New Voices: Loisaida Speaks The Lower Eastside Girls Club

Loisaida Speaks

The Lower Eastside Girls Club

• New York City

CONTACT INFO

The Lower Eastside Girls Club
56 E. 1st St.
New York, NY 10003
(212) 982-1633
E-mail

Web site

To train 32 young women, aged 15-21, to produce weekly podcasts on community news and issues as a first step in building a network of teen podcast correspondents to cover local issues and events. The Lower East Side Girls Club serves predominantly black and Latina girls from low-income neighborhoods.

Check back for future news and updates.

Jump to progress reports:
• Final Report: October 2007
• May 2006
• February 2006
• November 2005
• August 2005

Podcasts, Projects and Partnerships in the Works for Loisaida Speaks

Final Report: October 2007

Lyn Pentecost, founder of The Lower Eastside Girls Club, says her project has been a learning experience for students and teachers alike, “It has encouraged us to look deeply at what communications and digital literacy programs have to offer teens, and the girls are ‘wowing’ our local community with their talents.”

The project has hit a few stumbling blocks along the way. They had equipment problems. And training problems. And training on equipment problems. Original interviews got erased or never recorded because of human error. So, they wound up ditching their cheap consumer digital recorders in favor of professional machines at four times the price. They made a new rule that all audio must be transferred immediately off the portable machines so it wouldn’t get lost. Plus, the crew decided they needed some basic training in recording technique, conducting a solid interview and using digital editing software.

Loisaida Speaks also faced professional staffing challenges, but had success with interns and volunteers. Says Pentecost, interns from NYU were required to fulfill a certain number of hours a week and had chosen to be with us. These extremely talented people helped us move the project forward. In particular, a Daily News reporter came in every Friday and sometimes Saturday to work with and mentor one of our young reporters.”

Pentecost says the best idea she implemented was non-traditional staffing.

“In the end, we decided to invest in training two of our own Cascading Leadership program girls, a high school and a college student. This was done ‘on the job’ as they set up their own interview show: Q&A with R&A (Renee and Amber).”

Amber, still in high school, will work part-time running the podlab after-school programs and Renee will work full time, taking over the blogging classes and helping make sure the site has weekly photos, graphics or video.

While Loisaida has struggled, there is much to be proud of. This summer, the club’s photography teacher led the girls in a multimedia documentary project about Coney Island, which included audio interviews and a small sound/slide show posted on the site.

“While community journalism is our goal, it was hard to find the time to take girls out there, on the streets, after school and on weekends, “ says Pentecost, “so our productions this year for Girls On Air took place in our own living room.” The group began podcasting two of its well-attended weekly programs: “Girls Night Out,” a Friday night inspirational speaker series and “Saturday at la Tiendita,” a performance series showcasing local women singers musicians and poets.

In mid-September 2007 they launched a newly designed main Girls Club site, a central portal for each of the program Web sites, separate sites for blogs and podcasts, and Girls Club Worldwide, a site for online international exchanges. Program updates and new shows will appear on the front page along with a media showcase window that will be updated frequently. “For a busy little organization, it has been quite a feat to manage this massive information reorganization,” says Pentecost.

Also this fall, all girls in the program will complete a short media technology literacy course, blog, create QuickTime movies, and join the citizen journalism team by becoming a school or neighborhood correspondent. Special weekend workshops will be held throughout the year to introduce the girls to interactive programs and Web sites such as Second Life, Google Earth, cool non-violent games designed by women through the NYU ITP program and more. “We are exploring ways to block MySpace, Facebook and their proxy sites and to provide volunteer guides in the computer lab to help girls explore other interests during ‘drop-in’ open lab time,” says Pentecost.

Many other partnerships for growth are in the works, including:

A guest blogger column by successful women.
Community mapping project with Google Earth NYC.
Live streaming from the Howl Festival, a two day community cultural event in a partnership with FEVA – The Federation of East Village Artists.
Recruitment of more volunteer mentors with journalism or writing backgrounds.

