This dispatch was added by one of our Nonprofit Neighbors. It does not represent the editorial voice of The Rapidian or Community Media Center.
/Chelsie Wyse
The CMC is currently looking for local nonprofits that work with diverse communities to help them share their stories. If your nonprofit would like to learn more about the training and opportunities available through Elevating Voices, please contact Wayne Glatz.
Thanks to funding from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, the Community Media Center (CMC) has now launched "Elevating Voices," a project designed to empower under-represented voices and bring media tools and distribution expertise to the neighborhood level. The project is funded for three years by a $310,000 grant from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation of Battle Creek, Michigan.
“By working to change how people and communities are represented in and served through contemporary media, we look to connect differing cultures and communities which rarely intersect,” says project developer Laurie Cirivello, former CMC Executive Director. “Through the development of strong, long-term collaborative CMC partnerships, neighborhood-based organizations will have improved connections with their clients and increased exposure to the broader community. A wider audience will hear seldom heard stories, enhancing our understanding of the rich diversity of this community.”
The project includes workshops geared to train groups and organizations in target neighborhoods in effective media use. After these first trainings, there will be initial opportunities for area nonprofits to hold storytelling events with their communities. The CMC will then partner with up to six local nonprofits to create Neighborhood Media Hubs. These hubs will provide customized methods and tools for effective creation and broad distribution of the culturally rich stories told by neighborhood organizations.
CMC is a multi-platform media and technology assistive organization working with hundreds of local nonprofit organizations, which they say they'll now be able to more strategically leverage to address the problem of media accessibility in under-represented neighborhoods.
CMC’s Interim Executive Director Kayem Dunn recognizes the vision of the W.K. Kellogg Foundation in funding this project.
“This project will significantly increase the quantity, availability and broad distribution of media content that elevates voices," says Dunn. "With the end goal of reducing social inequities.”
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