Getting local organizations involved in PodCamp New Orleans
I want to thank Christopher Penn for the opportunity to get out the story of the New Orleans recovery and some of the challenges facing residents as they return.
I attended Upgrade New Orleans - and the NOLA YURP Initiative(requires registration) this morning at Xavier University. This was an event organized by an impressive group of young people who are here investing their futures in the recovery of New Orleans. Some of them were recently profiled in two of our local publications, the Times-Picayune and the Gambit. They are working on an initiative that I can’t talk about publicly yet, but when it is announced it could be one of the brightest spots in the recovery so far.
The reason I bring it up here, is because I met with Precious Kirk, a Public Relations Consultant, who is working with the YOUTHanasia Foundation, Inc. and TeenzMATTER Productions, Inc. TeenzMATTER has been teaching high school students how to take advantage of all media: print, audio, and video, to get their story out. I want to get them involved in PodCamp and let them contribute their story. These are the future community leaders, elected officials (and the voters who will elect them), and ultimately the people who will have to carry on the mission we started here to bring New Orleans back.
Podcasting is really about telling a story and New Orleans is full of thousands of stories, some of them horrific, some of them heroic, and some of them truly inspirational. I want the podcasters coming to this event to go out and get those stories and share them with the nation. I also want to you to consider personally contributing. I am going to contact a local community organization and see about setting up a day where we could help build a house, a community center, or ? ? ? ?. Give me ideas, leave them in the comments. I’m very open and remember this event is about you, so get involved, tell me what you want, participate.