on airMy School-My Community EXPANDS

FOR 2012-2013 SCHOOL YEAR

Students use ‘Comic Life’ to produce a digital comic book to support an episode of their serial drama dealing with the issue of bullying and respect for others.

Teachers display student produced video dramas on Smart Boards. Following the screening, students discuss the social issues addressed in the episode.

Thanks to a grant from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, Media Impact expanded its nascent My School-My Community program into a total of 11 schools for the 2012-2013 academic year. The program serves some of New York City’s most vulnerable students, addressing key barriers to success, and providing students with core self-efficacy and citizen engagement tools. In this program expansion, Media Impact will leverage the student-produced materials to facilitate discussion and policy change among education stakeholders.

Launched in 2010 in two Urban Assembly Schools (UA School of Business for Young Women and UA Academy of Civic Engagement middle school), the My School-My Community program brings the proven methodology of Entertainment-Education (E-E) directly into the school environment. This program deepens students’ ability to execute successful behavior change, media and community action service campaigns, following a curriculum that differentiates for a variety of student learning styles.

My School-My Community allows students to take ownership of their school and address issues such as violence, gossip, bullying and teenage pregnancy. The program provides a platform for student voices

in the decision-making process and builds the capacity of youth to engage peers, administrators, teachers and parents in building a positive school community.

Currently, students and teachers in all partner schools are in the research process to identify critical social issues to be addressed throughout the academic year. Students are partaking in pre-surveys that will provide vital information to Media Impact’s evaluation team in measuring program impacts. Students are in the beginning phases of experimenting with the technology available to them at their schools such as camcorders, flip cameras, iMovie, Windows Movie Maker, and Garageband. My School-My Community Program Officers are conducting regular mentoring visits to guide teachers in framing the program.

Participating schools:• The Urban Assembly Academy of Civic

Engagement• The Urban Assembly School for the

Performing Arts• The Urban Assembly Academy of

Government and Law• The Urban Assembly Unison School• The Student Voice Collaborative• Landmark High School• Bronx Community High School• Eagle Academy Bronx• Brooklyn Excelsior Charter School• Claremont International School• Bronx International School

Fall 2012

In August, Executive Director Sean Southey and Communications Manager Alex Cottin traveled to Gabon to teach a ‘Communications for Development’ workshop in French to a team of nine Congolese and Gabonese graduate students. The five-day workshop was part of a Masters’ Program in sustainable development. The students comprised the MENTOR (Mentoring for Environmental Training in Outreach and Resource conservation) FOREST team. Prior to the workshop, these students had spent four months together studying biology, ecology, economics, statistics, tropical diseases and extractive industries, among other subjects. As the future leaders of Central Africa’s conservation movement, the students were eager to gain the necessary tools to become skilled professional communicators at the local and global level.

The following is an excerpt from Alex Cottin’s

Stevan Buxt, who joined Media Impact as the STEWARD E-E Coordinator in August, is an experienced team leader and multi-media producer with more than 17 years professional development experience, having led a number of Social and Behavior Change Communication projects. Stevan has lived in South Africa, the United States, Mongolia, Indonesia, Nepal, Zimbabwe and France. Born in South Africa, Stevan holds a BA Honors in Development Economics as well as a Certificate in Management Advancement from the University of Witwatersrand in South Africa.

Alex Cottin joined Media Impact in May 2012 as Program and Communications Manager. Prior to Media Impact, Alex served as Regional Director for Merlin USA, an international medical relief organization, where he led the Communications and Development team. He is a dual citizen of France and the United States and has lived, studied and worked in the States, Europe, Africa, Asia, the Middle East and the Caribbean. He holds a BA from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (in International Studies and Economics) and an MA in International Development from Sciences-Po, Paris.

Brooke Gassel taught the My School-My Community program in New York City schools for two years, and joined Media Impact as program officer of the project in August. Brooke completed the New York City Teaching Fellows program and spent six years teaching English as a Second Language (ESL) in public schools in the Bronx and Manhattan. Originally from Philadelphia, Brooke holds a BA in International Politics from New York University and a Master’s of Education in TESOL from Lehman College in the Bronx.

Lorena Rodriguez joined Media Impact in August as the Bolivia Program Assistant. Lorena is a specialist in communications for development, and has experience with various artistic and cultural productions in Bolivia. She is an expert in marketing, customer service, client management and human resources. She has worked on major film productions such as “La Iluvia de Iciar bollain” (a Spanish and Mexican co-production from Mateo Gil Black Thorn) and produced events in the performing arts.

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New Faces, New Places

For more information about these programs, please visit our website (www.mediaimpact.org).

E-E Workshop field trip in Sierra Leone for the My Chimpanzee-My Community Program.

Please join us in welcoming them to our team!

