outreach

Online Community Manager

VISTA Name: 
Donna Choi
Program Start: 
7/2009
Program End: 
7/2010
Project Description: 

This project will strengthen both our capacity to deliver services to our member organizations and simultaneously encourage them to share knowledge and best practices among themselves by connecting them, encouraging collaboration, and disseminating content and analyses through social media tools and technologies. The VISTA staffer will further develop our social networking capabilities, broadening and deepening our engagement with people through these interfaces. They are absolutely crucial to keep the organization lively and useful, and draw new members in. Social media is rapidly becoming a core demand that people want and need as part of a membership of a national network that seeks to bring organizations together.

1. Manage and contribute to the 2009-10 Technology Infrastructure plan, which will continue to build the capacity of our members’ to connect and work with each other more fully.
2. Work in collaboration with program staff to create new content and interactive areas of the NAMAC website; edit and post web content regularly to keep it fresh and relevant; maintain the website and its technical needs.
3. Work with staff to set a social media strategy, and build out NAMAC’s capacity to reach members and the public through social media tools.
4. Work with NAMAC staff to pilot a series of webinars on the use of social media tools.
5. Expand and publish NAMAC’s web-based toolkits and guides to build capacity of our members’ organizations.
6. Work with staff to engage and reach out to members by communicating with them regularly through social media platforms; and develop metrics for NAMAC-based website and social networking usage.

Project Outcome: 

Donna completed several significant web-based graphic design and technical projects during her assignment with NAMAC. She has significantly built the capacity of NAMAC’s online interactivity and resource-sharing to reach and assist members and the public around the country and globally.

Donna’s primary focus has been on developing the interactivity of the NAMAC website, in particular the Idea Exchange. This entails identifying which actions/networks are key for building our online presence and in building strong relationships with a team of bloggers who represent a cross-section of our online community, in terms of region, discipline, generation, and other important demographic criteria.

We have received increased traffic to our website, and conduct most of our membership business via the website: from conference and event registration to promotion and marketing, to resource-sharing, news and analysis across the field. The new look and architecture that Donna instituted has branded NAMAC as a leading web presence and has integrated well with our Facebook, Twitter and YouTube social media platforms.

Impact Quote: 

Not only did Donna meet our goal to redesign the website look, but she exceeded it. She gave the site a look that is striking and refined, and easy to work with by any new OCM. She worked out Drupal bugs, and brought Drupal developers in as consultants to upgrade the site to the current Drupal iteration. She interfaced with them throughout the changeover process. - Jack Walsh, VISTA Supervisor

Social Media Development

Organization: 
Reel Grrls
VISTA Name: 
Nickey Robare
Program Start: 
7/2009
Program End: 
7/2010
Project Description: 

In our recent strategic planning process, we determined that our use of online outreach tools (our website, blog, YouTube channel and multiple social networking sites) were not yet in alignment with our mission of being a fresh, vibrant youth media organization that uses the latest technology to empower our constituency. We envision that a CTC VISTA volunteer will 1) evaluate our current online outreach strategy and tools, 2) implement a new strategy to update our current website and use of other online tools as well as expand into other social networking platforms (e.g., Twitter, text messaging) and 3) develop a plan for the organization to sustain these practices in the future.

Our CTC VISTA volunteer will have two primary roles during his or her period of service with Reel Grrls: 1) to support the expansion and relaunch of our website 2) to take the lead in conceiving, launching and managing social networking/marketing opportunities and building a meaningful online presence for our organization.

Specific tasks will include:
-Develop evaluation criteria and goals for website relaunch and conduct interviews w/stakeholders for input
-Write online outreach strategic plan recommendations and present to staff and board
-Prepare & upload media for streaming/online applications
-Update and design quarterly enews format, as well as regular blog, facebook, text and twitter posts
-Track and evaluate website traffic for increase in participant/sales/fundraising goals
-Incorporate new online strategy into organizations overall technology plan
-Train staff in sustaining website and online outreach tools at completion of project

This individual will have the responsibility of evaluating online ventures, assessing the efficacy of different strategies, educating staff, and making these new activities sustainable. As part of the social networking and fundraising activities, this individual will also help build online partnerships and visibility for the media created by our participants.

