OCO – It’s Your Right

Project: Digital audio and video content, photography, posters, website, iPad app and digital media consultancy and social media training and support.

“Athena Media has worked with the Ombudsman for Children’s Office since 2014 on creating and developing our It’s Your Right platform to raise awareness of children’s rights among children and young people.

The team at Athena Media has been creative, flexible and efficient in its work with us on It’s Your Right, combining insight and energy to deliver work of high quality. They have also been supportive in providing technical guidance to the OCO on updating different elements of the platform.”

—Client: Dr Karen McAuley
Head of Participation and Education
Ombudsman for Children’s Office

Helen and the team are extremely professional, the quality of the work was second to none and they were always on hand to provide advice, support and guidance throughout the months we worked with them. I would not hesitate to recommend Athena.

—Nikki Gallagher, Senior Communications Manager (2014-2015), Ombudsman for Children’s Office

In Spring 2014 Athena Media won a competitive tender to create an advocacy project for children and young people about their rights under the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and to celebrate and mark the 10th anniversary of the Office of the Ombudsman for Children in Ireland (OCO).

We created “It’s Your Right” a content led, digital storytelling project based in the website www.itsyourright.ie and developed a free iPad educational app for use in schools. Our creative team worked with children and young people across Ireland to draw our audio and visual stories told by, and for, children. The project team designed the graphics, logo and content channels.

We designed a mobile enabled and accessible website and made sure the content worked in both Irish and English. We researched the themes and ran workshops with both primary and secondary level pupils and collaborated with NGOs and youth out-reach groups including Fighting Words.

Over 16,000 visitors have accessed the content and while we collaborated with the national radio channel Newstalk on Universal Children’s Day in 2014. In 2015 we updated the website, integrated further content to make the project a human rights portal for children and the OCO commissioned further videos to reflect the new commissioner, Niall Muldoon and additional language needs.

In 2016 phase 3 of the It’s Your Right project began with additional artwork, updated shorter cuts on videos to facilitate social media and the OCO commissioned two new videos to reflect both the OCO’s and the UNCRC’s message to children and young people in Ireland.

“It’s Your Right” won Silver in the Appy Awards 2014 and was nominated for the prestigious Kieran Hegarty Award for Innovation at the Celtic Media Festival 2015.