May 27, 2020
Events
For teenagers and young adults, the social web is the place for direct communication on socially relevant topics. In a live collaborative first combining the MESH Collective (the out-of-school youth education initiative), the neues handeln agency and TikTok on the platform of the same name, political issues are brought to life for the first time in a face-to-face discussion with a member of the Federal Government. At the heart of the event will be Family Minister Franziska Giffey, who takes on the questions of TikTok creator NikotheC in a livestream on 27 May at 16:15. Together they intend to focus attention on everyday heroes who are sometimes overlooked – children and teenagers with caring responsibilities for family members.
In Germany, there are around 479,000 young people who look after sick family members. Many of the young people concerned carry out a wide variety of challenging tasks every day in addition to their everyday school life. Although they put in a great performance, the needs and concerns of the child and teenager carers sometimes fall under the radar. Yet there is support out there – with the “Pausentaste (Pause Button) project”, the Family Ministry is creating a package of services to help them.
The neues handeln agency, working on behalf of the Federal Family Ministry, is developing new approaches to making the relevant target group more aware of the project. In collaboration with Divimove’s MESH Collective, a comprehensive cooperation scheme has emerged on TikTok.
With a call to action in several TikTok videos, NikotheC has invited his 408,000 followers to the live stream with the Family Minister and collected questions from the community. Between them in a 30-minute live stream on NikotheC's TikTok channel, he and Franziska Giffey, Federal Minister for Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth will explain and inform on the situation of caring children and teenagers and respond to questions from the community.
"MESH goes straight into situations where teenagers are active in the digital space,where they get their information and communicate. It is our mission to make socially relevant topics accessible to the youngest of us and to foster public dialogue. There is no getting round TikTok, a platform growing at a tremendous pace among especially young target groups. This is why we are so delighted to be working together with such strong partners in welcoming the Family Ministry to this special TikTok first, enabling us to give the necessary visibility tosuch a vital topic," explains Julia Althoff, Head of MESH Collective.
"If we wish to develop a keen interest and understanding for social topics inteenagers, we must go where today's young people spend their time. This is why we and the Federal Family Ministry have opted to create a deeper awareness of the many sides to ‘Pausentaste’ on TikTok. The content already publicised demonstrates that modern and courageous communication with the authorities on young digital channels hits the mark." Of that, neues handeln Project Head Tilo Kmieckowiak is quite sure.
The livestream is part of the “Pausentaste” project. The Family Ministry offers support for children and teenagers caring for their family members. True to the motto “You are not alone”, the initiative intends to bolster those affected, to foster communication amongst them and to create public awareness.
MESH Collective bears responsibility for the idea, concept, editing and influencer selection. neues handeln supports the Federal Ministry for Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth (BMFSFJ) as a PR agency and together with the Ministry fosters the communication campaign on the Pausentaste.