Other successes of note: The Girls Club has also recruited a Web developer to its board of directors. An anonymous contributor donated $100,000 to our capital campaign earmarked for a radio station (groundbreaking spring 2008). In May 2007, the Rubin Foundation gave a $15,000 grant to cover equipment upgrades including six new iMacs and a new digital recorder for the journalism lab.

But the real success is the girls who are finding a voice in this project. Says, Pentecost, “Amber is planning to apply to college as a journalism major and Renee, our filmmaking major, is exploring short-form documentary and online venues for her work. As we define new media as our priority, many more girls will become proficient and follow these interests into college.”

More Podcasts are Coming for Fall

May 2006

With its podcasting booth built and equipped, the Lower Eastside Girls Club has taken new steps to get its podcasts online faster, conduct podcasting training for the club’s staff, and reschedule podcasting classes to better fit the girls’ schedules.

One result is that the club has set a new goal of producing and posting at least one podcast a week from club members, starting in October.

The National Association for Multi-Ethnics in Communications (NAMIC) has adopted the club as a special mentoring project and has matched a second-year $5,000 New Voices grant to continue the program.

Moreover, the podcasting program has prompted an anonymous donor, with a college radio background, to pledge $100,000 towards the building of a radio station in the club’s new headquarters. Groundbreaking for the new building will be next May.

The club has hired a part-time staff person with broadcast and technology skills who is doing staff training in July and will run the podcasting project with another instructor, starting in September. This will speed up the posting of podcasts, which has been delayed because of a reliance on university interns to help the students get their pieces online.

“The staff in place was able to produce and record a significant amount of program materials with the girls but were too dependent on outside … interns when it came to teaching the computer skills necessary to get the pieces edited and online,“ said club director Lyn Pentecost. “So, lots of good material remains unposted at this point.“

Podcasting classes for the girls are being moved from weekdays to Friday evenings and Saturday afternoons to avoid conflicts with schoolwork. The girls will have the opportunity to cover club speakers and performers who are regularly scheduled for Friday nights. On Saturdays, the girls can work on individual projects with their journalism mentors.

The club’s podcasting efforts have not gone unnoticed by other organizations. Girls Inc. New York has planned a summer “Pod Camp” in collaboration with the Museum of Radio and Television.

Pentecost said she aims to have the podcasting program “impact community dialogue about important issues,“ especially those in which youth are particularly invested, and “begin to cover NYC-based events and stories, along-side other independent media journalists.“

Eventually, she hopes to include the podcasts in an archive with thousands of photos to “serve as a community record of the changing lives of Lower East Side girls and families over the last decade.“

Loisaida Launches Podcasting Booth, Reaches out for Community Support

February 2006

A December 2005 ribbon-cutting ceremony for The Lower Eastside Girls Club’s new podcasting booth attracted 50 supporters, community members, technology experts, activists and youth.

Women representatives from radio stations WBAI, WNYC, WAMC and NPR visited the state-of-the-art booth, complete with its own computers, recording technology, lighting system, carpeted floors, on-air sign and air conditioner. They also were given a tour of the Girls On Air! Web site, which now includes a how-to section with links to podcasting tips from Apple, Engadget and Voxmedia.org, as well as a link to NPR’s Radio Diaries Handbook.

Loisaida Speaks’ Podcasting How-to Links:
Apple’s How-to.

Apple’s iPod 101.

Engadget’s How-to.

Peter Rukavina’s How Podcasting Works.

Voxmedia’s Podcast Chapter Tool Tutorial.

tuaw.com’s Chapters in Depth.

“The response was overwhelmingly positive, leaving us to believe that we are poised for excellent exposure to citizens beyond our immediate Girls Club community,“ said Milena Herring, the club’s director of development.

To gain more support, the Girls Club will promote the site to a list of more than 2,500 supporters and funders through monthly e-Bulletins. These e-mails will also encourage the media to give exposure to the site and citizens to engage in a dialogue with the girls in the program.