STEWARDNEW FACES:We are excited to welcome four new people to our team We are ready to start one of

our most ambitious sustainable development programs yet. STEWARD (Sustainable and Thriving Environments for West Africa Regional Development) is a forest conservation and sustainable livelihoods program that focuses on conserving trans-boundary “priority zones” in the Upper Guinean Forest Ecosystem of Guinea, Ivory Coast, Sierra Leone, and Liberia. Media Impact has partnered with USAID and United States Forest Service to realize this three-year project. One of Africa’s two major lowland rain forest regions, the Upper Guinean Forest covers an area of 420,000 square kilometers and represents one of the world’s top biodiversity “hotspots” – regions with substantial reserves of biodiversity, especially endemic species, which are under constant and severe threat from human development. The World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) has designated the Upper Guinean forest as one of its Global 200 critical regions for conservation, as an alarming portion has been deforested. Less than 25 percent of the original forest-cover remains.

STEWARD represents Media Impact’s largest program to date. We will provide the overall communications capability for STEWARD, centering on a 52-episode radio drama that will be broadcast in five languages across the Guinean Forests’ four countries. It is a major step in our efforts to build

Building Capacity for Communications for Development in GABON

our presence in Africa, where we are now working in 10 countries.

Focus group with members of a house workers’ union about human trafficking in Bolivia.

Group photo after a succesful Communications for Development workshop in Gabon.

Human Trafficking inBOLIVIA

Briefs:My Island-My Community receives an award: Our My Island – My Community program in the Caribbean received the “Best Monitoring and Evaluation Methodology” award in July 2012, by the Rainforest Alliance’s Eco-Index. Eco-Index provides information on conservation projects across the Neotropics as a way to connect practioners throughout the region.

First Lady of Chiapas visits Media Impact: The First Lady of Chiapas, Mexico, Isabel Aguilera de Sabines, met with Media Impact staff and Board members in June in our New York offices. The meeting celebrated the success of the telenovela Mucho Corazón and radio novela Corazón de Mujer, both of which were made possible by the First Lady’s efforts, and opened up doors for future collaboration.

Partnership with UNFPA: Media Impact and UNFPA Peru built on its existing relationship to sign a 5 –year collaborative agreement for our work in Peru. Extending this partnership will bring capacity building and Entertainment-Education programming to even more regions of Peru with an emphasis on youth participation and development. The partnership will support UNFPA’s work to facilitate youth access to sexual health services and resources set up to prevent unplanned pregnancies and sexual violence and STIs – especially HIV and AIDS.

REDD in Liberia: Sean Southey, Brenda Campos, and Stevan Buxt traveled to Liberia in September to launch the My Forest-My Community program, which aims to fully engage local Liberian communities in Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD) activities. REDD programs in Liberia offer a powerful mechanism to help make the shift to a more sustainable approach to development. This Fauna and Flora International (FFI) partnership with Media Impact will focus on expanding the capacity of FFI and its local partners to effectively use networking, public awareness and creative communications to shift behaviors regarding sustainable forestry.

Media Impact joins IUCN: On September 5, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) council welcomed Media Impact as an official member. The announcement was made at the IUCN’s 79th meeting, held in Jeju, South Korea, during the World Conservation Congress. IUCN is the world’s oldest and largest global environmental organization.

In partnership with the Narcotics Affairs Section (NAS) of the U.S. Embassy, Media Impact is producing its first human trafficking radio drama. Our team is working closely with the U.S. Embassy in Bolivia, its partners and consultants on human trafficking to develop the initial scripts of a radio drama that will support their efforts in preventing human trafficking, including labor and sexual exploitation. Here is a glimpse of the plot line:

blog, documenting his experience teaching the workshop:

[The symbiotic nature and organic connection between teachers and students] is precisely what made the week magical.

We taught them a thing or two about communication and they taught us tons about this beautiful part of the world and

their expertise as a way to preserve it. We often say that communications is a two way tool and that its power and impact lie in the ability to balance speaking and listening. I

can’t overemphasize just how important this is and my experience with the MENTOR

fellows this past week has really validated it. I don’t know many teachers who can walk away from a class having learned as much as I did in the process. That’s yet another testament to the power of communication.

To read more, please go to http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Gabon/blog-736129.html

“La Caldera” is a small border town where many different paths, realities, people, languages and colors have become

intertwined as they experience tender, raw, and violent moments each and every day.

Among La Caldera’s residents is Canela, a lonely, yet brave teenager who has many dreams for her life. Simon is an innocent

boy living in another neighborhood of La Caldera who comes from a wealthy family in the countryside. He works as

a household servant and prefers living a reclusive, rather anonymous life. Another

key resident of La Caldera is the mysterious Senor X who observes all happenings from the shadows. Senor X has recently arrived in La Caldera after fleeing a dismal job he

had for many years that prohibited him from seeing daylight while he worked.

