The Activate Magazine is a new publication of CISV international. Replacing the Mosaic Magazine, this new publication will publish stories of meaningful community impact from CISV’s educational programmes around the world. Like the Mosaic Magazine, this publication will showcase successful projects and programmes in a vibrant, clear and inspirational way. Unlike the Mosaic Magazine, this publication will be open to contributions from every CISV program.

Being a Contributor

If you have a story about meaningful community impact from a CISV programme or project you were involved in, then you are invited to contribute to the magazine!

Step One: Send us your mini-story by April 1st

A mini-story is a very short, initial version of your article. The editorial team collects mini-stories from potential contributors in order to select the most diverse set of articles for the magazine. If you would like to contribute, the first step is to write your mini-story and send it to us. It should be no more that 150 words and tell us the basic idea of your story. Here’s an example:

My story is about a Mosaic project I did on the theme of sustainability. The article will be about the City Sustainability Guide that our group made together with a local partner organization. After briefly explaining the project and how it began, I will write about local families that have changed their lifestyles to be more sustainable after reading the guide. The story is inspirational because over 100 families in the community have now made commitments to take specific actions toward sustainability.

Step Two: Create the article by May 15th

After we receive a collection of mini-stories, we will go through them and select the most appropriate set for the magazine. We will do our best to include as many stories as possible although some years we will not be able to publish every story we get. After we get back to you about your story, there will be two options for the next step:

Write it yourself: If you are confident writing your story in English then we encourage you to write your article yourself. Once it is written, you will send it to us, we will make some edits and corrections and then it will be published.

Write it with us: If you prefer, a member of the editorial team will help you write the article. Working together over the phone and/or e-mail, you and the editor will go through the story and then work together to transform it into an article. Final edits will be made and then it will be published.

Keep in Mind

A few final things to keep in mind:

The Activate Magazine wants to share the best possible stories —make sure to think about the moments of inspiration, change, challenge, celebration, action, teamwork, and so on, from your project.

The magazine is especially interested in stories of partnerships . If you worked with another organization, be sure to include that in your story.

Photos ! If you have photos that can go along with your story please tell us about that when you send us your mini-story. If you have video or audio, we would love to hear about that too.

Not sure if your story is quite right? Write it down as a mini-version and send it anyway! It won’t take you very long and you might be surprised!

Believe in the value of your project and trust that you can tell and share that story.

If you have any questions, suggestions or concerns, don’t hesitate to contact us!

T he Editorial Team