Resources from Sustaining and Growing Community Media Centers Funder Briefing

As part of our regular funder education series GFEM presented a funder briefing on Community Media Centers, April 28, 2011 @ 1:00 p.m. ET / 10:00 a.m. PT. The briefing was co-sponsored by Grantmakers in the Arts.

Community media centers play a critically important role in the media, information and art ecosystem of our country, particularly given the often limited perspectives offered by mainstream media outlets. As media and communications saturate and inform daily life in ever-more profound ways, community media centers are meeting the communications needs of our neighborhoods, towns and cities through creativity, community participation and forward-thinking collaboration. Even in challenging economic times, funder-supported partnerships are changing the scope and impact of community media centers’ powerful work.

The briefing focused on the state of the field and specifically issues of sustainability and growth. Presenters Jack Walsh from NAMAC, Wendy Levy from BAVC and Maurine Knighton from the Nathan Cummings Foundation shared their insights on the rapidly changing field of community media and discussed ways that community media centers are seizing opportunities and creating new partnerships in an uncertain and ever-changing funding environment.

To learn more please see the following resources:

Mapping the Field:  http://www.namac.org/mapping

NAMAC publications: http://www.namac.org/publications

NAMAC Policy Statements: http://www.namac.org/policy-statements

Community Media Database: http://communitymediadatabase.org/