Community Engagement Pilot Project Report

8/12/2019 Community Engagement Pilot Project Report

1/14

Community Engagement Pilot ProjectPreliminary Report

Prepared by jesikah maria ross

December 6, 2013


2/14

Page 2

COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT PROJECT BACKGROUND

As part of Capital Public Radios multimedia documentary Class Dismissed, the stationand ten community partners in San Joaquin County worked together from May toNovember 2013 to create and share stories about high school dropout in Californias

Central Valley. This 7-month long project was the first community engagement effortin conjunction with programming from CapRadios documentary series, The View FromHere. The project was led by community engagement specialist jesikah maria ross.

To begin the project, an interdepartmental group of CapRadio staff generated a station-wide definition for community engagement: Community engagement is workingcollaboratively to discover, understand and give voice to community needs, values,and aspirations.

Next, representatives from San Joaquin county agencies, schools, and community-basedorganizations participated in a series of stakeholder convenings to identify key issues

and stories to inform the documentary.

Finally, CapRadio staff and the ten community partners co-created and co-implementeda community engagement plan linked to Class Dismissed. The partners include:

Asian Pacific Self Development and Residential Association-APSARA

Building Futures Academy/Youth Build

Community Partnership for Families of San Joaquin

Fathers and Families of San Joaquin

Family Resource & Referral Center of San Joaquin County

Lao Family Community Empowerment

People & Congregations Together, San Joaquin County

Teen Impact Center

San Joaquin County Department of Education County Operated Schools & Programs

San Joaquin County Office of Probation

Community Engagement Project Goals

The goal of the community engagement plan was to work collaboratively to create andshare stories about high school dropout in the Central Valley in order to:

Help Californians understand the root causes underlying the dropout crisis.

Raise awareness of the connection between health and educational attainment.

Deepen understanding of the connection between the dropout crisis and its impacton local communities.

Increase media representation of underserved or marginalized groups in SanJoaquin County.

Support local dialogue and problem-solving on health, educational attainment andcommunity well-being in San Joaquin County.


3/14

Page 3

Community Engagement Plan & Activities

The plan included the following activities:

Youth Voices WorkshopsA series ofmultimedia workshops involving San JoaquinCounty youth in creating and sharing stories about school dropout for thecommunity media blog RView209.

Community DialoguesPublic conversations to discuss the causes and impacts ofschool dropout using stories produced through the project.

Documentary Preview PartyA gala event, hosted at University of the Pacific,bringing together project participants with producers, reporters and sources fromthe radio documentary to showcase media excerpts and share preliminary outcomes.

Insight with Beth Ruyak CapRadios daily talk show went on the road for the firsttime in a few years broadcasting live from UOP Stockton with a studio audience. Thelive show followed the premier broadcast of the radio documentary. Communitypartners assisted show producers in booking guests and three became guests on theshow.

Cause MarketingDonors to the Fall Fund Drive were offered the option to directpart of their donation to local Friends of the Library groups to support activities thathelp promote educational attainment and community well-being.

This report outlines preliminary results emerging from the community engagementpilot project in three arenas: Youth Outcomes, Community and Partner Outcomes, andCapRadio Organizational Outcomes.1

YOUTH OUTCOMES

In August 2013, the project engaged 97 youthin creating and sharing stories of youthdropout through the community media blogRview209 (http://rview209.tumblr.com/).

80 of these youth participated in the Youth Voices Multimedia Workshops; 55 of them(31 Female, 28 Male) attended at least two of the three sessions. 17 other youthparticipated through a class activity at Building Futures Academy. Collectively, theyouth produced and posted 89 stories. Participants represented more than ten differentcultural communities including African American, Cambodian/Khmer, Caucasian,

Cuban, Filipino, Hmong, Laotion, Latino, Mexican, and Samoangroups underservedand underrepresented in both corporate and public media.

1This is an internal document designed to share provisional outcomes emerging for the project. It is written for

CapRadio staff and community partners; consequently it does not describe project activities, participants, or methodsin detail. Data collected during the course of this project can be made available to other groups of evaluators for thepurpose of exploring the outcomes in more depth as well as demonstrate additional impacts.