“A number of prominent women in the radio world have expressed interest in helping with the program ... both in terms of instruction and helping to promote the program,“ Herring said. “Our allies in New York City politics, such as [City Council members] Margarita Lopez and Rosie Mendez, have also reached out to us, pledging to come in to the podcasting studio for interviews.“

The Loisaida Speaks project has also received support and sponsorships from other community organizations. The Girls Club was the featured organization on the New York City Grassroots Media Coalition Web site after Program Coordinator Miriam Fogelson and Girls Club girls spoke on a Feb. 4 podcasting panel.

The Girls Club has also made plans to include a podcasting booth in its new 47,000-square-foot permanent facility that will soon be constructed. The group hopes the booth will serve as a focal point for community dialogue. The organization is currently raising funds for the construction of the building.

For now, Herring said, the girls are taking longer to learn the technological aspects and to execute their podcasts from start to finish than was originally anticipated. She attributes the lag to the group’s emphasis on learning the process before creating the product.

“It is important for us, as youth workers, to respect the time young people need while also encouraging them to post their podcasts in a timely manner,“ Herring said.

Several girls are returning from last semester’s class and she hopes this group of “Expert Girl Podcasters” will help speed the learning process for new girls in the program.

“We have much to be pleased about,“ Herring said. “Our girls have taken to their Girls On Air! podcasting booth with great pride, spending free time there and bringing into the club new friends to see and experience it. Our interactive Web site stands as a unique example of the possibility of innovative youth programming and our community has responded with overwhelming enthusiasm, donating equipment, offering time and encouraging potential allies to stop by the Club to visit Loisaida Speaks.“

Girls on Air: Podcasting Launches in Lower Eastside

November 2005

A new podcasting booth has been outfitted with computers, recording technology, a lighting system, carpeted floors and air conditioning and more than two dozen girls at the Lower Eastside Girls Club have been trained in producing podcasts.

The girls helped to construct the booth earlier this year and launched their first podcast online in September as part of the club’s Loisaida Speaks program. There are now five podcasts available for download on their Web site.

“Already, girls have taken the lead in choosing the topics that they will discuss and produce,” said organizers Purva Panday and Lyn Pentecost.

They’ve completed podcasting sessions about sexual harassment and school uniforms. “These sessions were complete with community mothers and activists volunteering to give interviews on their experience of sexual harassment in the community, and the intersection between freedom of expression through clothing and violence in schools as it relates to wardrobe choice,” Panday and Pentecost said.

WHAT WE USE:
Garage Band music editing software.

Soundtrack instrument software.

iTunes audio player software.

iRiver recording equipment.

Microphone Madness microphones.

Apple G5 computers.

Podcasts that address the significance of the 2,000th death of American troops in Iraq and how young women can stay safe while growing up in an urban environment are in the works. The girls are also producing a documentary about Muktar Mai, the Pakistani woman who recently spoke up about being raped at the hands of her village elders.

Community volunteers are helping the girls in various ways. A freelance journalist is helping the girls build interviewing, writing and investigation skills, and a graduate student from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts is helping the girls develop creative ways to use technology.

Journalists from WNYC are scheduled to speak to the girls about radio journalism this winter. And interns from NYU’s Interactive Technology Program are helping to train the girls club staff in using the podcasting production software and equipment and to write a guidebook for using the podcasting lab.

To produce the podcasts, the girls are using Garage Band, which lets them make their own music and experiment with sound systems for background music; Soundtrack, which lets the girls play with different “cuts” of instruments; and iTunes, which they use to listen to their recordings.

“Girls work with two G5 Apple computers, one digital keyboard for their own experimentation, a drum pad and iRiver recording equipment which is used in tandem with Microphone Madness microphones for off-site interviews and recording,” the organizers said.

The girls have not had to rely solely on the off-site microphones to do their work because many of the community leaders and activists they speak with willingly travel to the Girls Club to see for themselves how the podcasting program is working.

The Girls Club is soliciting funding from groups including the New York Women’s Foundation, JPMorgan Chase, the Staples Foundation and the New York Times Foundation to continue the podcasting program.

“We feel it a powerful statement for what is possible when creative minds and the willpower to make it happen come together,” they said.

