Lawrence is Growing, Lawrence, KS 2001

Partners:

Lawrence Journal-World
6News
J-W Web Works

With "Lawrence is Growing," the partners helped citizens of the university town, long polarized on the issue of growth, find common ground and make concrete proposals to public officials on how to manage growth.

The six-month project began April 15, 2001, with a three-week series about the history of growth in Lawrence, alternatives for future growth and how other communities had managed it. Stories appeared daily in the paper and on TV, while the Web site offered content from both as well as interactive elements including bulletin boards for comment and a clickable map showing how Lawrence had grown over the years and various scenarios for future growth.

Reporting tools for the series included small group discussions with citizens and a poll of 528 adults in the area. At the conclusion of the series, the partners hosted a 90-minute town-hall forum, broadcast live on cable channel 6, that drew more than 200 people to discuss growth issues, hopes and concerns. Dozens more called or emailed with questions for the panel of stakeholders the partners assembled. Acting on suggestions from participants, the partners held a series of six public forums over the summer, each on one of six key growth issues citizens identified: schools, traffic, transportation, open space, business and economic development and "social capital," the value of people knowing one another and working together. Each one drew 30 to 50 people.

In the fall, the partners held another town-hall forum to develop a final report on growth issues. The eight-page pull-out tabloid, "Common Ground Found," was delivered to city, county, school and university officials in Oct. 21, 2001.

Contact:

Richard Brack
Managing Editor
Lawrence Journal-World
PO Box 888
Lawrence, KS 66044-0888
Phone: (785) 832-7194
Email: rbrack@ljworld.com

Millenium Leadership Project, WA 1999

Partners:

The Front Porch Forum
The Seattle Times
KUOW-FM

The partners sought input from some 40 Seattle area citizens for a project exploring local leadership and what the consensus-loving region seeks in those who lead its public institutions. The partners hosted informal discussions with one group of people who head up leadership development programs and a second group of recognized leaders from Seattle's communities of color. They also held two focus groups with residents to explore the topic.

The partners concluded that participants wanted leaders who show a willingness to take risks, creativity, confidence, commitment and humility. However, few participants could name any local leaders who embodied these traits or whom they felt were well qualified and positioned to lead the region in the future. Instead, they spoke of a lack of leadership on local issues, with more conservative participants believing the private sector was better equipped than the public sector to address these issues.

Reporters used the information to frame a series of stories that ran in The Times and on KUOW in the fall of 1999. The effort proved useful in covering breaking news, as well. When the Seattle police chief was forced to resign after protests disrupted the World Trade Organization meeting in 2000, the partners were able to report what the community was looking for in a new chief.

Contact:

Marion Woyvodich
1138 North 82nd Street
Seattle, WA 98103-4405
Phone: (206) 522-5754
Email: MWoyvodich@aol.com

Care & Consequences, Binghamton, NY 1999

Partners:

Press & Sun-Bulletin
WSKG Public Broadcasting

The Pew Center supported a series of public forums, newspaper stories and radio and television broadcasts, which began in May 1998 and ran periodically through 1999, to educate the aging population in and around Binghamton, NY, on issues related to the end of life. The partners also launched a Web site, www.careproject.net, dedicated to helping people plan in advance - rather than at a time of crisis - for the ethical, financial, legal, spiritual and medical decisions associated with dying. The Web site received about 1,330 hits per month in 1999.

Several hundred people attended various community meetings held throughout the year on different aspects of dying. Through those meetings and other events, the partners distributed some 2,400 wallet-size "health care proxy cards" that could be filled in with emergency contact information and special instructions for end-of-life health care.

WSKG broadcasts included a radio town meeting to kick off the project, live radio and TV call-in shows and a town meeting simulcast on both radio and television to wrap up the series. The partners also received separate funding to purchase reference books and audio-visual materials on the issues, which remain in permanent collections at 52 public libraries in the Binghamton area.

Contact:

Juan Martinez
WSKG Public Broadcasting
601 Gates Rd.
Vestal, NY 13850
Phone: (607) 729-0100

Living with Cancer, Elmira, NY 2000

Partners:

Star-Gazette
WETM-TV (NBC)
WSKG-FM, WSKG-TV

A year-long project looked at the impact of the region's higher-than-average cancer rate and the steps citizens can take to prevent the disease. Monthly installments in the paper, each focusing on a different aspect of the disease, were complemented by radio and television news segments and special TV programs as well as interactive online quizzes and links to other helpful sites.

Reporting was informed both by a poll of 405 Chemung County residents that showed 60 percent had cancer in their family and by an advisory group of 12 "core sources," including two cancer patients, an oncologist, a nurse, a social worker, a state legislator and others. They suggested and helped frame stories for the series.