4/14

Page 4

RView209had 200 visits (70 unique visitors) in August, and 351 between August andDecember (175 unique visitors). The blog has been visited by 546 viewers through adedicated page on Capital Public Radios The View From Here Class Dismissedwebsite.The average duration of theRView209site visit is 7:13, indicating that users arelistening to multiple stories.

I gained a new perspective upon dropouts andtheir reasons for dropping out.

Participating in the project I gained new ideasto outreach to my community.

I gained experience reaching out to people by

using social media.

Of the 55 youth who attended multiple workshops, 30 responded to a short surveygauging changes in knowledge, skills, and attitude as a result of participating in theproject (54% response rate). Significantly, almost all (26/30) reported having a betterunderstanding of the different reasons why youth dropout of school. Virtually all ofthem (25/30) likewise indicated that they have a better understanding of how youthdropout impacts the wider community. The majority (21/30) felt that they are now ableto create and share stories using a mobile phone and most (17/30) felt more confidentsharing their ideas and experiences with others. The vast majority (21/30) also saidthey are more motivated to participate in efforts to address the issue of school drop outfollowing their experience in the project.

Youth Outcomes Summary

The community engagement projectinvolved a diverse array of youth whoare underrepresented in the media tocreate and share their experiences ofschool dropout. As a result, they havegreater knowledge about the causes andimpacts of school dropout, more skills tomake media to express their views, andgreater motivation to continue toaddress the issue. Their stories giveviewers access to new perspectives onboth youth and the dropout issue. Nearly 550 viewers have visitedRView209. The blogis a repository of stories that youth mediamakers and participating organizations canuse in their efforts to advance educational attainment and community well-being.


5/14

Page 5

COMMUNITY & PARTNEROUTCOMES

Ten diverse community partners cametogether to collaborate with CapRadio

on the project, including alternativecharter schools, community-basedorganizations, a faith network, and agovernment agency. While they eachparticipated in many of the communityengagement activities, the majority oftheir efforts focused on planning andfacilitating the community dialoguesstructured public conversations that explored thecauses and impacts of school dropout using media and educational materials createdduring the project.

Community Dialogues by the NumbersFrom the end of October through the first week of December 2013, community partnersheld 34 community dialogues, most taking place in different Stockton neighborhoods.Collectively, they engaged 437 residents in nearly 40 hours of conversations andcommunity problem-solving. A wide variety of residents attended the dialogues, fromyouth on probation to non-English speaking parents, from teachers and non-profit staffto county workers, social service recipients, and religious congregations.

The dialogues invited participants to write down what they will do to afterwards toadvance youth and community well-being. The high volume of responses (220/437participants completed Action sheets) suggests that the dialogues galvanized

participants motivation to take some action that contributes to youth and communitydevelopment. An initial review of the responses shows that participants committed toactions in four categories: engage in mentoring, get involved in community initiatives,be a positive role model, and provide resources and support.

This discussion made me feel betterequipped and more prepared to help theyouth in our community.

I will be a supportive individual to thestruggling youth. I myself struggled, but Iwas able to succeed because I had a greatsupport system and positive mentors.

I will try to start a program to help theyouth not to be homeless and not to go everynight hungry. I would help them to try to getback in school and get jobs.


6/14

Page 6

[Dialogue participants] were able to expressthemselves and by doing that they were able to heal

from some of the regret and hurt they held in, aswell as connect with others that have been throughsimilar struggles. Youth were touched by some ofthe stories and are able to think critically aboutdropping out because they heard the outcomes

from dropping out of high school.

It gave our students a means to articulate theirfeelings and thoughts about an issue so close tohome. Many shared that they will be the first intheir family to graduate and a lot of students didnot know the resources that are available tosupport them, so through this project there is a lotof hope.

Partner Survey Responses

Six out of ten community partners completed a survey asking about their views onproject impacts.