“Loisaida Speaks” Podcasts Slated for September

August 2005

UPDATE:

Loisaida Speaks has begun podcasting! Their first podcast, Jenasis, can be downloaded on their Web site at http://www.girlsclubworldwide.org/wp/. The Girls Club has also received help from interns from New York University’s Interactive Telecommunications Program.

The Lower Eastside Girls Club in New York City has launched the newest addition to its Web site, www.girlsclubworldwide.org/wp, to house the podcasts that club members will produce for their forthcoming Loisaida Speaks program.

Loisaida Speaks will be a program of weekly podcasts, with Girls Club members, ages 15-21, acting as correspondents and covering community news and issues. The first podcasts are expected to be posted in September.

Twelve girls have been fully trained in recording technology and have already begun recording audio clips to produce their podcasts. Another 12 to 15 are to be trained by the end of August. Also, five members of the club’s staff have been trained in podcasting. Dave Pentecost, an experienced blogger and Web site specialist, has been conducting the training sessions.

Over the summer, a couple of the girls worked to build a new podcasting booth and begin sound-proofing it.

One offshoot of the New Voices grant for the podcasting initiative was a surprise donation of 20 iPod shuffles from Tekserve Corp., a local computer company. The shuffles will be distributed to the girls so they can listen to Girls Club podcasts during their day-to-day activities in the neighborhood. Also, Program Coordinator Miriam Fogelson recently reached out to the women of Rise Up Radio, a Pacifica Radio program, to see about the possibility of a future collaboration with the Girls Club.

The response from the girls has been so enthusiastic, reports Purva Panday, the club’s acting executive director, that the staff is considering ways to incorporate podcasting into all of the club’s programming. For example, current plans to run an arts program in which girls will help teach photography to HIV-positive patients and their families may translate into a more in-depth podcasting project.

