Re-brand

As you may have noticed, our Art Director has recently pioneered a re-brand for SilenceBreaker Media. Utilising feedback we have gathered through consultation with our Board, funders, volunteers and other important groups we realised it was time for a change so we could better communicate what we are about. We hope you like our new look! If you have any comments or feedback, please get in touch!

Current Projects

After receiving funding from Coalfields Regeneration Trust, Awards for All and Evan Cornish Foundation, we have currently two projects running in Doncaster and one project at our new venue. The two projects in Doncaster are engaging with people from an area, Edlington, high on the indices of deprivation with participants learning how to rebuild computers and receiving training regarding important computer, internet and social media skills in order to enhance job prospects and life skills. The project taking place at our venue is being ran with the Restoration of Human Rights Zimbabwe group, learning how to rebuild and recondition computers and receive training of important internet and social media skills, focusing on how to use these to further their campaigning. The participants will retain access to the equipment, with our venue available to them to use to continue their skills and campaigning that focuses on improving Zimbabwean human rights in the UK and abroad.

Volunteering Scheme

Through our connections with The University of Sheffield, Sheffield Hallam University and Do-It.org we have developed a comprehensive volunteering scheme where we are engaging a lot of talented, diverse people in things ranging from animation, computer rebuilding to helping with the decorating of our new premises. We are so thankful to these people putting the time and energy into helping SilenceBreaker Media achieve its aims and activities and if anyone wants to get involved please get in touch!

Net Neutrality

One of our fantastic volunteers, George Higgins, spent several months creating SilenceBreaker Media a new animation that looks at the issue of net neutrality and how through our activities we promote and further net neutrality. Please have a look and if you have a spare five minutes please also let us know what you think through completing this survey.

New Venue!

One of the most exciting developments is our move into a new venue in Shalesmoor, Sheffield, where will be advancing SilenceBreaker Media’s activities through an on-site physical location. The venue will thus enable us to develop so that we can provide activities such as:

• Providing on-site access to the internet and computer resources like printing alongside access to print-based resources, such as journals, magazines and books.

• Providing workshops on social media and computer training/reconditioning and other employability-based skills.

• Hiring out media materials.

We have been very grateful for all the wonderful help and support we have had with the move into the premises, including donated furniture, family, friends and volunteers helping with the regeneration of the venue and a great deal of enthusiasm about the potential the place has. We are keen to start running more and more projects at the venue alongside developing the place into a community focused, information, computer and media centre to help foster community cohesion and engagement. If you’d like to know more or have any ideas please get in contact!

SilenceBreaker Media, as many of you know, is a social enterprise with a focus on social, economic and environmental sustainability, collecting and reconditioning computers with and for disadvantaged communities alongside providing training in social media and internet skills – providing a voice for the voiceless. SilenceBreaker Media are also now a Smarta 100 social enterprise, which recognises “the most resourceful, original, exciting and disruptive small businesses in the UK.”

If you live in Sheffield, you may have seen SilenceBreaker Media’s poster on the Fact Totem situated in the centre of Devonshire Green, Division Street. The Fact Totem is focused on raising awareness of the vibrant not-for-profit, independent scene in Sheffield. We are proud supporters of the Fact Totem.

We are developing our new online social networking platform, The Intersection, to help connect communities and groups together through SilenceBreaker Media’s projects and workshops, alongside allowing the general public to take part and also view creative outputs that participants will create through the activities. This also relates to our net neutrality campaign, which is about tackling the inadequate provision of computer and internet resources often in disadvantaged areas, alongside the lack of skills and knowledge certain groups have to utilise and access the internet and its services.

As part of SilenceBreaker Media’s commitment to net neutrality, we have become proud members of the League of Defence, which is a collection of websites and personal networks mobilizing to defend internet rights and freedom. As a member, we have a code installed on our website that will activate the website’s participation in campaigns and action by the League of Defence designed to raise awareness and protect our internet.

Our net neutrality campaign has been heightened with t-shirt competition winner, Kellie See, designing SilenceBreaker Media a net neutrality themed t-shirt. Kellie See’s designs are also the basis of a net neutrality animation project. We have recruited a very talented volunteer, George Higgins, to complete this animation by the end of the year with already great progress being made. We are also currently undertaking public consultation regarding our net neutrality campaign, and would love everyone’s feedback by answering this quick online evaluation survey! For a graphical display of the research involved in constructing SilenceBreaker Media’s net neutrality campaign, click here.

SilenceBreaker Media, as many of you know, is a social enterprise with a focus on social, economic and environmental sustainability, collecting and reconditioning computers with and for disadvantaged communities alongside providing training in social media and internet skills – providing a voice for the voiceless. SilenceBreaker Media are also now a Smarta 100 social enterprise, which recognises “the most resourceful, original, exciting and disruptive small businesses in the UK.”

SilenceBreaker Media have been featured in a Sheffield University research project, Re-Made in Sheffield, which was undertaken by Andrew Sadler at the University of Sheffield School of Architecture. The project constructed a website to showcase the best projects in and around Sheffield that use/process/develop recycled materials.

In year one, SilenceBreaker Media completed two successful projects! The first project was Neighbours Can Help, funded by Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council, based in Maltby. Partnering with two other social enterprises, Silent Cities and Neighbours Can Help, SilenceBreaker Media provided reconditioned computers to older members of the Maltby community, who through this were able to carry on utilising the social media skills they had learnt through intergenerational workshops led by pupils from Maltby Academy and coordinated by the two social enterprises SilenceBreaker Media worked alongside. Ensuring participants were empowered through their access to the reconditioned computers provided, SilenceBreaker Media utilised a personalised work ethic/service, following up with beneficiaries to make sure their individual needs were met through the provided hardware, alongside guaranteeing the software was the best suited for the different internet service providers the beneficiaries had.

The second project SilenceBreaker Media completed, the Awards for All funded Voice for the Voiceless project, advanced from Neighbours Can Help by enabling the participants to be involved in the rebuilding/reconditioning process of the computers alongside the installation of an ethical operating system and open source software so participants could vocalise issues important to them, with a specific focus on The Dearne and their community – given the project was based in The Dearne. Voice for the Voiceless was SilenceBreaker Media’s test pilot, assessing the feasibility and practicality of SilenceBreaker Media’s core activities and mission statement. SilenceBreaker Media learnt through our extensive analysis and evaluation process that the participants found the reconditioning of the computers eye-opening, with one participant aged 72 stating how surprised she was with how easy the computer rebuilding process was when broken down through SilenceBreaker Media’s workshops, saying “I never realised how easy it was to install RAM.”

Specifically, in terms of the sustainability of SilenceBreaker Media’s core activities, a central aspect of the organisation’s triple bottom line accounting (assessing social, environmental and economic sustainability of our activities), two project participants bought the computers they had reconditioned! Whilst ensuring participants can continue to utilise the skills they have learnt through the project and workshops, SilenceBreaker Media also have an important sustainable, ethical source of generating and maintaining revenue through the achievement of our mission statement.

 We also had a Voice for the Voiceless video done by and with the participants of the project in which they chose to use media to examine the economic challenges of their area, the opportunities ahead, and the difficult choices left to make.

Critically, both projects were completed in areas of disadvantage, making sure SilenceBreaker Media met our mission statement and core values/activities. All future projects will be based on the Voice for the Voiceless model, with SilenceBreaker Media now able to learn and develop from our experiences to provide themed project fund raising. For this, we have developed partnerships and links, including Edlington Hilltop Centre, Roundabout and ROHR Zimbabwe. We have made partners also through having a presence at places and events such as Sheffield Pride and the Leeds Summat!