All six respondents felt that the project benefited the youth who participated in theproject, all of whom came from their organizations. Project partners noted that as aresult of participating in the project, their youth deepened their understanding of thedropout issue, developed self-esteem, gained communication and facilitation skills,strengthened their ability to work in teams, and increased their motivation to engage incivic life. Perhaps this response best encapsulates the range of benefits generated byyouth involvement in the project:

Participation in this project has allowed the youth from the Teen Center to interactwith other community-based organizations in the neighborhood. They were awareof the other agencies, but interactions tended to be one time only or for a specificevent. The youth have enjoyed hearing the stories of other youth in theircommunity and has increased their desire to work to help improve theircommunity. Many of the youth were quiet and maybe did not have the tools to beable to talk about their own stories. This project has increased their confidence andimproved their ability to communicate when speaking about difficult topics. It hasenergized the teens to get involved and to reach out to others.

Organizational Benefits of ParticipationSimilarly, all six respondents reported that their organizations benefited fromparticipating in the project. Some framed these benefits as giving them deeper insightinto the causes of youth dropout:

It not only opened my eyes but opened a lot of other staffs eyes to see that there areseveral reasons why young people drop out.


7/14

Page 7

Others noted how the project helped build their capacity:

This project has provided us with more experience in facilitating dialogues,especially discussing high school drop out prevention.

We have learned new techniques for connecting with youth and our community.

A few commented that this project put a face on a community issue:

I have known about teenage dropouts for a long time but through this project Iwas able to articulate the issues more clearly and listen to the students moreclosely.

We really appreciate the opportunity to work with anew group of people. It has opened the doors for us inmany ways. We have a better understanding of theroot causes of dropouts in our region.

This project has brought organizations closertogether in order to focus on a very important issuethat has wide ranging impacts across the county.

Even though the different organizations havedifferent clients, missions and areas of focus, theentire County is suffering the effects of dropouts andthe long-term effect that has on the communities. Ifwe all continue to raise awareness about this issue,we will be much more successful in finding ways tomake improvements...

Five out or six respondents said participating in the project helped them advance theirorganizational goals related to school dropout. For example, one partner noted:

It really help us because we work in San Joaquin County more than two decadeson education and community development. By participate with this project, it helpsus to improve our current education program such as youth leadership, tutoringprogram, and mental health program. By gained more skills on communitydialogue, our staff now feel more confident to conduct more group discussion, ableto share more effectively (using soundcloud, website, and social medias), and alsocan adapt the community dialogue approach with our current project as well.


8/14

Page 8

Or as another partner put it:

My goal is to provide high school dropouts with the resources they need tocomplete their high school education, learn job skills, develop as leaders andtransform their lives. This project has helped us involve youth in the conversation

to identify the reasons why they dropped out of high school and potential solutionsthat would encourage them to remain in programs that will help them achievesuccess. By engaging youth in the conversation, we have empowered them to takeaction.

All six respondents felt that the project benefited San Joaquin County, primarily by raisingawareness and leveraging organizational efforts:

The San Joaquin County community has benefited by bringing more attention to thegenerational problem of high school dropouts. More focus has been placed on how toaddress this issue.

It has allowed us to come together with partnering agencies in an effort to worktogether towards combating the drop out rate in San Joaquin County.

[It] gives SJ [County] clear reasons to put school dropout on the top priority.

An Opportunity to Forge New Relationships Between Partners

The benefit most often cited was the opportunity to forge new or deeper relationshipswith other local organizations focused on youth and community well-being:

Our organization has benefited by

reconnecting with and meeting newpartners that provide services to ouryouth.

This project has helped connect ourprogram with other agencies in thecounty.

There are a lot of us working onthis issue but the project helped uswith our focus.

We have all benefited from workingtogether, sharing ideas andexploring new ways to work together on community issues. Partnerships have beenstrengthened and the youth have been encouraged to be contributing members ofthe team.

It allowed me to network with other leaders in our community as well.