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• • Mission Contact Info J-Lab site Staff Links • Guidelines How to Apply FAQs Advisory Board • List of Grantees 2007 Grantee Updates 2006 Grantee Updates 2005 Grantee Updates • Citizens Media Spotlights Good Ideas Glossary • News Releases News about Citizens Media Speeches • • Blog Ask Questions Share Your Story • Sign up for New Voices e-mail updates!	Loisaida Speaks The Lower Eastside Girls Club • New York City CONTACT INFO The Lower Eastside Girls Club 56 E. 1st St. New York, NY 10003 (212) 982-1633 E-mail Web site To train 32 young women, aged 15-21, to produce weekly podcasts on community news and issues as a first step in building a network of teen podcast correspondents to cover local issues and events. The Lower East Side Girls Club serves predominantly black and Latina girls from low-income neighborhoods. Check back for future news and updates. Jump to progress reports: • Final Report: October 2007 • May 2006 • February 2006 • November 2005 • August 2005 Podcasts, Projects and Partnerships in the Works for Loisaida Speaks Final Report: October 2007 Lyn Pentecost, founder of The Lower Eastside Girls Club, says her project has been a learning experience for students and teachers alike, “It has encouraged us to look deeply at what communications and digital literacy programs have to offer teens, and the girls are ‘wowing’ our local community with their talents.” The project has hit a few stumbling blocks along the way. They had equipment problems. And training problems. And training on equipment problems. Original interviews got erased or never recorded because of human error. So, they wound up ditching their cheap consumer digital recorders in favor of professional machines at four times the price. They made a new rule that all audio must be transferred immediately off the portable machines so it wouldn’t get lost. Plus, the crew decided they needed some basic training in recording technique, conducting a solid interview and using digital editing software. Loisaida Speaks also faced professional staffing challenges, but had success with interns and volunteers. Says Pentecost, interns from NYU were required to fulfill a certain number of hours a week and had chosen to be with us. These extremely talented people helped us move the project forward. In particular, a Daily News reporter came in every Friday and sometimes Saturday to work with and mentor one of our young reporters.” Pentecost says the best idea she implemented was non-traditional staffing. “In the end, we decided to invest in training two of our own Cascading Leadership program girls, a high school and a college student. This was done ‘on the job’ as they set up their own interview show: Q&A with R&A (Renee and Amber).” Amber, still in high school, will work part-time running the podlab after-school programs and Renee will work full time, taking over the blogging classes and helping make sure the site has weekly photos, graphics or video. While Loisaida has struggled, there is much to be proud of. This summer, the club’s photography teacher led the girls in a multimedia documentary project about Coney Island, which included audio interviews and a small sound/slide show posted on the site. “While community journalism is our goal, it was hard to find the time to take girls out there, on the streets, after school and on weekends, “ says Pentecost, “so our productions this year for Girls On Air took place in our own living room.” The group began podcasting two of its well-attended weekly programs: “Girls Night Out,” a Friday night inspirational speaker series and “Saturday at la Tiendita,” a performance series showcasing local women singers musicians and poets. In mid-September 2007 they launched a newly designed main Girls Club site, a central portal for each of the program Web sites, separate sites for blogs and podcasts, and Girls Club Worldwide, a site for online international exchanges. Program updates and new shows will appear on the front page along with a media showcase window that will be updated frequently. “For a busy little organization, it has been quite a feat to manage this massive information reorganization,” says Pentecost. Also this fall, all girls in the program will complete a short media technology literacy course, blog, create QuickTime movies, and join the citizen journalism team by becoming a school or neighborhood correspondent. Special weekend workshops will be held throughout the year to introduce the girls to interactive programs and Web sites such as Second Life, Google Earth, cool non-violent games designed by women through the NYU ITP program and more. “We are exploring ways to block MySpace, Facebook and their proxy sites and to provide volunteer guides in the computer lab to help girls explore other interests during ‘drop-in’ open lab time,” says Pentecost. Many other partnerships for growth are in the works, including: A guest blogger column by successful women. Community mapping project with Google Earth NYC. Live streaming from the Howl Festival, a two day community cultural event in a partnership with FEVA – The Federation of East Village Artists. Recruitment of more volunteer mentors with journalism or writing backgrounds. Other successes of note: The Girls Club has also recruited a Web developer to its board of directors. An anonymous contributor donated $100,000 to our capital campaign earmarked for a radio station (groundbreaking spring 2008). In May 2007, the Rubin Foundation gave a $15,000 grant to cover equipment upgrades including six new iMacs and a new digital recorder for the journalism lab. But the real success is the girls who are finding a voice in this project. Says, Pentecost, “Amber is planning to apply to college as a journalism major and Renee, our filmmaking major, is exploring short-form documentary and online venues for her work. As we define new media as our priority, many more girls will become proficient and follow these