Project Outcome: 

Nickey has totally revamped our social marketing presence and strategy, increasing our Facebook network to over 1200 fans and bringing our Twitter followers to over 1700. She also revived our long-dormant blog - helping develop a schedule and model for posts from staff and participants, redesigned our YouTube channel, participated in our website redesign project with the Taproot foundation, and redesigned our templates for program outreach and registration. Nickey has done a great job of developing new ideas and really showing leadership in terms of growing our online community - and understanding how to be an active contributing participant in networks like Twitter and Facebook. Where many organizations will simply Tweet or post about their own successes, Nickey has helped us learn to offer interesting articles, videos, analysis and funding opportunities to our networks. That way, when it does come time to promote our own programming or events, our network doesn’t feel bombarded by asks. She and I have worked closely together in developing strategies and making decisions, and she has shown great initiative and leadership skills in being able to take projects from idea to execution.

Thanks to Nickey’s efforts at developing our online presence, Reel Grrls has become a significant contributor to online discussions of women and media within the Twitter community. Many of our outreach materials - in print and online - have had major facelifts. And we’ve finally launched the “GAB (Grrls Advisory Board)” - a youth-led advisory group that was in the works for a long time before Nickey’s energy was able to bring it to life. We are currently working to reframe our intern job descriptions to include some of the work that Nickey has been doing on an ongoing basis. Additionally, Nickey is developing a social marketing handbook that will help us integrate ongoing social marketing tasks into permanent staff members’ duties.

Nickey has a great eye for graphic design, so she has pitched in to help redesign program outreach materials, event programs, enewsletters and DVD covers - which has been a huge asset in presenting a vibrant image of Reel Grrls to the outside world. Nickey has also jumpstarted our Grrls Advisory Board, led a couple of Reel Grrls Productions projects for clients, and started a plan to create a sales catalogue of our DVD library.

Website and Social Media Development

Organization: 
Zumix
VISTA Name: 
Sharon Small
Program Start: 
7/2009
Program End: 
7/2010
Project Description: 

VISTA would have to analyze the current use of volunteers, interns and staff and create documentation that describes what Zumix will need to move into its new, larger space at the firehouse. VISTA will explore local businesses and non-profits and create relationships that will benefit the radio station, either by bringing in underwriting or creating new opportunities for program content. VISTA may be be asked to help in various fundraising efforts, like the Walk for Music and help develop a fee-for-service plan. He or she may be asked to help design, administer and collate program evaluations or be involved in other organizational outreach and development. VISTA will create documentation so that youth, in conjunction with Zumix staff, will be able to continue work that has begun.

Goal 1: Solicit 5 underwriters for Zumix Radio
Goal 2: Create a plan for the mainstreaming of Interns and volunteers at the Firehuose.

Project Outcome: 

Sharon was responsible for expanding our use of social media and for upgrading the website. She assisted with the implementation of radio schedules and class curriculum. She was part of the team that coordinated live broadcasts and ran her own radio show.

Our ability to use social media in basically now in place, as is the process for website updating. The radio curriculum has been further refined.

Outreach Coordinator

Organization: 
Media Literacy Project
VISTA Name: 
Candelario Vazquez
Program Start: 
9/2009
Project Description: 

The VISTA member will assist in building NMMLP’s MAG-Net projects. MAG-Net is a project of the Center for Media Justice. NMMLP, along with other organizations nationwide, is a member of MAG-Net and is working on media justice projects in New Mexico. General support for MAG-Net will include outreach efforts – creating handouts and flyers, recruiting participants for Girl Tech Collective, documenting events and activities, and assisting with the New Mexico Media Assessment.

Goal 1: Support the MAG-Net Projects: Girl Tech Collective and New Mexico Media Assessment
Goal 2: Support the Media Monitoring Project

Project Outcome: 

The three main project goals for this position were to support the Girl Tech Collective program, support a media assessment of New Mexico, and support a project on media monitoring.

The Girl Tech Collective program began this past year, but was shifted to another staff person. Instead, Candelario supported another youth program in New Mexico called Digital Justice for Us! (DJ4U) program. This was a more strategic move because it connected to MLP’s work on broadband in New Mexico, a project that this VISTA member would already be working on. The Digital Justice for Us! program was successful and MLP learned a lot from this first year. Cande supported the youth involved in this program, assisted in organizing the event to showcase the young participant’s video work, lead an evaluation on the program, and documented the process. His work will make the DJ4U program stronger for the coming year. MLP’s Program Director helped support this program.