9/14

Page 9

Some groups have initiated joint projects:

New partnerships have been formed to provide parent cafes to teach parentingskills. We are in the process of negotiating MOUs with Fathers and Families to offerHealing Circles and with With Our Words to offer after-school workshops that

focus on spoken word and music.

Community Partners Continue Work Together

After 7 months of close collaboration on the project, community partners decided at thetheir final monthly meeting to continue working together over the next 6 months todevelop a convening involving systems leaders in which they will share the stories anddata from theRView209and 209Talksactivities. They hope to engage decision makersin identifying concrete steps they will take to decrease school dropout. According to onerespondent,

We are now connecting with partners to develop a plan that can be presented to

our boards and the Board of Supervisors. All partners in this process have made acommitment to continue the dialogue and develop programs that will provideadditional opportunities for youth to complete their high school education and besuccessful.

Partners Share Project Media

Community partners favorable response tothe project moved them to utilize projectmedia in their own outreach andcommunity development efforts. Half of

them (3/6) shared project stories throughtheir websites, Facebook pages, emails, andone partner used the materials to dooutreach at an awards ceremony,

At the annual ABC awards (Action onBehalf of Children), all material wasdisplayed on our agency projects tablefor the participants to read and takewith them. We also had pictures of the community dialogues on a story board withsamples of the comments. A staff person presented her story which was recorded

on the audio section of the website. There were over 240 people in attendance at theevent.

The partners have also presented the project through other venues. Half of them (3/6)shared project media at board of directors meetings, advisory board gatherings, andstaff meetings. Another partner incorporated the project media into a variety of theirprograms:


10/14

Page 10

We still share this message throughout our current program such as nutritionworkshop, tutoring program, resident meeting, mental health program, andcommunity events.

A particularly ambitious partner has gone so far as to share the project stories and

materials nationally,

I provided 13 directors from across the US with a community dialogue kit andgave them a brief presentation on how to use the materials so that they can conductdialogues in their communities. I have provided YouthBuild USA and the CAYouthBuild Coalition with the links to The View From Here website so that all 273YouthBuild programs have access to the on-line program.

This same partner plans to use project materials after the project wraps up:

Gina and I will be co-facilitating a presentation with the Weber Point Coffee Club onDecember 6. The members of this group are retired professors and business

professionals so my hope is that they will sign on as mentors for our youth. I will beusing the dialogues after the first of the year with a focus group of parents andbusiness partners.

Cause Marketing Provides Funding to Friends of Library

Through the cause marketing campaign CapRadio led during its fall fund drive inOctober 2013, 311 donors contributed $1,900 to local Friends of the Libraryorganizations. While we do not have numbers yet for what percentage of these fundswent to San Joaquin County, it is safe to say that some amount did, increasing theircapacity to support educational attainment and community well-being.

Community & Partner Outcome Summary

For the community partners who responded to the survey, participating in the projectgenerated greater knowledge of the root causes and impacts of youth dropout andincreased their skills in using media as atool for raising awareness and publicdeliberation. It gave them more materialsand techniques to engage residents inconversations on school dropout as well asproduced local, relevant stories they canuse in their community development

efforts. It also provided tools andprocesses they can continue to use tosupport local problem-solving on issuesrelated to health, educational attainmentand community well-being. Perhaps mostimportantly, it forged new partnershipsand the groundwork of trust and rapportthat is already yielding new collaborations.


11/14

Page 11

CAPRADIO ORGANIZATIONAL OUTCOMES

Class Dismissedis the second program in the multimedia documentary series, The ViewFrom Here. The program is the first to include a community engagement component asan integral part of the documentary making process. Additional funding was secured for

this community engagement pilot project.

Community Engagement Defined

Community engagement specialist jesikah maria ross facilitated an interdepartmentalworking group through the development of a working definition of communityengagementCommunity engagement is working collaboratively to discover,understand and give voice to community needs, values, and aspirations.

