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Community Partners' Strength: Outreach

"We now have a small group of parents who are realizing that their voice can make a difference. These parents are growing tremendously in their personal lives as they discover new ways of becoming active in their communities, either by informing their friends, taking more interest in
their children's education, or going back to school to learn English." — Sally Torres, Head Start Coordinator, community partner with KHDC/Salinas, CA

Doing What the Community Does Best

Successful community involvement helps stations reach new listeners, ensuring that the programming has the widest possible impact. Active community partners who take the lead in outreach and other non-broadcast activities free stations to focus on broadcast and journalistic issues.

Types of Outreach

Outreach can encompass a range of activities such as town meetings, written outreach materials and audiocassettes, youth commentary projects, mentoring initiatives, and community awareness events. Here are some examples from Round One grantees:

  • WIC partnered with Alaska Public Radio Network to develop local children's health, nutrition and fitness promotions and activities throughout Alaska;

  • The Alabama Cooperative Extension System partnered with WJAB/Normal, AL, to raise awareness of domestic abuse, with brochures, billboards, resource directories, freestanding displays at malls and plays;
  • The Northwest Missouri Regional Council of Governments partnered with KXCV/Maryville, MO, to tie 12 monthly outreach events to radio programming. Events included a food drive focused on infant nutritional needs and a well-attended health fair;
  • Hospice of Boulder County partnered with KGNU/Boulder, CO, handling project publicity, providing content for an "advance directives" newspaper supplement, and organizing workshops and lectures on a range of end-of-life issues; and
  • C.A.R.E. (the Center for Rehabilitation Through the Arts) partnered with WRTU/San Juan, Puerto Rico, to organize a community celebration that brought together a wide variety of community agencies. Young presenters and performers emphasized the power the arts have in reaching at-risk youth.

Partners Achieve Outreach Results

One of the most important legacies of Sound Partners will be facilitating citizen involvement in health care decision-making. Here are some results from Round One grantees:

  • The Neighborhood Health Care Network and KFAI/Minneapolis, MN, report that as a result of programming and outreach, non-English speaking patients began asking HMOs for state-mandated interpretation services;
  • The Yakima Valley Farm Workers Clinic and the Washington State Department of Social and Health Services worked with KDNA/ Granger, WA, to provide office space and time at the station for Spanish speakers to help farm workers complete food stamp eligibility forms;
  • The Lac Courte Oreilles Tribal Council and WOJB/Hayward, WI, report that they intend to continue promoting the practice of offering only "traditionally-grown" tobacco for ceremonies, clarifying the difference between tobacco grown for prayer and tobacco grown for profit and addiction; and
  • The Partnership for Children led efforts to produce a resource-rich Web site, which archived radio audio files and provided additional links to complement the programming done by KCUR/Kansas City, MO.