Community Media Education
The Grandparents StoryLab
The Grandparents StoryLab is a new intergenerational storytelling project I’m developing with Clara Ibarra. We connect NYC's oldest and youngest generations through podcasts and art. We teach kids interview and audio storytelling skills and then they interview an elder in the community. After we record and edit the podcast, the children illustrate the story. Listen to a couple of our stories broadcast on NPR, Double Dutch Dreamz and Jillian Lazaridis a 73-year-old marathon runner.
Indykids News
In 2019 I was the managing editor of Indykids, a national newspaper produced by and for kids aged 9-15 years. This role involved editing stories, running journalism and podcast workshops and mentoring remote writers. This newspaper is also used in classrooms across the country as part of social studies curricula. I introduced podcast programming this year. Listen to one of our stories produced and edited by Indykids reporters: “You are not helpless. You are not powerless” – How Everyday New Yorkers are Supporting and Providing Sanctuary for Immigrants
Next Generation Media
Next Generation Media was an eight month training and mentoring project for twenty young people from immigrant communities. It was first delivered in Melbourne in 2012. I designed and managed this project in collaboration with the Center for Multicultural Youth, SYN Youth Media and Radio Adelaide.
The project began with a two week intensive summer school where participants took the units, ‘Introduction to the Media’, ‘Leadership Training’ and ‘Radio Broadcasting’.
After the summer school the participants commenced 12 weeks of radio broadcasting at Melbourne’s youth community radio station, SYN Media. During these months volunteer professional journalists supported each team of four, mentoring them and assisting with program planning and technical support. After the training and broadcasting the participants graduated in the presence of their friends and family. I wrote a handbook outlining the all aspects of the project so that it can be replicated anywhere around the country. It relies on a partnership model between a community radio station and a youth organisation. This project received an award of excellence from the Community Broadcasting Foundation of Australia and has since been replicated in a number of cities around the country.
Graduates of the program have gone onto broadcast national programs on 3CR, a small group started the first ever Hazaragi radio program in Australia and others have published articles in the The Age newspaper. One of the graduates went onto to not only produce a national women's current affairs program but she also runs Girls Radio Club, training workshops for young women from Indigenous, refugee, asylum seeker and migrant backgrounds, .
This is a handbook I wrote to help Migrant Resource Centers realize the opportunity that multilingual community radio presents as a settlement resource for migrant communities. For a copy of the handbook click here. I also created a separate handbook for radio stations, showing best practices in engaging new migrant and refugee communities at community radio stations.
National Youth Media Conference 2010
This is a project I designed and managed in collaboration with the Australian Indigenous Communications Association. It was the first national youth media conference with a focus on Indigenous young people and young people from diverse cultural backgrounds. With presentations and workshops led by journalists and other media professionals, the conference created opportunities for young people to get in involved in community media and provided pathways to build careers in the media. Some prominent presenters included: Veteran political journalist Paul Bongiorno, broadcaster, actor and writer, Faustina Agolley, journalist Auskar Surbakti, musician and broadcaster Kween G (Kibone) and Bernard Namok Senior Broadcaster at TEABBA Top End Aboriginal Bush Broadcasting Association.