HISTORY- GLOBAL THREADS ONLINE MAGAZINE LAUNCH

Global Threads Online Magazine launched as a Communities Connecting Heritage project focusing on cultural heritage preservation of Akron, Ohio’s Bhutanese refugees, and the ethnic communities of Kikinda, Serbia, through an exploration of culinary arts, landmarks, traditional storytelling, visual and performing arts. Our first group of citizen journalists included college students from Ohio and young adults from Serbia.  Local journalists in Akron mentored the citizen journalists and assisted in our online curriculum as we prepared our Global Threads journalists as storytellers.  Virtual cultural exchanges between Akron and Kikinda shared cultural heritage of our two cities with participants throughout the exchange and with the stories shared.  Each city hosted a delegation for an inperson exchange to celebrate the launch of the online magazine with a food and cultural arts celebration.

Global Ties Akron and Creative Group Serbia competed globally for one of 6 awards to receive grant funds as a part of the newly created Communities Connecting Heritage SM Program.  This initiative is a partnership with the U.S. Department of State’s Cultural Programs Division in the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs and World Learning administered the project.

2020-21 GLOBAL THREADS STUDENT EDITION

The 2020-21 Student Edition evolves magazine to focus on student-to-student collaboration and content creation with course curriculum.  This new group of citizen journalists includes 6th-grade students in APS LeBron James iPromise school,  APS 11th grade Akron Early College High School students, and youth museum volunteers from Kikinda, Serbia.

Students from the iPromise school engaged with local-global representatives from Akron's refugee communities while working academically in Social Studies, Language Arts and Media Technology.

Students from the Early College program and Kikinda Museum connected globally and shared dialogue and provided a virtual tour of each other's communities sharing what they have in common and cultural differences in a fun and engaging way.

ABOUT COMMUNITIES CONNECTING HERITAGE PROJECT (CCH)

CCH empowers youth to protect the cultural heritage of at-risk communities in the United States and around the world. Through the program, students, teachers, community leaders, and cultural heritage professionals will engage in online and in-person activities to initiate collaborations between communities in the United States and communities around the world.