interests into college.” More Podcasts are Coming for Fall May 2006 With its podcasting booth built and equipped, the Lower Eastside Girls Club has taken new steps to get its podcasts online faster, conduct podcasting training for the club’s staff, and reschedule podcasting classes to better fit the girls’ schedules. One result is that the club has set a new goal of producing and posting at least one podcast a week from club members, starting in October. The National Association for Multi-Ethnics in Communications (NAMIC) has adopted the club as a special mentoring project and has matched a second-year $5,000 New Voices grant to continue the program. Moreover, the podcasting program has prompted an anonymous donor, with a college radio background, to pledge $100,000 towards the building of a radio station in the club’s new headquarters. Groundbreaking for the new building will be next May. The club has hired a part-time staff person with broadcast and technology skills who is doing staff training in July and will run the podcasting project with another instructor, starting in September. This will speed up the posting of podcasts, which has been delayed because of a reliance on university interns to help the students get their pieces online. “The staff in place was able to produce and record a significant amount of program materials with the girls but were too dependent on outside … interns when it came to teaching the computer skills necessary to get the pieces edited and online,“ said club director Lyn Pentecost. “So, lots of good material remains unposted at this point.“ Podcasting classes for the girls are being moved from weekdays to Friday evenings and Saturday afternoons to avoid conflicts with schoolwork. The girls will have the opportunity to cover club speakers and performers who are regularly scheduled for Friday nights. On Saturdays, the girls can work on individual projects with their journalism mentors. The club’s podcasting efforts have not gone unnoticed by other organizations. Girls Inc. New York has planned a summer “Pod Camp” in collaboration with the Museum of Radio and Television. Pentecost said she aims to have the podcasting program “impact community dialogue about important issues,“ especially those in which youth are particularly invested, and “begin to cover NYC-based events and stories, along-side other independent media journalists.“ Eventually, she hopes to include the podcasts in an archive with thousands of photos to “serve as a community record of the changing lives of Lower East Side girls and families over the last decade.“ Loisaida Launches Podcasting Booth, Reaches out for Community Support February 2006 A December 2005 ribbon-cutting ceremony for The Lower Eastside Girls Club’s new podcasting booth attracted 50 supporters, community members, technology experts, activists and youth. Women representatives from radio stations WBAI, WNYC, WAMC and NPR visited the state-of-the-art booth, complete with its own computers, recording technology, lighting system, carpeted floors, on-air sign and air conditioner. They also were given a tour of the Girls On Air! Web site, which now includes a how-to section with links to podcasting tips from Apple, Engadget and Voxmedia.org, as well as a link to NPR’s Radio Diaries Handbook. Loisaida Speaks’ Podcasting How-to Links: Apple’s How-to. Apple’s iPod 101. Engadget’s How-to. Peter Rukavina’s How Podcasting Works. Voxmedia’s Podcast Chapter Tool Tutorial. tuaw.com’s Chapters in Depth. “The response was overwhelmingly positive, leaving us to believe that we are poised for excellent exposure to citizens beyond our immediate Girls Club community,“ said Milena Herring, the club’s director of development. To gain more support, the Girls Club will promote the site to a list of more than 2,500 supporters and funders through monthly e-Bulletins. These e-mails will also encourage the media to give exposure to the site and citizens to engage in a dialogue with the girls in the program. “A number of prominent women in the radio world have expressed interest in helping with the program ... both in terms of instruction and helping to promote the program,“ Herring said. “Our allies in New York City politics, such as [City Council members] Margarita Lopez and Rosie Mendez, have also reached out to us, pledging to come in to the podcasting studio for interviews.“ The Loisaida Speaks project has also received support and sponsorships from other community organizations. The Girls Club was the featured organization on the New York City Grassroots Media Coalition Web site after Program Coordinator Miriam Fogelson and Girls Club girls spoke on a Feb. 4 podcasting panel. The Girls Club has also made plans to include a podcasting booth in its new 47,000-square-foot permanent facility that will soon be constructed. The group hopes the booth will serve as a focal point for community dialogue. The organization is currently raising funds for the construction of the building. For now, Herring said, the girls are taking longer to learn the technological aspects and to execute their podcasts from start to finish than was originally anticipated. She attributes the lag to the group’s emphasis on learning the process before creating the product. “It is important for us, as youth workers, to respect the time young people need while also encouraging them to post their podcasts in a timely manner,“ Herring said. Several girls are returning from last semester’s class and she hopes this group of “Expert Girl Podcasters” will help speed the learning process for new girls in the program. “We have much to be pleased about,“ Herring said. “Our girls have taken to their Girls On Air! podcasting booth with great pride, spending free time there and bringing into the club new friends to see and experience it. Our interactive Web site stands as a unique example of the possibility of innovative youth programming and our community has responded with overwhelming enthusiasm, donating equipment, offering time and encouraging potential allies to stop by the Club to visit Loisaida Speaks.