The second project goal was to support the New Mexico media assessment. This project took on the form of an assessment of broadband access in New Mexico. Cande helped to host researchers from the Social Science Research Council in our state as they conducted focus groups in the greater Albuquerque area. Cande also formalized new organizational partnerships around the broadband issue, helped to build MLP’s base, and participated in community conversations. The increase in supporters of MLP and the collection of stories and information on how broadband affects rural and low-income communities has greatly strengthened MLP’s programs and projects. All MLP staff, partner organizations, and community members helped support the goal for increased access to broadband in New Mexico.

The third project goal was to support the media monitoring project. Cande helped to support Siembra la palabra digna, MLP’s initiative to address responsible speech in our media. Cande assisted at outreach events, collected video stories from community members, and monitored media clips to examine how issues and communities are framed and reported on in various media. Support for this project has helped MLP develop better workshops and materials that connect responsible speech with access to media and storytelling. MLP’s Campaign Coordinator assisted the VISTA member in this initiative.

Outreach, Marketing, and Volunteer Coordinator

Organization: 
Media Bridges Cincinnati
VISTA Name: 
Katie Finnigan
Program Start: 
9/2009
Program End: 
9/2010
Project Description: 

Media Bridge’s venture into the LPFM world is a step we feel very comfortable with, but at the same respect it will weigh heavy on our staff and man power to get the Radio station up and running. We seek a VISTA to contribute in the structuring of a stable working infrastructure. To develop and implement a content management system and a volunteer management system will help offset duties from a paid staff member, which could be used towards more direct service. The LPFM radio station is particularly critical at this time as the construction permit expires in August of 2009. Failure to be on the air by that time may result in our losing this precious community resource.

Goal 1: Develop and implement a system to keep the station up to date and in compliance with FCC regulations.
Goal 2: Implement a Volunteer Management System
Goal 3: Implement sustainable Marketing & PR Plan

Project Outcome: 

Katie Completed the following projects and assignments.

To increase Cincinnati’s access to local, community-based media by:
• Providing a locally owned station that broadcasts at least 50 hours a week
• Airing at least 40 hours a week of original programming produced by volunteers
• Training at least 40 local programmers

To increase the diversity of voices in local media by:
• Actively recruiting women, minorities and people of low income for programming and Advisory Board positions
• Offering broadcast training classes for less than $100
• Prioritizing shows with unique content, to ensure that a wide variety of voices are represented on the air

To promote local arts and culture and provide much needed exposure to local musicians by:
• Airing several hours of arts and cultural programming each week
• Designating blocks of airtime for local music
• Creating a library of songs by local musicians for volunteers to play on the air

To encourage public discussion and civic engagement by:
• Prioritizing talk and public affairs programs that cover issues of local importance

iConnect Project Developer

Organization: 
KNON Community Radio
VISTA Name: 
Mark Woodward
Program Start: 
7/2009
Program End: 
7/2010
Project Description: 

The CTC Vista volunteer will increase our capacity by providing the technical assistance to develop a new media training program, systems for volunteers to use an interactive website, and develop volunteers to become trainers themselves for future participants. The VISTA’s role is to help us through this transition and move KNON into a position where we can provide existing services in newer, more relevant forms. Once the project is completed, the additional volunteers, trainers, training tools, online protocols, online audience, and online tools will augment our community connections by making sure the station is as interactive as possible and acts as a community resource that uses the latest technology to give its listenership a voice in the community and the ability to affect positive change in their own environment.

The CTC Vista will be responsible for:
Work with volunteers to mae presentations to organizations serving lower-income and minority communities in DFW
Work with community members to conduct surveys to determine community media needs
Develop curriculum to train to community organizations and their members to utilize media tools including blogs, audio recording and editing, video recording and editing, and social networking.
Train volunteers to train additional community members to utilize media tools.
Work with volunteers to develop a community media campaign around one identified issue that will be used as a template for future issue campaigns
Develop protocols for volunteers to maintain the equipment and website for volunteer media work

Project Outcome: 

Mark developed a list of 100 community organizations and events in coverage area and Developed outreach material describing community media project and volunteer interest forms. Developed on-air announcements and recruited audience members for project Recruited participants from current audience, community advisory committee and existing volunteer p Surveyed existing volunteer usage of social media networks and other online tools Integrated KNON station brand into new station website, facebook and twitter. Established user interface for volunteers and staff to update station’s online presence Activity 3: New Media Training for Community Volunteers Develop ed training series for community members for blogging and video (youtube) origination, editing and uploading onto station webtools. Also developed social networking training. Mark did all of this by reaching out to those at the station and in our audience during meetings and on air. He was assited by KNON volunteers and staff

Fundraising web componants. Developed well and continues to help us in fundraising

Outreach and Development Coordinator

Organization: 
Quote-Unquote
VISTA Name: 
Erica Jones
Program Start: 
9/2009
Program End: 
9/2010
Project Description: 

This VISTA member, in their capacity as outreach assistant, would serve to bring new organizations and communities in to work with QUQ. The role of outreach assistant would be valuable experience for the VISTA member in networking, community organizing and learning about the community that she/he would be working and living in. It involves calling people, talking to them, sending them information by email, asking them to come to a meeting and to tour our studios.