Canela, Simon, and Senor X all have a tragic experience in common: they have been forced into one of the most horrific,

large-scale human trafficking crime circles at different times in their lives. Will this young boy, teenager, and adult man

succeed in escaping their abusers of the past and present? Or will they continue

living in a life or death situation? Will they learn how to watch out for themselves?

The First Lady of Chiapas with our Board Chair, Fred Cohen, and Vice Chair, Rita Fredricks Salzman.

Inspiring Change One Story at a Time:A farewell from team member Lindsey Wahlstrom

Double the impact of your gift to PCI-Media Impact by participating in your employer’s matching gift program. These programs match gifts that employees (as well as retirees, spouses and directors) make to non-profit organizations. Matching gift levels vary by company, but regardless of the amount, these gifts represent a significant support for us. Your human resources department can help you fill out the paperwork.

DOUBLE YOUR GIFT

After three wonderful years working full time for Media Impact, Lindsey Wahlstrom, our previous Communications Manager, has gone on to pursue a Master’s degree at the Columbia Mailman School of Public Health. While at school, Lindsey will continue to support Media Impact’s work by managing the Mentor (internship) Program. We are thrilled that Lindsey will continue to be onboard and wish her all the best in this new endeavor. Here’s an excerpt from a personal essay written by Lindsey about her experience with Media Impact:

“Parents should give their children roots and wings. But I’m worried we only gave you wings.”

The words of my father have often echoed in my head as I meandered through verdant hills and lazy rivers of sleepy villages in countries far from my own. Over the years, my trips have taken me farther off the beaten track and for the past decade, all winding paths seemed to lead to hidden hamlets inhabited by communities living in harmony with nature. Unlike the diagnosis my father offered for my seeming inability to sit still, the communities I visited were rooted to place, tethered by thousands of years of history. Most had no interest in the “wings” part of his equation.

There is a special symbiosis that happens when a community stew-ards one piece of land for thousands of years. In Meghalaya, India, it takes the shape of living bridges made from the roots of trees that offer safe passage to their custodians. In the Amazon, this partner-ship restores forests plundered for natural resources. Unfortunately, pressures from a quickly increasing global population and even faster growing patterns of consumption constantly threaten this delicate balance. In recent travels, I have witnessed mountains disappear as people search for gold; bubbling brooks turn stagnant and toxic from sludge seeping in from nearby oil wells; and deforested hills crumble in landslides after the seasonal rains were made worse by climate change.

For the past three-and-a-half years, I have been honored to be a part of Media Impact’s important work, first directly supporting the development and implementation of programs, and later overseeing Media Impact’s external communications. After seeing the catharsis a young-man felt after portraying himself in a drama about abuse, and hearing the haunting sobs of relief that escape listeners who call in to say “this happened to me too,” there is no doubt in my mind that stories have the ability to change lives and, quite possibly, the world.

Lindsey Wahlstrom reflects on the power andimpact of communication.

Thank you for your support!

PCI-Media Impact -- 777 United Nations Plaza, 5th Floor, New York, NY, 10017 USA -- 1.212.687.3366 -- www.mediaimpact.org

But You Made the Front Page!Sonny Fox, who served as PCI-Media Impact’s Chairman from January 1993 to December 1995, then as Vice President of US Programs from January 1996 to December 2005, is publishing a memoir entitled, But You Made the Front Page! “From the joys and torments of a too-accelerated Brooklyn Jewish childhood and the horrors of be-ing a German prisoner in World War II, through a thrilling and bumpy career in every aspect of tel-evision imaginable, private and public, Sonny Fox shares intimate stories of a man who often suc-ceeded yet learned how to fail without ever being a failure — and has felt grateful for every bit of it.”

Here is an excerpt from the Memoir:

Trying to change behavior is tough, and that’s the business PCI was in. It was relatively easy to raise the profile of a problem. The difficult part was to pierce the decades—or centuries—of custom and make a difference. In St. Lu-

cia, the job was made even more difficult when the writers were told they could not use the word ‘condom’ due to the

sensitivity of the church. Our writers decided to use the word ‘catapult’ each time condom would have occurred. The per-son would ask, “Are you getting a lubricated catapult?” Or a woman would say, “Not without using a catapult.” As the series continued, listeners started to use the term ‘catapult’ to show they were ‘in the know’. Eventually, an organization on the island decided to market condoms using the brand

name “Catapult.” It soon became the biggest selling brand in St. Lucia. In the ad business, this is known as a tracer—the

thread one can follow from its origin on the program into society. This would have to go down as a unique tracer in

the annals of research! If you’re interested in the book or would like more informa-tion, please contact Alex Cottin – Communications Manager.