“ Girls on Air: Podcasting Launches in Lower Eastside November 2005 A new podcasting booth has been outfitted with computers, recording technology, a lighting system, carpeted floors and air conditioning and more than two dozen girls at the Lower Eastside Girls Club have been trained in producing podcasts. The girls helped to construct the booth earlier this year and launched their first podcast online in September as part of the club’s Loisaida Speaks program. There are now five podcasts available for download on their Web site. “Already, girls have taken the lead in choosing the topics that they will discuss and produce,” said organizers Purva Panday and Lyn Pentecost. They’ve completed podcasting sessions about sexual harassment and school uniforms. “These sessions were complete with community mothers and activists volunteering to give interviews on their experience of sexual harassment in the community, and the intersection between freedom of expression through clothing and violence in schools as it relates to wardrobe choice,” Panday and Pentecost said. WHAT WE USE: Garage Band music editing software. Soundtrack instrument software. iTunes audio player software. iRiver recording equipment. Microphone Madness microphones. Apple G5 computers. Podcasts that address the significance of the 2,000th death of American troops in Iraq and how young women can stay safe while growing up in an urban environment are in the works. The girls are also producing a documentary about Muktar Mai, the Pakistani woman who recently spoke up about being raped at the hands of her village elders. Community volunteers are helping the girls in various ways. A freelance journalist is helping the girls build interviewing, writing and investigation skills, and a graduate student from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts is helping the girls develop creative ways to use technology. Journalists from WNYC are scheduled to speak to the girls about radio journalism this winter. And interns from NYU’s Interactive Technology Program are helping to train the girls club staff in using the podcasting production software and equipment and to write a guidebook for using the podcasting lab. To produce the podcasts, the girls are using Garage Band, which lets them make their own music and experiment with sound systems for background music; Soundtrack, which lets the girls play with different “cuts” of instruments; and iTunes, which they use to listen to their recordings. “Girls work with two G5 Apple computers, one digital keyboard for their own experimentation, a drum pad and iRiver recording equipment which is used in tandem with Microphone Madness microphones for off-site interviews and recording,” the organizers said. The girls have not had to rely solely on the off-site microphones to do their work because many of the community leaders and activists they speak with willingly travel to the Girls Club to see for themselves how the podcasting program is working. The Girls Club is soliciting funding from groups including the New York Women’s Foundation, JPMorgan Chase, the Staples Foundation and the New York Times Foundation to continue the podcasting program. “We feel it a powerful statement for what is possible when creative minds and the willpower to make it happen come together,” they said. “Loisaida Speaks” Podcasts Slated for September August 2005 UPDATE: Loisaida Speaks has begun podcasting! Their first podcast, Jenasis, can be downloaded on their Web site at http://www.girlsclubworldwide.org/wp/. The Girls Club has also received help from interns from New York University’s Interactive Telecommunications Program. The Lower Eastside Girls Club in New York City has launched the newest addition to its Web site, www.girlsclubworldwide.org/wp, to house the podcasts that club members will produce for their forthcoming Loisaida Speaks program. Loisaida Speaks will be a program of weekly podcasts, with Girls Club members, ages 15-21, acting as correspondents and covering community news and issues. The first podcasts are expected to be posted in September. Twelve girls have been fully trained in recording technology and have already begun recording audio clips to produce their podcasts. Another 12 to 15 are to be trained by the end of August. Also, five members of the club’s staff have been trained in podcasting. Dave Pentecost, an experienced blogger and Web site specialist, has been conducting the training sessions. Over the summer, a couple of the girls worked to build a new podcasting booth and begin sound-proofing it. One offshoot of the New Voices grant for the podcasting initiative was a surprise donation of 20 iPod shuffles from Tekserve Corp., a local computer company. The shuffles will be distributed to the girls so they can listen to Girls Club podcasts during their day-to-day activities in the neighborhood. Also, Program Coordinator Miriam Fogelson recently reached out to the women of Rise Up Radio, a Pacifica Radio program, to see about the possibility of a future collaboration with the Girls Club. The response from the girls has been so enthusiastic, reports Purva Panday, the club’s acting executive director, that the staff is considering ways to incorporate podcasting into all of the club’s programming. For example, current plans to run an arts program in which girls will help teach photography to HIV-positive patients and their families may translate into a more in-depth podcasting project. Back to Home Page \| E-mail This \| Print This


	New Voices is an initiative of J-Lab: The Institute for Interactive Journalism. J-Lab^TM is an incubator for innovative, participatory news experiments and is a center of American University's School of Communication in Washington, D.C. New Voices is funded by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.5 License. Site design, programming and content by Hop Studios.