Notes from Parker Lindner
From January 9 News Oasis/Nourishing Networks meeting
Our discussion covered various ways to engage people with the issue.. We talked about how to encourage participation from journalists and the general public.
Some ideas included:
- Locate journalism teachers and proposing this as a writing focus.
- Establish points of access, collect data.
- Share information on the hunger/nourishment issues and challenges in our community. What are the facts about hunger and nourishment or the lack of it? Where is it? What are the causes?
- Read ‘between the lines’ in interpreting data for example from use of free and reduced lunch programs.
- Ferret out underserved groups such as students, families and senior citizens.
- Expose the network of service organizations working on the issue.
- Use community technology centers as touch points. This is where underserved populations come to get connected.
- Look for existing blogs and web sites. In social networks, cross posting, commenting, sharing and search engine optimization are the way ideas are amplified.
We also discussed the notion that the stories must be able to grab attention. They must be brief. We don’t think people will read long tomes. Instead we could build a simple structure for exposing personal stories – both of people with needs and of people/groups who are inventing (taking responsibility for) providing solutions.
Also, consider the ‘master birder’ model. Train a set of individuals who then commit to training others.