Community Meetings Benefit News Reporters, Producers, and Editors

Several CapRadio producers, reporters and editors traveled to Stockton (and fromFresno) to attend various community convenings during the 7-month project. Theyreported that they returned with confirmation that their reporting and the storiesgenerated for and represented in the documentary were rooted in communityexperience. Meeting and listening to these subject matter experts became part of thereporting process, ensuring that final stories would not only represent the data on highschool dropout, but also ring true to the San Joaquin County students, parents, mentors,teachers and governmental agencyemployees attending the convenings.

The personal and professional connectionsmade during the production of ClassDismissedand associated community

engagement activities resulted in thecollection of new and diverse sources onvarious community health issues. The ViewFrom Hereplans to make these contactsavailable to reporters and editors in theCapRadio Newsroom.

Increased Impact with Community Engagement

In the two months2following the initial broadcast of Class Dismissed, there has been ameasurable increase in several key indicators of digital content distribution and reach.

1301 pageviews of Class Dismissed show page 255 pageviews of 209Talks story page

129 new followers to @CapRadioView Twitter account3

407 new followers to @CapRadioNews Twitter account4

2September 20, 2013 to December 2, 20133From 264 followers on 8/8/13 to 393 followers on 12/3/13. The assumption is that CE contributes to this increase.


12/14

Page 12

Class Dismisseddocumentary was played 518 times (as of Dec 4, 2013)

Insight LIVE with Beth Ruyak was played 95 times (as of Dec 4, 2013)

41 audio clips from RView209 and Class Dismissedweb pages were played a total of1,145 times (as of Dec 4, 2013)

Increased Web Traffic from Stockton

Compared with the three months before the Class Dismissedbroadcast, there has beensignificant growth in web traffic from Stockton IP addresses in the three months postbroadcast. Analytics show:

30.9% increase in overall web traffic, and

91.31% increase in new visits.

These numbers represents a 12.42% growth in percentage of overall visits from StocktonIP addresses: from 1.85% to 2.08%.

Increased Listenership from Stockton

The six community partners who responded to a survey (see above) noted that becauseof participation in the community engagement pilot project, they listen to CapRadio(online or on air) more often. As one partner put it:

Capitol Public Radio is number one on my car settings. I have never listened to itbefore, very much enjoy it now.

All respondents reported that participating in the project has changed their views on

public radio:

I did not know that Capital Public Radio existed. I listen to it almost everydaynow.

I didn't understand the importance of public radio, or even listen to it, untilCapitol Public Radio brought it to my attention. Now I understand that they are tohelp recognize the deficits and assets in our community.

I now view public radio as a partner in getting the word out about issues facingour youth and the good work that programs are doing to address these issues.

It show me that public radio are more concern on society problems, work veryclose with communities, and able to provide the most advance technology.

There is a wide variety of programming that can enhance our agency goals.

4From 1,875 followers on 8/8/13 to 2,282 followers on 12/3/13. The assumption is that CE contributes to thisincrease.


13/14


14/14

Page 14

CapRadio Organizational Outcomes Summary

For Capital Public Radio, the project resulted in increased recognition, use, and loyalty.It created new listeners, increased web traffic (especially from San Joaquin County), andcontributed to a growth in Twitter followers for program specific and general newsaccounts. It forged new connections to diverse communities and, in the process,

diversified the kinds of stories and storytellers featured in station programming. In theprocess, it gave staff new ideas for how community engagement can advancedepartmental goals and the station-wide mission.

CONCLUSION

In a short amount of time and with modest resources, the community engagement pilotproject achieved spectacular results for San Joaquin County community partners, theiryouth, and Capital Public Radio. The station now has an engagement model to scale andadapt for future projects, community partners are aware of how to pitch stories and stay

connected to the station for future collaborations, and participating youth have newskills for sharing their stories over timehopefully on CapRadio outlets.

As with everything related to thiscommunity engagement project, thisreport has been a collaborative effort.Special thanks to the CapRadio staff andinterns who collaborated to produce thisreport.

Catherine Stifter

Alan GibesMadison Niesyn

David Fuentez

Andrew Nixon

Thanks also to the youth, community partners, and station staff who completed thesurveys and shared feedback to contribute to this report.

Documents

Community Engagement Pilot Project Report