The VISTA member would keep accurate records of contacts and the process of recruitment, as well as the steps and the results of fundraising efforts. These records would be used for the manual that would be developed in conjunction with the executive director.

Project Outcome: 

Some main areas that Erica helped to develop and expand are: Volunteer recruitment/outreach, Partnership Expansion/Outreach, and Fundraising development.

Volunteer outreach: Erica has set up an entire program of recruitment of volunteers. As a result we had as many as 19 volunteer interns at one time at our facility during the fall, spring and summer months. The recruitment efforts targeted local universities and high schools. The success was due to setting up face to face meetings as well as using Craig’s List, social media and e-newsletter contact. This was done in conjunction with the Executive Director.

Partnership Outreach: Erica also worked on setting up partnerships with the Albuquerque Convention and Visitors Bureau, Media Literacy Project, The Alibi (local weekly newspaper), Enlace Comunitario, SWOP, KUNM Youth Radio, Albuquerque Film Festival, SW Gay and Lesbian Film Festival, Taos Shortz Film Festival, Experimental Cinema Film Festival, New Mexico Daily Lobo, Public Service Media Project, NM Film Office, NM Thunderbirds, CitizenSchools, and the creation of an accredited production class through the University of New Mexico Continuing Education department.

Fundraising Outreach: Erica worked on many small scale and large scale fundraising efforts throughout the year. Some examples of these efforts are: “Benefit Night” fundraisers being help at T.G.I.Friday and Fuddruckers, a “TV Dinner” benefit event, a concert event at a local venue, and the development of a monthly media industry networking event held at a local restaurant. Other areas have included working alongside the Executive Director on research for and preparation of grants and foundation money. Examples of this assistance was the working on a letter of inquiry for the Glaser Foundation which focused on Independent Media projects. We pitched the creation of a youth-focused journalism and mentorship program. A letter of inquiry into the MacArthur Foundation, regarding the same project. The creation of a profile in multiple local community foundations. She did extensive research and compiling together of regional, state-wide, and national grants and foundations that could be potential sources for income. Erica also helped Steve Ranieri with researching and preparing the application for a grant through the McCune Foundation, a local foundation here in New Mexico.

Other general outreach efforts that Erica engaged in were attending various local outreach events, such as: NM Film and Media Day, Digital Arts Conference, NM Film conference, SW Gay and Lesbian Film Festival, Fiery Foods Show, and other events where the positive image of our organization was represented. All of these efforts were tracked, documented, and written into a manual titled “How to Outreach: a Resource Guide for Quote Unquote.” This resource will be left behind for future staff and VISTAs to refer back to for guidance.

Two other projects Erica worked on were the transitioning of the paper newsletter to the electronic newsletter and the transitioning of the Dreamweaver based website to a user-friendly, more efficient website through the Grassroots.org services. It developed through the need of better organizational efficiency. There was an indication that some staff had additional responsibilities that were taking them away from their actual work. With Erica noticing this, she suggested making these two main transitions as a means to alleviate extra work from staff (printing of newsletters, mailing them, updating the website using software that requires skills) and to build a more sustainable infrastructure.

Outreach & Volunteer Coordinator

Organization: 
Latinitas
VISTA Name: 
Claudia Escobar Lopez
Program Start: 
9/2009
Program End: 
9/2010
Project Description: 

As part of the CTC VISTA Project, Latinitas would recruit a VISTA member to serve as an Outreach & Volunteer Coordinator. This position would assist with:
Primary Goals:
-organizing an advisory board that will develop a comprehensive curriculum guide with a series of media-based, enrichment activities for girls.
-coordinating a volunteer leadership team that will assist with future club leader recruitment, trainings and management
-developing training procedures and volunteer manuals to empower volunteer club leaders to guide girl empowerment activities
Secondary Goals
-creating a marketing plan to outline strategies for effectively recruiting volunteers, identifying strategic community partners and sponsors and beginning the initial phase of volunteer recruitment.

