KCET and The California Endowment's Building Healthy Communities Program Announce New Multimedia Archive - 'The Power of Stories'
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT:
Ariel Carpenter or Ayn Allen Jeff Okey
KCETLink The California Endowment
747-201-5243; acarpenter@ket.org 213-928-8622; jokey@calendow.org
747-201-5886; aallen@kcet.org
KCET and The California Endowment's Building Healthy Communities Program Announce New Multimedia Archive - 'The Power of Stories'
Burbank and Los Angeles, Calif. - Oct. 20 2014 - KCET, the nation's largest independent public television station, and The California Endowment's Building Healthy Communities initiative, which empowers communities across the state to create safe, healthy environments for children, have announced THE POWER OF STORIES, a new multimedia archive that features a collection of stories and videos that assist in community building efforts and serve as an illustrative demonstration of the power to re-imagine and transform our communities through storytelling. To learn more about the stories, please visit www.kcet.org/bhcstories.
As part of its 10-year, $1 billion commitment to 14 communities across California, The California Endowment's Building Healthy Communities program empowers children and families to live healthy, safe and productive lives in the underserved communities of Boyle Heights, City Heights, Del Norte and Adjacent Tribal Lands, Eastern Coachella Valley, Fresno, Long Beach, Merced, Oakland, Richmond, Sacramento, Salinas/Alisal, Santa Ana, South Kern and South Los Angeles.
Each of the communities shares their own stories of change through the exploration of history, resident and youth leadership, community development and health issues central to people's lives and the neighborhoods in which they live. The stories reflect a shift in power dynamics that showcase innovation, collaboration and greater inclusion in community building to ensure equality and progress. The stories were originally collected as part of the Building Healthy Communities Annual Convening on Oct. 11, 2014.
"By providing the framework to aggregate, distribute and share the stories of communities across the region who are reckoning with deep social, economic, and political issues, KCET is shedding light on the immeasurable efforts The California Endowment is supporting to build healthy communities in California," said Juan Devis, Sr. Vice President of Content Development & Production, KCETLink. "We are proud to partner with the Endowment on this project and excited to continue to showcase the richness of the region through creative narratives."
"These are important stories that often go untold," said Beatriz Solís, Director Healthy Communities - Southern Region, The California Endowment. "It is our hope that they will serve as a catalyst for others to engage their communities in this kind of work so as to achieve health and justice for all Californians."
Featuring more than 40 dynamic "stories" and arts initiatives, THE POWER OF STORIES includes:
· Building Healthy Communities in South Los Angeles
Residents, artists, students and community organizations come together to transform South Los Angeles into a vibrant and healthy community.
· Picturing Health: Coachella Valley
A photo project that tells the untold stories of the farm workers and community health issues of the Eastern Coachella Valley
Re-Write Richmond: Live Performance by Sukari Wright
Sukari Wright performs her poem, "The Way of the City," that reflects on growing up in one of Richmond's most notorious neighborhoods and expresses the pain she felt after losing her best friend to gun violence at age 10. She ends her poem, with a call to action, asking her audience to abandon the negative narrative around her city and "re-write the rule book," promising that "this will be the new way of Richmond."
THE POWER OF STORIES is part of an ongoing collaboration with The California Endowment and KCET's online series Departures. Previous projects have explored key issues throughout the Los Angeles area including: transportation, restorative justice, health, environmental justice, and mobile technology. Explore these and other projects at www.kcet.org/departures
PARTICIPATE IN THE POWER OF STORIES
Visitors to the archive can share their story and discuss how the power of stories can transform communities at www.kcet.org/bhcparticipate. In addition, visitors can use #bhcstories to show how they are helping build healthy communities via social media.
ABOUT KCET
On-air, online and in the community, KCET plays a vital role in the cultural and educational enrichment of Southern and Central California. KCET offers a wide range of award-winning local programming as well as the finest public television programs from around the world. Throughout its 50-year history, KCET has won hundreds of major awards for its local and regional news and public affairs programming, its national drama and documentary productions, its quality educational family and children's programs, its outreach and community services and its website, kcet.org. KCET is a donor-supported community institution. For additional information about KCET productions, web-exclusive content, programming schedules and community events, please visit kcet.org. KCET is a service of KCETLink.
ABOUT THE CALIFORNIA ENDOWMENT
The California Endowment, a private, statewide health foundation, was established in 1996 to expand access to affordable, quality health care for underserved individuals and communities, and to promote fundamental improvements in the health status of all Californians. The Endowment challenges the conventional wisdom that medical settings and individual choices are solely responsible for people's health. The Endowment believes that health happens in neighborhoods, schools, and with prevention. For more information, visit The Endowment's Web site at www.calendow.org.
ABOUT BUILDING HEALTHY COMMUNITIES
Building Healthy Communities is a 10-year, $1 billion plan of The California Endowment. In connection with staff-led, statewide policy initiatives, 14 communities are taking action to make where they live healthier. They're doing this by improving employment opportunities, education, housing, neighborhood safety, unhealthy environmental conditions, access to healthy foods and more. The goal: to create places where children are healthy, safe and ready to learn. Ultimately, we're aiming at nothing short of a transformation in the way all of us think about and support health.
###