The first package of stories ran in January 2001 with an overview of the problem in the Elmira area and profiles of people affected by cancer. A public television special that month featured health care and cancer officials talking to the paper's project editor and program host Bill Jaker.

Several non-profit groups sought to get involved in the project. The Breast Cancer Network offered to solicit sources so the paper developed a form that the Network distributed to patients. Reporters interviewed several women who returned the form.

The paper also designed a questionnaire that was distributed to 500 cancer patients through the American Cancer Society and the Falck Cancer Center. Some 30 patients returned the form and, in March, the paper ran a full page of the comments and advice obtained through the questionnaire.

In April, when the series turned its focus to prevention, WSKG ran its second special report which featured Jaker getting a colonoscopy, a procedure for early detection of colon cancer. In September, the Web page supporting the project posted a quiz testing users knowledge of cancer. Another quiz, in November, helped users determine their risk level for lung cancer. The site also linked to Harvard University's cancer risk calculator and an "ask the expert" site where users could email lung cancer questions to an oncology nurse. The site received 44,000 hits through the course of the year, with the number of users increasing each month of the project.

The final installment ran in the Star-Gazette Dec. 16 and WETM broadcast a two-part special, Dec. 16 and 23, wrapping up the project. Reprints were distributed to area medical offices and health classes.

Contact:

Jane E. Sutter (former Executive Editor, Star-Gazette)
Managing Editor
Democrat and Chronicle
55 Exchange Blvd.
Rochester, NY 14614
Phone: (585) 258-2301
Email: jsutter@democratandchronicle.com

PBS' Livelyhood 1998

Partners:

The Working Group
KQED-TV
Public Radio's "Marketplace"

The critically acclaimed "Livelyhood" project, a four-part, public television series on the changing nature of work in the United States, used a national poll, town hall-style discussions, the Internet and a specially devised "tool kit" to encourage working Americans to confront and discuss emerging challenges and issues in the workplace. The Pew Center helped to support some of that outreach.

The four, one-hour television shows, which debuted on PBS, Nov. 21, 1997, covered the issues of downsizing, working families, employee ownership and community solutions to workplace problems. By design, the shows were intended not as passive entertainment but as a stimulus to discussion. To that end, the producers worked with other media to create forums for discussion. One tool used was a "Livelyhood Index," developed from the national poll results, which capsulized the findings in such statements as: "Percentage of working Americans who say they have more than one wage-earner in the household: 62." Discussion leaders, who included talk-radio hosts, could use the index as a jumping off point to get listener opinion on the issues.

After the "Working Family Values" installment, aired May 29, 1998, the producers worked with KCET-TV in Los Angeles on a town hall discussion of work issues. For the September 1998 broadcast of "Honey, We Bought the Company," which featured a Maine company, the producers partnered with the University of Southern Maine for a town hall meeting in Portland on employee-ownership issues. The producers also held a roundtable discussion in Oakland. The final installment, "Our Towns," aired Jan. 12, 1999.

Contact:

Patrice O'Neill
Executive Producer, Livelyhood; Co-Founder
The Working Group
1611 Telegraph Ave., Suite 1550
Oakland, CA 94612
Phone: (510) 268-9675
Email: poneill@theworkinggroup.org

Commuter Chronicles, San Francisco, CA 1996

Partners:

San Francisco Chronicle
KQED-FM (NPR)
KRON-TV (NBC)

The partners in the two-year-old "Voice of the Voter" project decided to join forces for a non-electoral effort in 1996 and took on the issue of traffic congestion in "Unlock the Gridlock." Some 1,500 people participated in five public forums held between May 1996 and April 1997, exploring the various factors in the Bay Area's choking traffic jams. The forums gave citizens the chance to question elected officials and transportation executives about the lack of coordination in mass transit and search for solutions. Citizens could also ask questions through clip-and-send coupons in the Chronicle. Coverage also included live broadcasts on KQED and stories on KRON.

All the partners produced series throughout the year on topics related to the traffic issue, such as inadequate traffic regulation and poorly planned development that put more cars on the road. The Chronicle also conducted a poll of Bay Area residents about housing and land use and how it relates to traffic.

Results included broader public input into a new Bay Bridge design and two new pieces of state legislation. One bill gave the Metropolitan Transportation Commission authority to coordinate routes and operations, bringing a measure of organization to what had been a fragmented system. The other - passed and signed into law after a series of articles about red-light running and interviews with victims of injuries - doubled the fine for going through a red light.