Throughout the project, the VISTA member will work directly with an advisory board and volunteers to develop a curriculum guides, club leader training manual, volunteer procedures and volunteer recruitment marketing plan. These tangible products will enable Latinitas to replicate our media-based, culturally-relevant, bilingual, girl enrichment programs into additional communities. Latinos make up about 15 percent of the U.S. population and are the largest and fastest growing population. Despite the growth and size of this population, very few programs exist nationally that focus specifically on this population. The tools developed in this project may serve as a model framework and curriculum to share with the field of Latina-focused girl empowerment programs nationally.

Project Outcome: 

Claudia has organized recruitment efforts, orientation sessions and meetings to help build our advisory board. She has been instrumental in developing and documenting the procedures for effective volunteer training and management. She has developed an orientation and training module which we will utilize in preparing future volunteer club leaders for their role in leading multimedia clubs for girls. In addition, she has developed a comprehensive volunteer leader manual which clearly outlines the role, responsibilities, procedures and policies in the management of volunteer led clubs. The manual includes club leader job descriptions, club meeting outlines, attendance policies, dress code, code of behavior, classroom management tips, mentoring tips, recruitment tips, Internet safety guidelines, material checklists, equipment checkout procedures, attendance sheets, volunteer hour logs, club member evaluations, club fact sheets and other valuable tips on managing a media club for girls. Furthermore, our VISTA member has worked collaboratively with a team of volunteers to develop a new Club Leader Curriculum Guide building on our library of club lesson plans. Thanks to support from our VISTA Member, we now have over 100 multimedia lesson plans developed that we can implement in our multimedia clubs. These lessons are focused on teaching young Latinas in grades 4-8 about how they can use media as a tool for creative self-expression. These lessons are bilingual and bi-cultural and focused on writing, art, photography, audio production, film making, desktop publishing and web design. Our VISTA has also initiated a pilot test program training 4 volunteers to lead volunteer media clubs. She has recruited the volunteer club leaders, implemented and tested a club leader training session and provided technical support to our club leaders. The volunteer training module and curriculum guide has proven to work successfully with this group and our VISTA member is helping us lay the foundation to implement this program on a larger scale in the future.

Since our VISTA member is perfectly fluent in Spanish and English, she was able to assist us in translating numerous documents in our volunteer training manual as well as other materials for the public. We work with a largely Spanish-speaking population of recent immigrants, so her assistance in creating bilingual materials was a great asset in preparing all the needed documents for our volunteers to go out into the community to serve Spanish-speaking girls and families. In addition, our VISTA member developed a volunteer recognition procedures to assist in our volunteer retention efforts including creating volunteer certificates and awards, organizing volunteer appreciation events and developing a system for recognizing volunteers in our newsletter and special events.

Neighborhood News Bureau Community Journalism Project lead

VISTA Name: 
Denise Cheng
Program Start: 
9/2009
Program End: 
9/2010
Project Description: 

Our newest project, for which a vista would help us build a sustainable structure, has received initial funding via the The Grand Rapids Community Foundation and the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. The purpose is to establish four Neighborhood News Bureaus (NNB) in the city. The purpose is to increase citizen engagement and to encourage greater flow of meaningful information from and to our urban neighborhoods. The NNB project will give Grand Rapids citizens the opportunity to become citizen reporters with a soon-to-be established online and physical network of neighborhood news bureaus in the urban core. The CMC will give citizen reporters the tools, structure and mediums by which to gather, write and report on local news and events. Reporters will be able to produce news for the web, radio or TV through the use of CMC’s resources. NNBs will be physically located in known neighborhood gathering locations, and each site will be outfitted with video and still cameras, computers, audio recorders and templates plus the connectivity required to “file” stories to the web. Additional production equipment and facilities are available for citizen reporter use through the Community Media Center.

The addition of a CTC VISTA member would provide a much needed staff person to help design and establish sustainable structures for the NNB project. While a Knight grant was indeed awarded to this project, all grants in this cycle were reduced by 40% due to the current economic climate. The VISTA member would help use move forward, as planned and would be a main support person for development of the local NNB locations. The work would include neighborhood outreach, collecting and organizing training materials, doing initial set up and organization of NNB’s and creating materials for use in story management and distribution for later use by editors and news gatherers.

Each bureau will be initially “staffed” with a news team comprised of neighborhood residents and college journalism/communication students. As the projects grow, each will be encouraged to develop its own leadership/advisory board. The VISTA member will help ensure high quality and fairness in the program by establishing a pool of professionals to provide training to participants.

