As Capital Public Radio’s Senior Community Engagement Strategist, I get asked a lot about collaboration. Why collaborate? Who should we collaborate with? What does a good partnership look like? What’s it going to cost in terms of time or resources?
I’m in grad school, half way to getting my MFA in Interdisciplinary Arts. I also have a full-time gig at Capital Public Radio, leading their community engagement initiative. Sure, it’s a lot to juggle, but I love how what I study and what I practice interrelate and inform each other, like the double helix of a DNA strand.
If you’re like me, the term “theory of change” makes you feel both thrill and dread. It’s exciting to conceive a model for making change. Who doesn’t want a framework that spells out how to move the needle on social issues in a pithy and coherent way? Theories make assessment easier, right?
I’ve always been a little put off by the marketing concept known as branding. To me it calls up images of cattle, slaves, and Nike swooshes. None of which I find appealing. But recently I participated in a branding process that turned out to be totally transformative. Here’s what happened.
Democracy is not a spectator sport and if we want our world to be a better place then a diverse array of people need to participate in community problem-solving. Creatively designed public conversation events invite the kind of participation through which the wider public can respectfully explore a thorny topic together. Public radio stations, in our role as community conveners and storytellers, are uniquely positioned to make these events happen.
“I literally had no concept of what it meant to put the words “community” and “engagement” together in the same sentence with journalism. Now I see it as a process that can broaden the scope and impact of my reporting.” – Julia Mitric
I’m new to the public radio journalism space. Two years ago, Capital Public Radio hired me on to develop an approach to community engagement as part of their documentary series The View From Here. Since then “community engagement” has exploded onto the public media scene. Here are some tips based on my experience over the past two years…
Gather is a venue to explore my recent experiences working at the intersection of journalism, participatory documentary, and social practice art. It’s a place to share, learn, play, and conjure up new ways of doing this hybrid storytelling work.