We are Footage
Footage is a feminist organization raising voices to elevate lives through creative research, wellbeing interventions, and advocacy—all advancing the UN Sustainable Development Goals. We use narrative and expressive approaches empowering young women around the world to connect as agents of social change. We believe compassion and connection are as important to sustainable development as food and water.
With over 13 years of social impact on digital and geographic frontiers, we have worked with some of the world’s most silenced young women. This includes young women who have survived conflict in Syria, torture by ISIS, horrors in camps in Libya, and domestic violence in the U.S. and Russia. Thus far, we have designed seven programs delivered in eleven countries across four continents; cultivated compassion, connection, and leadership globally; and provided online spaces for young women’s stories.
We are the recipients of nine Public Diplomacy awards from the U.S. Department of State to design and implement programs focusing on women and violence primarily in the Post-Soviet region.
Our programs provide connection — a community for young women on the frontlines of gender inequality where their ideas matter and their voices count. They are worthy of being heard and seen. We have a particular focus on forced displacement and gender-based violence.
Our Girl-talk-Girl online platform is the largest digital storytelling platform connecting young women and focusing on gender-based violence globally. Young women in our programs are making a difference. Our newest evidence-based initiative StrengthIN focuses specifically on sustainable development and the mental, social, and emotional well-being of vulnerable young women.
The fine print: Established in 2009 by five women PhDs at the University of Cambridge, Footage has become a pioneer for research and programming, creating communities and connection for young women. We are a thriving 501(c)(3) registered nonprofit organization prioritizing the voices, ideas, and skills of historically marginalized young women and their communities. Our collective covers most regions of the world.
Programs & Methods
FemSMS: Compassionate text-based information for women in Ukraine & crisis zones.
The network aims to provide women in crisis in Ukraine with rapid access to information and resources.
Compassionate Cash: Unconditional cash assistance.
Our program distributes cash to those inside Ukraine, primarily to single mothers, families, elderly women, non-Ukrainian citizens, minority populations, and disabled
individuals, promoting security, safety, and dignity.
StrengthIN: Where Wellbeing Meets Global Transformation
Invest in the world’s first evidence-based initiative focused on overlooked human needs including self-worth & connection━ needs virtually ignored in global crises.
Girl-talk-Girl: Mobile Digital Storytelling and Gender- based Violence
Through this project, young women at risk of experiencing gender-based violence (GBV) engage in mVoiceWorks©, then produce and share mobile digital stories based on their lived experiences. Their stories serve as a platform to spark peer-to-peer dialogue internationally, exploring both unique and common experiences with respect to the GBV that is ever-present in the lives of young women.
United States and Russia: From 2014-2016, funded by two awards from the US State Department, Girl-talk-Girl developed and scaled a dynamic collaboration between young women in New York City and St. Petersburg.
Ukraine: In 2017, with funding from the US Embassy in Ukraine, Footage implemented Girl-talk-Girl with young women internally displaced by armed conflict in Eastern Ukraine and Crimea.
Chile: In 2018, with funding from the US Embassy in Chile, Footage implemented Girl-talk-Girl with first generation women students in the School of Psychology at Pontifica Universidad Católica de Chile.
Kazakhstan: In 2022, Footage will continue Girl-talk-Girl in Almaty Kazakhstan — scaling up the program through our unique peer leadership model and delivering training for crisis centers across the region. In 2020, Footage implemented Girl-talk-Girl with university students and young women survivors of violence in Almaty, Kazakhstan. This project is sponsored and supported by the U.S. Diplomatic Mission to Kazakhstan.
Her{connect}Her: Narratives and Connection among Young Refugee and Migrant Women
This program engages young refugee and migrant women worldwide in empowering narrative workshops. Through story sharing, Her{connect}Her cultivates participants' innate agency, belonging, and resilience while fostering compassion and empathy among local and global communities. Hope, dignity, and community are significant themes as this project prioritizes young women as experts on their needs and agents of change while offering them an inclusive network. For this work, Footage was granted a Vodafone Americas Foundation Give Away Award. Thus far, Footage has provided Her{connect}her in Sweden, France, Greece, and the UK.
WebinHERS: Dialogue, Inclusion, and Gender-based Violence
After consulting with young women throughout the US and Eurasia, as well as the professionals who work with them, we will be providing in-depth educational and interactive webinars on GBV in 2020. This project takes an intersectional and participatory approach and is funded by a Peer-to-Peer Dialogue Program Award from the US State Department.
mVoiceWorks
mVoiceWorks© is a unique participatory voice methodology used in our programs that includes workshops, mobile digital storytelling, and (where needed) human-centered design.