Additionally, VISTA will help establish a structure and methods for collecting and maintaining a neighborhood information “bank” for use by the news bureaus.

Primarily, the Vista will be working on the establishment of the physical neighborhood news bureaus. They will be responsible for helping set up the physical and technical structure and coordinating with an initial corps of trainers to provide training for the neighborhood.

The Vista will work with our core NNB steering group and committees to carry out the the project development plan. Work will include relationship building with potential host sites, arranging for assistance for chosen sites; working with the journalists committee to identify training needs and develop a curriculum and recruit presenters; working with the PR committee to prepare our news bureau community launch activities: utilize social media frameworks to increase interest and connect with potential partners; develop user feedback mechanisms; and will produce user guidelines and other reference pieces to aid in community access and use of the site.

Goal 1: To help the CMC fulfill its mission of “Building Community Through Media” through the development of a Neighborhood News Bureaus.
Goal 2: To help the CMC be an ever more active presence in the Grand Rapids area as a vital resource for free speech and information about what’s happening from the citizen’s point of view.

Project Outcome: 

The primary goal was for Denise to help “design and establish sustainable structures for the” Neighborhood News Bureau project…now called the Rapidian. Denise has done an outstanding job at reaching out to the community to gather input, creatively think through the citizen reporting process and create procedures, structures and partnerships that support those processes. She has organized training materials and events; evaluated and revised methods, and researched other “best practices” bringing those lessons to bear on The Rapdiian project. Denise worked effectively in a team that included a drupal developer, a content coordinator (part time), the design manager and the publisher. As the only person dedicated FULLTIME to the launch and evolution of the project, Denise has taken an inspiring leadership role, allowing us to reach farther into the community and engage new participants.

We have expanded our reach and perceptions of relevance in the community (for the good). Mainstream/traditional media now includes us in discussions; promotes our work and even seeks our input and advice as they look to expand their use of community reporters. We a re currently working on the development of a business model to sustain the work, however, our “user engagement numbers” are significant.

The project was sufficiently open ended enough to allow Denise great creativity to design execution plans. But in addition to The Rapidian proper, she has extended a connection to our community radio station and represents the Rapidian weekly on-air. She has also established a drupal working group in our community.

Community Development and Outreach Coordinator

VISTA Name: 
Nicole Belanger
Program Start: 
9/2009
Program End: 
9/2010
Project Description: 

The VISTA member’s specific responsibilities will be to expand our outreach efforts and develop sustainable relationships and advocates for media reform, media justice, and independent community media, so that we can better fulfill our mission.

Our Community Development and Outreach Coordinator would significantly enhance our capacity to fulfill our mission of advancing media reform and media justice in the NY Capital Region and the economically disadvantaged communities directly surrounding our office at The Sanctuary for Independent Media. The VISTA member will have significant involvement in the community, collaborating with staff to develop and implement a volunteer program to support Media Alliance initiatives and strengthen our capacity to identify, attract, train and monitor dedicated volunteers who can help support our locally produced community media production and distribution, and expand our outreach efforts.

Goal 1: Expand our outreach efforts, coordinate volunteers, and develop sustainable relationships to further our mission.

Project Outcome: 

Our VISTA member Nicole Belanger definitely had significant involvement in the community, collaborating with staff to develop and implement a volunteer program to support Media Alliance initiatives and strengthen our capacity to identify, attract, train and monitor dedicated volunteers who can help support our locally produced community media production and distribution. She expanded our outreach efforts, achieving our goals.

Nicole Belanger outreached to other organizations and institutions, increased awareness of our community media projects, and assisted with coordination of our community programs—with the result of a greater community network with substantive relationships to our organization. As part of her VISTA work, Nicole compiled a community volunteer and outreach binder, with tasks and activities broken down into clear and efficient descriptions. The goal was to sustain her accomplishments. Although we could always use more support, this work does go a significant way to ensuring the longevity of the accomplishments achieved through our VISTA member Nicole Belanger’s accomplishments.

One interesting accomplishment beyond our proposed project is that Nicole organized a pot-luck and cooking crew. The wholesome meals and hospitality helped to build community—here, with a focus on “home sweet home” values! This is another accomplishment which will have longevity, and has helped in our community outreach. Our VISTA member also helped to frame our community arts and education projects as a valuable component of our community outreach, and we appreciate it!

Transmission Project