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In March 2020, COVID-19 created a learning crisis across our entire country. The Kansas Department of Education recognized an opportunity to partner with PBS affiliates across Kansas to create shows to limit the “summer slide” for students at the elementary, middle and high school levels. This initiative became known as Learning Across Kansas.
This new, community-focused program is aimed at bringing together a diverse group of voices to discuss the important issues facing our state and communities. With a new episode expected to air each quarter, the series provides a unique opportunity for all to listen and learn. The SCETV team engaged with viewers and encouraged community discussion via Facebook Live, Zoom and other digital platforms.
The Content Collaborative led by WUCF is a strategic partnership initiative among arts and news organizations in Central Florida to develop and distribute content with limited resources and staff. The Collaborative leverages world-class content created by community partners with WUCF’s production expertise to provide new on-air programming for public media audiences.
To salvage a 40-year community tradition in the midst of Covid-19, WJCT worked across the entire organization to create a multi-platform engaging and immersive Jazz Festival Weekend experience for its community.
Speaking Grief is a multiplatform initiative aimed at creating a more grief-aware society. It validates grief as a normal, healthy part of the human experience, addresses the importance of support from friends and family and offers guidance on how to show up for people in their darkest moments.
As a part of WGVU’s ongoing work to foster an environment of diversity, equity and inclusion, WGVU Public Media is partnering with community leaders of color. Shaping Narratives participants, who are producing work with their communities and for their communities after receiving 30 weeks of training in areas including, decolonizing the narrative, community organizing as a distribution strategy and media skills.
The Memorial Day death of George Floyd at the hands of former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin set off protest around the globe. “Police Reimagined: The Future of Public Safety” is a four-part community conversation series that attempts the to answer the question: Can you reduce funding for police, and limit their role in communities, while ensuring public safety for all communities?
In 2018, WFYI embarked on a content and community engagement collaboration with The Indianapolis Recorder, the newspaper that serves the African American community in our metropolitan area. The partnership has significantly expanded in the COVID-19 pandemic.
Lakeshore Public Media hosted a multi-platform series of live conversations with community leaders, political figures and law enforcement to discuss recent events related to the protests surrounding the death of George Floyd in Minnesota.
The Voicebot Chronicles is a groundbreaking interactive series about navigating a world where humans are increasingly talking with machines — and machines are talking back. It is a story about voice, navigated with your voice.
WCNY created the TV Classroom Network in response to the educational needs of students, primarily the roughly 12,000 students in Central New York caught in the “digital divide” without access to broadband and therefore unable to participate in online learning offered by their schools. Beginning in March, 2020 WCNY produced and broadcast 45 hours per week of instructional television, preK-12 classroom lessons in key academic subject areas taught by local educators on a special set at WCNY. For those with Internet access the content was also livestreamed and available on-demand on the WCNY website.
Science Pub BING engages the community of the Southern Tier of New York and connects them with regional scientists and experts in a lectures series followed by lively Q&A sessions. These events are designed to offer the public a greater understanding of the science, technology and engineering happening at our local universities and area businesses, while these experts hone their science communication skills bringing complex topics to the general public.
WUFT created a first-time event for North Florida fans of Downton Abbey. This in-person event included a costume contest, admission to a movie screening and an opportunity for the community to interact with other local PBS supporters to discuss their one of their favorite shows. Two events took place in one day, and participants were able to give back to WUFT monetarily with a donation for admission to the event.
The KPBS Summer Music Series is a multimedia series that highlights San Diego’s diverse music scene with in-depth interviews and music from local artists. This year we’ve made an effort to increase the focus on diversity both in the interviews and with the selection of artists. People need a break from the news cycle, but it’s also important to address the current climate and ongoing struggle for equal rights, and music is a good platform for those conversations.
In response to the COVID-19 crisis, WKAR shifted resources to launch a new show “COVID-19: Answers and Insight,” a weekly series of roundtable discussions with experts to examine the health crisis and provide the public with the much-needed accurate, timely information. The program aired on PBS stations across Michigan, with the first episode airing on March 26 — just two weeks after schools closed in Michigan and WKAR employees were directed to work from home.
Concert halls and theatres closed because of the COVID-19 pandemic, and people are mostly staying at home, which has changed the way we enjoy music performances. WXXI’s HomeStage is a virtual concert experience, with local musicians of all genres performing in their homes for all to enjoy in our homes.
Making Buffalo Home is a local multi-platform project from Buffalo Toronto Public Media designed to share the stories of Buffalo’s newest neighbors from around the world and celebrate the rich immigrant history of the city through powerful storytelling. Through digital videos, television programs, radio features, social media and in-person events, viewers and listeners learned more about each other, creating a better understanding of our collective immigration story.
“Friends & Neighbors” is a 30-minute television program exploring what it means to live and work in Northwest Indiana. The series celebrates the idea that behind the multitude of good things that happen in our region is a diverse group of interesting people. It is their stories we strive to share.
“The Learning Space” is an educational program created by Maine Public in partnership with the Maine Department of Education and Educate Maine. It is geared toward students in grades 3-5 and their teachers, and is intended to help bridge the gap for students without reliable internet access during COVID-19. It aired on Maine Public’s primary television channel and reached more than 180,000 people per episode, or roughly 90 classrooms.
Modeled after NPR’s Tiny Desk Concerts and KLRU/PBS’s Austin City Limits, Small Studio showcases some of the best bands in Indianapolis, giving local and regional talent a chance to shine. National and regional artists have also performed in WFYI’s Small Studio, with an emphasis on bands and musicians with a connection to public media and/or the Hoosier state. The series is WFYI’s inaugural digital-first program.