| Description: |
The Mission of the FOCUS-MEDIA Foundation is to help people to make a conscious choice in favour of their health, social development, and well-being. Our instruments are: social advertising, training programs for NGOs, and mass media campaigns. We focus on the important issues of the Russian society, e.g. combating HIV/AIDS, preserving reproductive health, supporting the development of non-profit organizations.
The FOCUS-MEDIA Foundation was established in 1996, its initial mission was to apply social marketing technologies to the activities of Russian non-profit organizations, to help the HGOs to develop fundraising skills and to support different civil initiatives. The Foundation organized and held trainings, provided informational support for non-profit organizations, worked on creating a new, positive image of NGOs. The Foundation facilitated development of many Russian NGOs when there was not enough information about NGO management and non-profit organizations lacked primary management skills.
Since 1998 the FOCUS-MEDIA Foundation started working on implementing mass media campaigns and social advertising aimed at promoting safer sexual behavior and HIV prevention among young people, as well as at changing the attitudes to people living with HIV. Between 1998 and 2004 the Foundation implemented the following campaigns: "Reasonable Person - Reasonable Choice", "This Little Thing Will Protect Both of Us", “Protect Yourself and Those Waiting You at Home”, "How Important It Is To Be Protected!", “HIV. Learn More!” and “Life is Wonderful when Protected”
New GLOBUS Project (the Russian abbreviation for Joining Global Efforts Against AIDS) was started in August, 2004, funded by the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria. It is for the first time in history that a Global Fund project is being implemented by a consortium of non-profit non-governmental organizations which are considered competent and able to perform the task entrusted to them - to promote the development of an effective national strategy to fight HIV/AIDS and provide support to HIV-positive people.
The FOCUS-MEDIA Foundation formed the Consortium together with the major Russian and international NGOs, such as Open Health Institute, AIDS-Infoshare, AIDS Foundation East-West (AFEW) and Center for Social Development and Information (PSI) that have a long history of fighting against HIV/AIDS.
Fields of Work
The FOCUS-MEDIA Foundation successfully works in the following fields:
I. Public Health
Planning and implementing mass media campaigns, aimed at encouraging young people to strive towards a healthier lifestyle and taking responsibility for their health,
reducing risky sexual behaviour among young people
decreasing negative attitudes (stigmatization and discrimination) towards people living with HIV/AIDS
developing informational and educational programs for the Russian youth, aimed at increasing their knowledge and adapting more responsible behaviour in the sphere of public health.
II. Social development
Fostering organizational and financial stability of the non-profit sector by training NGOs and social organisations according to programs developed by the FOCUS-MEDIA Foundation
Applying new effective fundraising technologies
Working together with mass media, commercial and governmental organisations to promote the idea of charity and improve the interaction between sectors.
Methods
- carrying out social-marketing research: secondary (collecting available information on particular issues) and primary (surveys of specific target groups). Primary research is carried out by both qualitative (focus-groups and individual interviews) and quantitative (sociological survey) methods;
- developing effective proposals and programs to solve particular issues, determining ways and methods of necessary information transfer to the target groups;
- implementing media and educational campaigns aimed at changing behavior of target groups using methods of social advertisement (videos, actions and events, outdoor advertisement, advertisements in mass media, printed materials and souvenirs) as well as public relations activities;
- organizing and holding training programs on social marketing, public relations, research, fundraising, media campaigns, human resource management, team building, etc.
Principles
The main principles of our work are professionalism and commitment to the interests of the organization, which makes the Foundation a united team able to reach its aims. We value the atmosphere of equality and openness and respect for each other’s opinions. |
