WNEO / WEAO (Kent, OH)
With the My Source Community Impact Awards for engagement, Western Reserve Public Media is being recognized for their projects, 2010 Moving Ahead and Invisible Struggles.
Since the closing of Youngstown, Ohio’s many steel mills in the mid-1970s, the city has struggled to compete in the global economy and to maintain a high quality of life for its citizens. In 2003, to ensure a brighter future, city leaders embarked on a comprehensive strategic planning process called Youngstown 2010, and asked Western Reserve Public Media to help communicate progress on the initiative. During the last five years, the station has created 16 programs, covering healthcare, the arts, education, race relations, regionalism and more. They have been watched online and on-air by more than 100,000 residents, and have inspired another 5,000 to participate directly in the city’s planning process. Western Reserve Public Media and the city received the American Planning Association 2007 National Planning Excellence Award for Public Outreach.
During a Kent State University oral history project focused on Ohio civil rights activists, professors and students discovered the collected reminiscences constituted a significant chapter in American history. With expert production advice from Western Reserve Public Media, the professors and students produced the documentary Invisible Struggles: Stories of Northern Segregation. The documentary was watched by more than 150,000 on-air, and was the centerpiece for a televised town hall about race relations in the Kent State area. The project grew to include a curriculum guide for local schools and a high school essay contest to win a Kent State scholarship.
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