2007 Grantees

Anansi’s Web

CONTACT INFO

Central District Organization
P.O. Box 64
Gary, IN 46402
(317) 679-3746
E-mail

Web site

To build a news and information hotline for Gary, Ind., accessed via web, phone, mobile text messaging and mailing lists to supplement available media. Content will be generated by students and young professionals and coordinated by the Central District Organization, a group led by young professionals who have returned to Gary to live.

Check back for future news and updates.

• March 2008
• November 2007
 
 

March 2008

Anansi’s Web (the program formerly known as NeoNewsNetwork) has launched a new blog for student participants in its graphic and Web design internship program. Coordinator Lori Peterson says the blog, called ”Get on My Level,” will enable youth to “share their voice on a range of issues specific to their local community of Gary, Indiana, including education, racism and violence.” For example:

CHAT: WHAT ABOUT THE COMMUNITY?
ROCHE: So now that we have everybody on a computer ... 
let’s get this conversation started ... 
When you look around your neighborhood, at the buildings, at the schools, etc., what do you think isn’t working well? 
What concerns you?

LiL.Bit: um ... thinking ...


BLACK PRINCE: nobody cares is what i think, thats why the neighborhoods are bad.


ROCHE: What do you think they should be caring about?


BLACK PRINCE: the neighborhood


CHARISE: they should be caring about tha teens that getting pregnant

ROCHE: OK


BLACK PRINCE: and the people that’s getting killed

On Tuesdays and Thursdays the students continue to commute to Street Level Youth Media in Chicago where they learn Illustrator, Photoshop and InDesign. On Wednesdays, they meet in Gary, hammering out tough social issues and strategizing how to get their messages out.  They recently produced a series of provocative posters aimed at shaking local residents out of apathy and into action.

Central District Organization, the project’s sponsoring organization, has developed a partnership with Gary Life Education Initiative, an offspring of Gary Life Magazine.  In addition to finding a home for the print projects the students created last year, Gary Life is providing professional mentors to match with youth according to their career ambitions.

Managing a project focusing on empowering poor youth of color has been an eye-opener, says Peterson. Commuting to Chicago for trainings has proven expensive, given the cost of fuel. The project is still trying to launch a mobile hotline, the core of its original proposal. The vendor can only provide a long-distance area code, a potential cost-barrier to access.  Peterson says they are researching options, including using an easy to remember toll-free number.  And they have been networking to generate interest among other community organizations that could use the hotline to post news and events.

November 2007

What was originally conceived as a basic information hotline backed up by a Web site has been transformed into what Neo-News is calling “a blog-styled, open-source type phone line” where people and organizations can call in and post their own voicemail or text messages to the hotline.  Residents and community groups will be able to purchase annual subscriptions at a yet-to be-determined nominal fee and that subscription will give them a pass code to record and access messages, announcements or any other news approved by the administrator of the Central District Organization.

For example, “For today’s headlines, press 1; events, press 2,” explains coordinator Lori Peterson. “When callers from the general public dial the hotline number, they can press their line of preference and listen to all of the messages posted in that category.”

To date, they have been shopping for vendors willing to build a system that can accommodate various functions and levels of permissions for administrators and users. They have chosen Apps Communications from the Chicago area. The service will cost more than $1,000 to set up, including training) and the five lines will cost about $125 per month to maintain.

Learning Curve Ball:  Volunteers don’t have unlimited time. Says Peterson, “We underestimated the importance of dedicating paid staff to this project.” As a result, they were unable to establish their planned summer internship program.

In the meantime, NeoNews has renamed itself “Anansi’s Web.” According to the African folk tale, Anansi (a spider) created the sun, stars and moon and taught people the basics of agriculture.  Another Anansi story tells of how the spider tried to hoard all of the world’s wisdom in a calabash.  When he discovers the futility of keeping all knowledge to himself, he releases it into the world. “It is in this spirit that we hope to connect people to ideas and information through our community news project,” says Lori Peterson.

In Fall 2007, Anansi’s Web kicked off an internship program that paid six high school and GED students to participate in a series of graphic design, Web skills and video production workshops offered by Street Level Youth Media in Chicago.  The youth’s first project was a series of posters about sexual assault and violence. 

The Central District Organization has set up a MySpace page that as of November 2007 had 27 friends. 

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