Vlae Kershner
Regional Editor
San Francisco Chronicle
901 Mission St.
San Francisco, CA 94103
Phone: (415) 777-8858
Email: vk@sfgate.com

Raul Ramirez
News Director
KQED-FM
2601 Mariposa St.
San Francisco, CA 94110-1400
Phone: (415) 553-2253
Email: raul_ramirez@qm.kqed.org

Stacy Owen
News Director
KRON-TV (NBC)
1001 Van Ness Ave.
San Francisco, CA 94109
TEL: (415) 561-8008
FAX: (415) 561-8621
EMAIL: owen@kron.com

Daniel Rosenheim
News Director
KPIX-TV
855 Battery Street
San Francisco, CA 94111-1597
TEL: (415) 765-8618
FAX: (415) 765-8844
EMAIL: rosenheim@kpix.cbs.com

Across Generations: What We Owe Each Other, St. Paul, MN 1996

Partners:

St. Paul Pioneer Press
KARE-TV (NBC)
Wilder Research Center

Following up on the success of its "Safer Cities" project, the paper focused on intergenerational conflict with the eight-week, 14-part series "Across Generations: What Do We Owe Each Other?" First, a poll of 1,528 adults in the Twin Cities area showed some of the differences between people of different generations - young people, for example, were less likely to have a religious preference. Then a team of reporters explored the topic through "immersion reporting" - spending long periods of time with interview subjects in places such as nursing homes or day-care centers to create more trust and avoid superficial, sound-bite quotes.

The paper also invited readers to share their stories of intergenerational connections, generating more than 200 responses. A class of eighth graders was given cameras to document a special relationship with an older person. These elements were included in the package, which began running Nov. 10, 1996. The package also included suggestions for closing generational gaps - such as adopting a grandparent or creating a family history book or video - and a clip-and-send coupon for readers to pledge to take action to create connections between generations.

The paper sponsored a four-hour intergenerational dialogue at the Mall of America, attracting some 70 people of all ages. It also distributed more than 2,000 "tool kits" with tips and suggestions for connecting with different generations.

Walker Lundy
Editor
St. Paul Pioneer Press
345 Cedar St.
St. Paul, MN 55101-1057
Phone: (612) 228-5480
Email:lundy@pioneerplanet.infi.net

Brett Benson, Project Leader
St. Paul Pioneer Press
345 Cedar St.
St. Paul, MN 55101-1057
Phone: (612) 228-5438

Kay Harvey
St. Paul Pioneer Press
345 Cedar St.
St. Paul, MN 55101-1057
Phone: (612) 228-8468

Kate Parry
St. Paul Pioneer Press
345 Cedar St.
St. Paul, MN 55101-1057
Phone: (612) 228-5400

In a Big Jam, Hackensack, NJ 1995

Partners:

The Record
TCI, Northern New Jersey
Caucus Educational Corp.

"The Quality of Life Project" comprised a number of ambitious efforts to stimulate informed public dialogue about how to preserve Bergen County's best qualities in an era of increasing congestion, rising crime and a changing economy.

The first step was to find the consensus on what qualities should be preserved. The paper polled 600 area residents and more than 200 county leaders about the region's strengths, weaknesses, challenges and opportunities. It also asked readers to respond to the same questions through a coupon in the paper and received more than 1,200 responses. Then it brought in task forces of residents and public officials for roundtable, brainstorming sessions.

Among the most critical findings: traffic congestion was the number-one concern, outranking crime and taxes on the list of reasons not to live in Northern Jersey. Education was also a top concern. The poll also found a pervasive sense of powerlessness among residents - almost half said they didn't have much say about what happens in Bergen County.

Each of these findings was tackled over the course of the two-year project. In 1995, the paper examined local schools. Among the stories was a seven-part series on the achievement gap in Teaneck, NJ, which was informed by a poll and a town forum attended by 400 residents.

The paper also joined forces with TCI cable and WJUX to hold televised countywide call-in town meetings so that citizens could ask questions directly of elected officials. The 90-minute show, "Local Live," received more than 70 calls when it debuted in April, demonstrating residents' desire to connect with local government and feel they were being heard.

Throughout 1996, The Record produced "In a Big Jam," a series of special sections examining the causes and solutions to severe regional transportation problems. As part of the reporting, the paper convened a transportation task force of citizens and transportation and planning officials to develop strategies for uncovering solutions.

When the series began running, Feb. 18, 1996, the Record asked readers to offer solutions. The paper chose 25 of the responses and published them, along with an analysis by transit experts of each suggestion. The partners gave citizens a chance to talk to transit officials directly on an edition of "Local Live." After the series concluded in November, a local Chamber of Commerce asked the paper to co-sponsor two brainstorming conferences on the topic, which attracted 200 people.

Glenn Ritt (Former editor, The Record)
Publisher
Cape Codder
P.O. Box 39
Orleans, MA 02653
TEL: (508) 247-3260
FAX: (508) 247-3201
EMAIL: GRitt@exchange.communitynews.com