The Interledger Community 🌱: Erika Kitzmiller

11/30 Youth Collaborative

Erika Kitzmiller — Mon, 08 Aug 2022 14:41:47 +0000

Project Update

Our project began as a journalism website and has evolved into a youth-driven first-person storytelling project that showcases the voices and stories of individuals who call Chambersburg, a small town in Central Pennsylvania home. Our project aims to present a fuller picture of the community for the community. You can access the site here: https://1130youthcollaborative.org

We support the development of first-person narratives, particularly among young, marginalized individuals who are rarely heard or seen in the mainstream media and to bring people together to listen to and learn from the wide array of stories that Chambersburg residents tell themselves.

This is the problem the project seeks to address:

11/30 Youth offers these story collections to community partners as op-eds and testimonials to further social justice work in the community.

We have published two volumes of work: one on racial justice and one on LGBTQ+ advocacy and experiences.

To do this work, we have created an incredible team of youth, creators, and educators all of whom have ties to rural Pennsylvania.

You can learn more about each of us here: https://1130youthcollaborative.org/about/

Progress on objectives

As we stated before, our project started as a journalism project but after deep consideration of the community's needs, we evolved into a first-person, youth-driven site.

We have published a variety of pieces: poems about racial inequity, interviews about racial justice advocacy, first-person narratives about growing up as a nonwhite youth in a majority-white community, and films documenting LGBTQ+ lives and advocacy. We have also incorporated book reviews that feature Appalachian authors who have written about the themes and ideas in our work.

This is an overview of our journey:

Key activities

This winter, we published a collection written by and for youth on race and racism in Franklin County. Madison Mellinger and LeShan Wilkinson, the collaborative's youth directors, wrote the introduction to the collection:

In the summer of 2020, national media recognized a few things we have known all along about Franklin County: the population is not entirely white, racism exists here, and grassroots organizations are beginning to mobilize our citizens to fight for racial justice. While the county’s rural agricultural roots and location in the Appalachian Mountains has led many to believe the area is a white, Republican, Christian monolith, we present a different perspective. In our high school classes, on our sports teams, in our clubs, and even within our own families we know people whose lives defy the stereotypes others perpetuate about rural communities. In this first collection from the 11/30 Youth Collaborative, we present stories written by a few of those people who stand out in our minds. We aim to showcase the diverse range of narratives that exist in Chambersburg, focusing specifically on racial diversity and the local fight for racial justice. We encourage you to get to know each of our contributors through their works, deeply consider their messages, and continuously reflect on your own position in the Chambersburg community. Most of all, we encourage you to act. To learn more about how to get involved with the local fight for racial justice, please consider Racial Reconciliation Franklin County, PA.

You can read the collection here: https://1130youthcollaborative.org/summer-2021-collection-race-and-racism/

This past summer, we published another collection, Franklin County Pride. Madison and Erika Kitzmiller, a collaborative advisor, wrote the introduction to the collection:

When many people think of LGBTQ+ Pride Month, they envision parades and festivals in major metropolitan areas with thousands of community members and allies clad in rainbow attire dancing and celebrating in the streets. However, in small, rural communities with less extravagant events, the LGBTQ+ community is still present and proud. In this collection, we explore what Pride looks and feels like for those who live in Franklin County, with a particular focus on the experiences of LGBTQ+ youth in our community. In both of these instances, we emphasize the importance of allyship in rural spaces. We also expand our lens to Appalachia as a whole, considering the perspectives of LGBTQ+ people across the region.

We encourage you to get to know each of our contributors through their works, deeply consider their messages, and continuously reflect on your own position in the Chambersburg community. Most of all, we encourage you to act. To learn more about how to get involved with local efforts to fight for and celebrate the LGBTQ+ community, please consider Pride Franklin County.

You can read the collection (which is still in progress) here:
https://1130youthcollaborative.org/summer-2022-franklin-county-pride/

Communications and marketing

We have discussed our work with local residents, our advisory board members, and most recently, in a Grant for Web Community Call.

Listen to the clip here: https://twitter.com/GrantForTheWeb/status/1540069914635128832?s=20&t=1Lv67ya640Wd4lvtHdUjOA

In addition, Madison Mellinger and LeShan Wilkinson, our youth directors, were finalists in Glen Nelson Center's Next Challenge. An incredible feat for our young project and a testament to their brilliance!

What’s next?

We have two more collections planned, one this fall on Pennsylvania politics and advocacy and another on intergenerational dialogue and learning.

Beyond these collections, we have created and established a process for generating and publishing youth-driven work in rural America. As educators and youth committed to social justice and equity in rural America, we are eager to think more deeply about this moving forward in this community and beyond. This is the process to date.

We are eager to think more deeply about this process and to find collaborators across the state and Appalachia who are interested in partnering with us in this work.

What community support would benefit your project?

We would love to hear any suggestions the community might have for the project, partners we might reach out to, and ideas for increasing readership and creative output. We are so grateful for these funds and so proud of the work we have started--we are eager to work with others to scale this work with more youth and educators in rural Pennsylvania and beyond.

