Funding opportunity: Environmental Literacy Grants for Formal K-12 Education through the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Pre-proposals are due September 8. Multiyear awards range from $200,000 to $500,000 and support K-12 education projects in earth system science. Public broadcasting stations may apply, but need to work closely with a school or school district. Visit NOAA for more information.

Chicago Public Media announced its inaugural Pritzker Fellowship winners, Icoi Johnson and Samuel Vega. The Fellows will undergo a nine-month professional training program in public radio journalism with nationally renowned reporters, producers and editors. The Pritzker Fellowship was launched to discover a diverse new generation of public media talent and seeks “fresh perspectives” from non-journalists.

ProPublica, The Takeaway, and Ushahidi Haiti were among the recipients of Knight-Batten Awards of Special Distinction for “fostering unique levels of digital engagement,” according to J-Lab, which administers the awards. ProPublica garnered praise for innovations in crowdsourcing; The Takeaway won for engaging residents of a Detroit neighborhood in text messaging; and Ushahidi Haiti had “an unprecedented impact on disaster relief efforts” in Haiti by marshalling Skype, Twitter, Facebook, radio and short codes to crowdsource real-time needs within hours of the devastating earthquake, the judges noted.

Twelve media innovation projects received $2.74 million from the Knight News Challenge, which funds ideas using digital technology to serve specific communities. Example: Public Radio Exchange (PRX) Storymarket, which allows anyone to pitch and help pay to produce a story for a local public radio station. “The project provides a new way for public radio stations to raise money, produce more local content, and engage listeners,” Knight notes. Another winner: Tilemapping helps local media create hyper-local, data-filled maps for their websites and blogs. The tool will help journalists tell more textured stories, while residents will be able to better visualize (and discover) new connections in their communities.

Here’s a first: U.S. Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and the National Endowment for the Arts have joined forces to support arts-oriented development through sustainable communities grant programs. The Sustainable Communities Regional Planning Grant Program and Sustainable Communities Challenge Grant Program offer up to $175 million. Arts organizations are eligible to partner with state and local governments, metropolitan planning organizations, transit agencies, philanthropic and non-profit organizations and other eligible applicants to develop consortia grant proposals.

Stay current with trends, grant opportunities and research from major foundations by signing up to follow @mediaengage/foundations on Twitter. Or if you'd rather, visit our Twitter page to see current tweets from these foundations.

Gather with local organizations now to plan for upcoming national community service opportunities such as National Immunization Awareness Month in August, National Preparedness Month in September and World Mental Health Day in October.

Find FLU RESOURCES here

KPBS Recruits Chargers for Children’s Literacy and Fitness

How can you get kids interested in reading and fitness? Recruit the San Diego Chargers as role models. KPBS teamed with the Athletes for Education Foundation to write Charge Ahead, an inspiring book that local children illustrated. Now they're working on Fit for Lit, an initiative that combines reading with exercise. Read full story.

Find Engagement
Opportunities Through Mapping

Interested in discovering new opportunities to engage? Our Public Media Maps are wonderful tools in that quest. You can explore individual map layers–one click, for example, will show all communities with Recovery Act Broadband Infrastructure Projects nationwide, along with contact information. Or view multiple map layers to discover possible new connections between local issues, funding sources, and potential partners in any community.

Even more exciting, you can easily add data to build maps of your own and create custom reports using your data and the layers we’ve included so far. Simply use our Excel template and it will automatically geocode your data and add it to the map. Explore the maps now with an eye to your organization’s needs. Let us know what datasets you’ d like to see. We welcome your input and want to make the maps as useful and as robust as possible. Please e-mail your suggestions to Barrett Dowell at barrett.dowell@mediaengage.org.

“Save the New Orleans Musicians' Clinic” with WWOZ

New Orleans music is a prized piece of American culture—and the lifeblood of WWOZ community radio, which bills itself as “the New Orleans jazz and heritage station.” Now WWOZ is helping to save the New Orleans Musicians’ Clinic, which since 1998 has worked with the LSU Healthcare Network to provide free and low-cost medical care to the city’s musicians—and is now faced with closure due to loss of federal funding. WWOZ, one of the clinic’s longtime community partners, urges listeners to attend benefit concerts and features a compelling “save the clinic” video on the WWOZ website.

