CRÓNICAS DE HÉROES -an implementation in México of Hero Reports- celebrates today, DEC. 20 2011, its first anniversary.
Yesica Guera, the Director of the initiative as well as the team behind of CRÓNICAS DE HÉROES in Mexico would like to thank all of those who have supported us during the past year and would like to give a general overview of what has been accomplished and where we stand.
The team of CRÓNICAS DE HÉROES has been quite busy for the past twelve months:
– We have now over 1,200 positive reports in the CRÓNICAS DE HÉROES Juarez Website http://juarez.cronicasdeheroes.mx/
– The initiative has been featured in local, national, and international information networks including CNN, BBC, TV Azteca, and MILENIO, to mention some.
– The Juárez community has embraced our initiative as a tool to establish public activities aimed at regaining a civic presence in the city :
– Collective public paints in collaboration with street artist and the community who have created murals in different spaces around the city inspired by the positive reports on our site.
– Participation in several public events such Women’s Fair and a citywide celebration of Children’s Day in Art at the Park.
– Informative talks and workshops reaching between a broad community -2,000-2,500 citizens- regardless of their age, gender, and economic status.
– In June we launched a public art competition in Juárez because we believed it was essential to share and exhibit the positive reports that have been collected on the website in a public space for those without access to a computer or internet services.
– We have been invited to speak about the initiative in different platforms such TED Active Palm Springs, CA and the Knight Foundation’s MIT-Knight Civic Media Conference in Cambridge, MA.
– In September we were nominated for the Agent of Change Award for Images and Voices of Hope Summit.
– A large number of visitors from around the world including Japan, Brazil, Germany, Argentina, France, Venezuela, United Kingdom, Thailand to mention some have visited CRONICAS DE HEROES website allowing them to see the other side, the other story of those communities.
– A major intervention –conference and exhibition – at an event in the city of Juarez called Juárez Competitiva, a bi-national event celebrating the best of that city.
– We have created partnerships with various local media outlets; several radio stations have given us airtime to read positive stories and several newspapers publish selected reports from our website on a weekly basis.
– Also, we have collaborated with local educational institutions such as Tec. Milenio, Tec. of Monterrey, UAD, UACJ-IADA, ICSA-Colegio Mexico, Preparatoria Allende, also with Hospital Angeles and different groups to name a few.
– The generation of two small fundraise events to solicit support in order to continue with the different activities of the initiative.
– We are now implementing CRÓNICAS DE HÉROES in Monterrey, MEX http://mty.cronicasdeheroes.mx/
– A few months ago we developed a “pitch” in Spot.us in order to support the initial phase of CRÓNICAS DE HÉROES Tijuana / San Diego.
– Additionally, we are talking to communities worldwide interesting in launching CRÓNICAS DE HÉROES/Hero Reports in their cities.
– On the month of November we were recipients of the Awesome Foundation award.
– Right now more than 30 urban buses in Cd. Juarez display the URL of the initiative as well as positive messages.
– Currently we are in the process of creating a bi-national fund integrated to Fundacion de la Frontera Norte
As we continue to grow and evolve this are some of our plans for the near future:
– In January 2012 we will be launching officially CRÓNICAS DE HÉROES /Hero Reports in Tijuana/San Diego, our first bi-national platform, here is a promotional animation –Ten ways to be an everyday hero- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U38E_9ZOxyU&feature=youtu.be
– To strength current deployments and expand efforts in Juarez, Mexico while extending the campaign into El Paso, TX.
– New chapters for CRÓNICAS DE HÉROES/Hero Reports as it explores new terrain and strives to unite sister pair cities along the U.S and Mexican border, where the different systems and mechanism, organizations, institutions, and everyday citizens from both sides of the border can employ CRÓNICAS DE HÉROES as a tool for civic pride, dialogue and collaboration.
– We plan to continue partnerships with local organizations, as well as educational, government, private and public institutions.
– We will carry on the creation and involvement in different community events and activities:
– An exhibition of civic proposals at Juarez airport
– Physical civic intervention in several maquiladoras from the Delphi group
– Conferences and talks in numerous important venues:
– SXSW in Austin, TX, CRÓNICAS DE HÉROES will be a part of a panel discussing Experiences and Challenges of Civic Media Projects
– EVAC – Espacio de Vinculacion has invited us to speak about the initiative at their border event in Tijuana, B.C. Mexico
– The creation of a new more robust, stable platform that will support new applications –video, SMS, social media- while increasing the capacity to serve several communities interested in becoming
Finally, we would like to invite other communities to contact us info@cronicasdeheroes.mx , to be part of this initiative, to support by donating talent or funds.