11/30 Youth Project

Erika Kitzmiller — Mon, 13 Sep 2021 20:25:05 +0000

Project Update

This fall we will be launching a new website under a new name, the 11/30 Youth Project. The project is is a youth-driven first-person storytelling project that showcases the voices and stories of individuals who call Chambersburg home, presenting a fuller picture of the community for the community. We aim to support the development of first-person narratives, particularly among young, marginalized individuals who are rarely heard or seen in the mainstream media and to bring people together to listen to and learn from the wide array of stories that Chambersburg residents tell themselves. 11/30 Youth offers these story collections to community partners as op-eds and testimonials to further social justice work in the community. We will be launching our first volume this fall on race and racism in Chambersburg and will be filing for non-profit status to support and sustain the project in the the future.

Progress on objectives

The initial project started as a journalism project but has evolved into an educational project focused on first-person narratives, broadly speaking, written by youth in rural Pennsylvania.

Key activities

In the past few months, we have designed a new project logo, created a new team of producers, and gathered support for the work from local youth and our advisory board.

Communications and marketing

We have discussed the work with local leaders and educators in Chambersburg.

What’s next?

We hope to launch another volume in the winter and plan to write a few articles to share what we are doing and what we have learned.

What community support would benefit your project?

We would love to speak to others in the community who are engaged in educational or youth-led projects.

Additional comments

We are so excited to show you the site when it is ready for the public.

Relevant links/resources (optional)

Progress Report-Central Pennsylvania Collaborative

Erika Kitzmiller — Wed, 10 Mar 2021 14:40:42 +0000

Project Update:

To date, we have created a website where visitors can read original articles on the community residing in and around Central Pennsylvania. We have published articles weekly and have established submission guidelines for future articles. The website features profiles, which are written by journalists in the area and highlight progressive, diverse thinkers who live and work in Chambersburg Pennsylvania, and first-person narratives, which are written by individuals who live in the area on a topic of their choice. We have highlighted the lives of Lance Walker, a Black barber and school board member; Kristi Rines, a BLM activist; Matt Fogal, a former Republican district attorney who publicly has supported Black Lives Matter; Phillip Whitley, an openly gay man and photographer, and Amer Chaudry, a Muslim business owner and resident who is running for public office. In addition, we have shared first-person narratives from Patty Dolaway, a progressive political organizer and three individuals who describe their lives under COVID-19, Kim Amsley-Camp, a certified nurse midwife; Jennifer Morris, a mother of four including a child with special needs, and Melinda M. Schwenk-Borrell, who drives a medical transport van in the community. These articles are currently posted on the website: http://www.centralpacollaborative.org/about/

Progress on Grant Objectives:

Goal 1 -- Create a website for the collection of original news content,and aggregated announcements, focused on the Chambersburg area,with a specific emphasis on traditionally marginalized voices.

We have created the website and are engaged in expanding our readership. You can view the website here: http://www.centralpacollaborative.org

Goal 2 - Achieve a total of 500 weekly Coil Member visits, producing payments at the rate of $20 per month, allowing for payments to content producers.

We have started to build readership through the Central PA Collaborative Advisory Board, made up of members with the community, and by engaging residents in the area to write personal narratives. This initial effort has helped to build content and engage visitors. Starting in March we’ve begun to set up our digital wallet and will start to collect payments for content producers.

Goal 3 - Solidify content agreements with local media, notably the Franklin County Free Press and Public Opinion, in which local media outlets use Coil Memberships to access exclusive publication of content from the Central Pennsylvania Collaborative.Content would subsequently be monetized and publicized on the website after a span of three days.

We have partnerships with these new outlets and are working to solidify the content agreements.

Goal 4 - Develop partnerships with local school districts and colleges to create pipelines of contributors for the publication, notably among Spanish-speakers.
We have trained a group of high school students and recent alumni to edit the first-person narratives.

Goal 5 - Begin expansion of this model into other emerging news deserts in other Central Pennsylvania communities.
We have begun to solicit news from other counties to expand our readership.

Key Activities:

Over the past four months, we have created a website, enlisted support from the community, assembled an advisory board, and have written several pieces to highlight the diverse voices in Central Pennsylvania. Our work has taken longer than we anticipated to launch the site, but we are very excited about the reception of this work in the community and are eager to continue to expand our readership and promote COIL memberships.

Communications and Marketing:

We have discussed our work with members of the advisory board and other interested members in the community. We also have an active Facebook and Instagram page to broadcast this work to the largest community possible. We also changed the project name from Central Pennsylvania Info Hub to Central Pennsylvania Collaborative to reflect the idea of collaboration with community partners.

What's Next:

We will continue to publish profiles and first-person narratives and establish COIL memberships to increase visibility and revenues. The reception of the initial pieces has surpassed even our expectations. We are excited to build on this work in the coming months.

How can the community support this work:

If anyone has suggestions about individuals who live or work in Central Pennsylvania who might be interested in writing a first-person narrative or being featured in our profiles, we would love to hear about that on our submissions page. We are also eager to have you spread the word about our work to other news organizations and interested individuals both in the area and beyond.