanding:
Innovative & Creative
Intercultural and people-centred approaches
Empathic and Understanding
Committed to acting with integrity Inclusive and welcoming
Professionally organised
Inclusive Practice and Access to Education
Connected & Collaborative
Amplifying Underrepresented voices.
Key Objectives:
1. Free Mailing List Intercultural Educational Blogs (our psychologists read the latest research, practices and methods and turn it into digestible & understandable posts for our mailing list
2. Youtube Videos Explaining key concepts in intercultural Competence, Social Psychology & Diversity & Inclusion (launching March 2023)
3. People centred video & creative media content allowing underrepresented communities to use their voice and own their narrative. (see our This is "Them" Project)
4. Youth Educational/ Talent Development Programme for Ethnically diverse young adults in creative media and digital storytelling.
Citizens Benefit from the initiative in 2 ways:
1. Our Community aka Unifiers: Online and in person, online community of 7k+ engage with our educational content and creative media projects and learn to unify by engaging outside their immediate circles and belief bubbles. Our community can also attend our bi-monthly events that involve diverse stakeholders, speakers and educations.
See photos of previous events: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1RAWy8BQmg5oTdpJTdFLM97fzwZg1z3wz?usp=share_link
2. Volunteering: We attract vibrant (mainly young) volunteers (citizens, residents, refugees) who support our mission through event organisation, content creation, research and community organising. These volunteers drive our impact and vision to spark a movement of unity!
Local/ Regional Stakeholders: Inclusive such as universities, local authorities, charity partners support us in engaging with diverse communities to take part in our creative media projects and in our events. they are key in the design and implementation of the work we do.
National: State funders, Philanthropic Funding, State led mentorship support in the design of infrastructure of our projects and initiatives, these allow us to carry out appeals and campaigns that promote unity.
Cross-Cultural psychology & Creative Media (Digital Storytelling)
Cross- Cultural psychology
Cross-cultural psychology is the scientific study of human behaviour and mental processes, including both their variability and invariance, under diverse cultural conditions. Our team of PhD level psychologists apply their academic knowledge through the use of intercultural education. Intercultural education is the response to diversity aiming to go beyond passive coexistence (which breeds more prejudice and stereotyping), to achieve a developing and sustainable way of living together in intercultural societies through the creation of understanding of, respect for and α productive dialogue between the different groups. Intercultural education is valuable to all people in equipping them with skills to participate in an increasingly diverse society.
Digital Storytelling
Digital storytelling at its most basic core is the practice of using computer-based tools to tell stories. There are a wealth of other terms used to describe this practice, such as digital documentaries, computer-based narratives, digital essays, electronic memoirs, interactive storytelling, etc.; but in general, they all revolve around the idea of combining the art of telling stories with a variety of multimedia, including graphics, audio, video, and Web publishing.
Through our unique blend of expertise in the above area our team are well equipped to add value to an and increasingly diverse community in an innovative way.
Through our ongoing research project supported by the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission, we have uncovered that in the context of Ireland we are increasingly becoming aware of the multicultural reality that we now live in. However individuals still do not know how to grapple with this diversity. Therefore our creative approach to intercultural education creates an innovative solution for individuals communities organisations and government stakeholders to effectively engage across lines of differences in a healthy, accessible and inclusive way.
Founded by a then 24 year old Nigerian/Irish Social Psychology PhD Candidate & Creative, Mamobo Ogoro, our innovative approach is guided by research experts from diverse backgrounds, who not only understand how to solve this problem from an academic standpoint, but our team deeply empathises and understanding the difficulties and marginalised faced by 'othered' communities who benefit from an intercultural society.
Our intercultural education is guided by international academic research and best practices that have been confirmed in universities globally. This research has been applied to different contexts, therefore our educational solutions, content and programmes can be replicated and transferred to other contexts places & groups of beneficiaries, given its facilitation by a cross-cultural psychologist of a given location.
Likewise, Digital storytelling and creative media methodologies and practices such as Podcasts, short form content, video content, interviews et cetera can also be applied to international settings, as we have seen through social media and wider audiovisual sectors
Our Educational work is guided my much research in intercultural competence but most notably guided by Dr. Darla K. Deardorff Intercultural Competence Model. Three Key tenets of intercultural competence according to Deardorff are:
A.S.K
Attitudes: Respect, openness, curiosity and discovery. Openness and curiosity imply a willingness to risk and to move beyond one’s comfort zone. In communicating respect to others, it is important to demonstrate that others are valued. These attitudes are foundational to the further development of knowledge and skills needed for intercultural competence.
Skills: The acquisition and processing of knowledge: observation, listening, evaluating, analysing, interpreting, and relating.
Knowledge: In regard to knowledge necessary for intercultural competence, intercultural scholars concurred on the following: cultural self-awareness (meaning the ways in which one’s culture has influenced one’s identity and worldview), culture-specific knowledge , deep cultural knowledge including understanding other world views, and sociolinguistic awareness. The one element agreed upon by all the intercultural scholars was the importance of understanding the world from others’ perspectives.
GLOBAL CHALLENGE:
We are becoming a more diverse society, yet we are becoming increasingly divided. For example, though 1 in 8 people in the context of Ireland are of culturally diverse backgrounds, and that number is increased within the gen-z population, research has shown that discrimination, racism and hate is on the rise, particularly in the extremes of the political spectrum. While globally we grapple with the new and existing globalised & multicultural reality, we buckle under the weight of toxic polarisation, high mistrust towards the ‘other’, and out-group scapegoating—divisions that are now being exploited in online and social media spaces. This is leads to polarisation and ride of far-right movements.
Local solution:
Gorm Media is an intercultural media social enterprise with a mission to unify communities across differences and advance belonging for marginalised communities. Gorm's vision is to spark a movement of unity and shared understanding through innovative digital media, events and intercultural education that captures the stories, nuances, and experiences of diverse individuals who want to unify across lines of cultural, social and political differences. In aiding in the sustainable goals of (10) reducing inequality and (16) peace justice & strong institutions, we believe that common ground can be built through open conversation and shared understanding.
Since our beginning in 2022 as a grassroots organisation, we have developed into a social Enterprise that now works on two levels. We work on the bottom of the level in supporting a wide community of over 7000 online followers to learn about intercultural education through our creative media projects events and programs. On a top-down level we have worked with and are working with organisational leadership (public body & Private organisations) in their intercultural leadership and supporting them in creating diverse organisations and thus societies, we do this through speaking, seminars, workshops and we will be launching a Tailor made training programme in 2023 to deeply work with organisational in their intercultural competence.
Gorm Embodies the equip learners and educators with the European competence framework on sustainability by:
1. Equipping citizens (and non-citizens) with intercultural knowledge, skills and attitudes needed for an inclusive and socially cohesive society which positively effect a sustainable economy and society
2. Helping education and training institutions & organisations (through evidence based intercultural competence programmes) to apply intercultural practices into teaching, learning, hiring and across all aspects of their operations
3. In line with our vision of unity and shared understanding, creating a shared understanding on the deep and transformative changes needed in intercultural education and training for sustainability and the inclusive transition.