The POV documentary Wo Ai Ni (I Love You) Mommy is the story of Fang Sui Yong, an 8-year-old orphan, and the Sadowskys, the Long Island Jewish family that travels to China to adopt her. The film earned the Silverdocs Feature Grand Jury Prize in June and airs on PBS Aug. 31. Visit our Pipeline to view a clip of the program. You can connect with online engagement opportunities on Facebook and learn more about POV's Adoption Stories campaign.

“Public Conversations”
Bring Charlotte Together

WFAE 90.7 (Charlotte, North Carolina) continues its series of community dialogues this month. The events, called “Public Conversations,” convene Charlotte-area residents to discuss issues of local concern, including health care and historic and cultural preservation. Learn more about the project here.

Upcoming
Peer Webinars

Community Learning with Science from PBS

1 p.m. ET Wednesday, Sept. 8 - Nova, E Squared, and STEM-focused children's shows offer rich science content that communities can build upon through science festivals, science cafes, and other activities. Learn more about what your community can do to help inspire science learning. Register here.

Join Us at PRPD

Join us at the PRPD Public Radio Programming Conference in Denver September 23–26. Executive Director Charles Meyer joins Brenda Williams-Butts (WNYC) and Carlos Lando (KUVO) to present “Community Engagement 101.” The conference also offers an opportunity to meet Ann Alquist, NCME’s new director of radio engagement.

Building a Better Pipeline

We redesigned our Community Engagement Pipeline to bring you public media content and community-led initiatives in a refreshed and more interactive way. Among the new features, you'll find streaming video, ways to connect with program-specific social media outlets, and opportunities to discuss content. Visit the Pipeline (still in beta mode) and let us know what you think. We will send a survey soon to gather your ideas for improvements. Or send your comments any time to Bryce Kirchoff. Bryce is also on hand to help producers learn how to submit content to the Pipeline.

New and Improved
NBPC Website

The National Black Programming Consortium (NBPC) unveiled a redesigned website that offers inspiring new ways to connect with and share NBPC content. Check out blackpublicmedia.org to tour the new design and learn more about NBPC's great work, including blog posts by Fellows of the newly founded Public Media Corps, a national service designed to help public media better engage with more low-income, African American, and Latino communities.

Cutting-Edge Workshop
on Audio Journalism

Producers: sign up now for one of 10 slots in a sound-and-story immersion workshop November 15-19 with the Association of Independents in Radio (AIR) in New York. The workshop offers one-on-one attention from renowned sound artists, composers, and performers. Application deadline September 30.

Emmy For Blue Ridge PBS

Congratulations to Blue Ridge PBS for winning a regional Emmy Award for JobQuest, a 15-month long employment advice and information series that helped put people back to work. JobQuest won in the community service category and was recognized at a ceremony in Washington, D.C. last month. Each JobQuest episode featured 60 job listings from across the region, along with expert advice to shorten the job hunt.

Funding For TV Series Engaging Diverse Cultures

The CPB/PBS Diversity and Innovation Fund requests proposals for a new weekly primetime series that will expand National Program Service (NPS) viewership beyond its current demographic.

From July 26 through September 15, PBS will accept proposals for a weekly primetime series that will attract more racially and ethnically diverse viewers and web visitors. The content should be conceived and budgeted with multi-platform use in mind (broadcast, VOD, Internet, mobile, DVD, etc.). The fund encourages proposals for a variety of popular genres, including science, history, and travel. The fund is not seeking children's, drama, or news and public affairs content. For more information, please read the request for proposals and an overview of the Diversity and Innovation Fund.

Partnership Opportunities

Community organizations in this list intend to apply for a DOE Promise Neighborhoods grant and could be available for community engagement partnerships.

To learn more about the Promise Neighborhoods program, contact Ellen Holloway at the APTS Grant Center.

Meeting Community Information Needs

View the archived Webcast of CPB's Newseum event about public media and local journalism.

Youth Media International Wins MacArthur Competition

Youth Media International (formerly known as Youth Radio) is one of ten winners of the MacArthur Digital Media and Learning Competition. They will use the prize money to continue their Mobile Action Lab for Oakland youth.

Broadband Access to the underserved

One Economy Corporation, a global nonprofit that uses technology to improve the lives of low-income people, and an alliance of civil rights organizations will implement $51.5 million in broadband initiatives in over 80 communities. Read the press release for details and watch for how you can be involved in your community.

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