PowerTools Training in Russia Starts with Participant Needs

By Dr. Kristen Ali Eglinton, Kathryn Weenig (MSW), Jackie Usibelli, and Alberte Knudsen

In the fall of 2020 Footage was awarded a Public Diplomacy Award from the US Embassy in Moscow to provide evidence-based training, using Footage’s impact-driven storytelling methodologies, across Russia’s Core Region and Siberia. After an early brain-storming session at Footage, and in collaboration with our Russian colleagues, the original title “Gender-based-violence, equality and storytelling: Training and empowerment for Russian organizations” quickly became, “PowerTools: Using the power of storytelling to end GBV and promote equality across Russia.”

We were set to begin.

The goal of PowerTools was to build capacity among Russian organizations and collectives as a means of mitigating gender-based violence (GBV) in local communities; we aimed to do this by engaging Russian organizations and collectives in a series of cutting-edge online training sessions focused on the power of storytelling in ending the growing pandemic of GBV.

Disseminating Footage’s theory of change, which demonstrates the power of connection and compassion, and adapting Footage’s GBV educational toolkit and award-winning storytelling methods, between April and June of 2021 online interactive training sessions were successfully provided to those working with the most silenced young women in Russia — including young women subject gender-based violence, social isolation, and myriad inequities.

Outcomes from the sessions are published separately as here we want to focus on the process of adapting Footage’s materials, and in particular on one profoundly important first step: conducting a needs assessment across the Russian regions taking part in training. Specifically, in order to build a relevant and impactful training program, we created and implemented a survey which sought to: 1) understand more about the working contexts, challenges, training capacity needs, and populations these collectives and organizations served; 2) develop a clearer picture of the needs and risks of working in the area of gender equity and gender-based violence in these regions; and, 3) gain a broad view of the GBV and inequality landscape in Russia.

The design of the survey was led by PowerTools Program Director Dr. Kristen Ali Eglinton with the Footage team including Impact Manager Kathryn Weenig (MSW), Research and Operations Interns Jackie Usibelli and Alberte Knudsen, and our Russian Program Administrator. Building the survey was an iterative collaborative process, which included a series of drafts, all translated and sent to our local Russian Coordinators for comment, further contextualization, and improved iterations. The final digital survey was created and distributed via Survey Monkey; it consisted of 20 questions ranging from multiple choice to short answer.

While this survey first went to a wide swath of organizations and collectives across the two regions, we ultimately decided to focus only on those organizations and collectives who committed to the training. Though 21 collectives and organizations were represented in our training, 15 surveys were completed and analyzed.

Due to the sensitive nature of this work, we only offer a snapshot of the results including:

Demographics of Survey:

Participants by region: 60% Siberian, 20% Central, 10% Northwest, and 10% Far East Region.

Majority of respondents indicated that majority of women they serve affiliated with organization identified as Christian or Islam, followed by Buddhist, Jewish, and other religions

Majority of women they served fell within the 18–45 age range

Select Central Themes:

Main problems faced by women in organization, most primarily women they serve, ranked:

1. GBV;
2. Social Isolation, Lack of healthcare, Unemployment/economic problems, and Power inequality;
3. Migrant status, Human trafficking, Lack of education, and Lack of leadership opportunities.

Most common risks associated with participating in training for organizations: rejection by family.

Most common effect from COVID for organizations participating in training: financial difficulties

Most common desire from training:

Forging new partnerships and ways to achieve funding. As one participant wrote, “fundraising in the context of public policy on the part of the state and non-profit ways for obtaining funding for individuals”

Other common themes included: lack of time to take the training.

Adapting Footage’s materials for training was also aided by extensive desk research, including report and literature searches on the current state of affairs with respect to GBV and inequality in Russia, specifically in the Core and Siberian regions. The desk research covered: lived experiences, specific populations (e.g., migrant), GBV, inequality, mental health, policy, current events, as well as more scholarly outputs. This research, in addition to our needs assessment survey, and Footage’s direct experience working in the region (this was Footage’s sixth Public Diplomacy Award focusing on the Post-Soviet space) fed directly into our training resources and sessions.

In addition to offering a broad understanding of the participating organizations’ needs, risks, and, for example, populations, and ensuring sessions reflected the findings, the needs assessment survey led to including specific aspects of our design and resources including, but not limited to:

Responding to funding and partnership needs:

• A section was added to our resources pack on funding and partnerships.
• Invited speakers discussed partnership building/potential and funding.
• Footage implemented a small grant competition at the end of the training for interested organizations to implement one or more of the methods learned in the training as a mini-project in their own setting.

Ensuring training access:

• We worked across several time zones, used simultaneous translation, and on the east coast in the USA some sessions were delivered between 12.30–3am EST in order to ensure we reached the Russian Far East.
• We held weekly “office hours” which offered all participants the opportunity for further discussion outside the scheduled sessions.

The final evaluations of the PowerTools program are, indeed, outstanding. In fact 100% of the 32 participants agreed that they feel ready to lead PowerTools activities in their own organizations.

Commencing PowerTools with a needs assessment not only ensured we built and delivered a deeply relevant, culturally sensitive, and appropriate program, but was key to knowing how to open up access as well as to co-creating a compassionate program that had the participants’ voices, lived experiences, and needs at the center.

For more information on PowerTools, our needs assessment, and impact contact Dr. Kristen Ali Eglinton kae@footageproject.org

Footage Foundation “Footage” (footageproject.org) is on a mission, raising voices to elevate lives through creative research, media arts, and the science of storytelling. Footage is an international NGO founded in 2009 by five women PhD colleagues from Cambridge University. It is a feminist organization that designs evidenced-based, sustainable programs using local technology and expressive media to empower young women and build multilateral collaborations — all the while, advancing the UN Sustainable Development Goals.