Community in Unity
Event-based engagement from Alaska Public Media
Patty Linville worked as the Seward Community Library director in Seward, Alaska for 16 years. During that time she ran the inter-library loan system that provided books for inmates at the nearby Spring Creek Correctional Center. Despite her work, Linville had never visited the correctional center and actually fought against its construction before it was built. Incarcerating people for an economic boost, the sales pitch by local authorities, didn’t sit well with her.
That changed in September when Linville attended Alaska Public Media’s latest Community in Unity event that was hosted inside Spring Creek Correctional Center. Inmates, staff, and Seward residents sat down to discuss life inside Spring Creek, reentry of formerly incarcerated Alaskans, and the relationship between the prison and the rest of the Seward community. During the event, Linnville shared her story and Jon Woodard, who spent 13 years at Spring Creek, chimed in to say that he recognized her name. Woodard completed two undergraduate degrees while he was incarcerated. He told Linville how much the inter-library loan system had meant to him and other inmates. Books remain a staple at Spring Creek and have “developed and changed a lot of minds,” according to Woodard.
If you ask Alaska-based reporter Anne Hillman, the chance connection between Patti Lynnville and Jon Woodard is the whole reason to host an event. Hillman is a reporter for Alaska Public Media’s Solutions Desk and organizes the ongoing Community in Unity event series. “Get people in a room together who wouldn’t normally be there and get their voices on the air.” That’s Hillman’s formula. It may not be rocket science, but good engagement rarely is.
Hillman started as a radio reporter in rural Alaska. Then she took a job with Internews in East Africa as a community radio journalism trainer. She began sharing what she’d learned in Alaska with radio reporters in South Sudan. After a few years going back and forth, she headed back to Alaska full-time and reported for Alaska Public Media’s Urban Affairs Desk, focusing on issues around poverty, homelessness, incarceration, and education. As part of her job, Hillman began hosting the Community in Unity forums, which were originally formatted for television and set up as panel discussions. While the forums were well attended, Hillman found them restrictive. “The whole idea is not to have a panel, it’s about community members having a conversation.” She found freedom in formatting for radio and was able to set up quarterly events where the community was invited to circle up and discuss a particular issue they were facing. Conversations have ranged from mental illness to homelessness to a discussion on race and identity in the wake of President Trump’s election.
These community conversations led to Hillman’s latest work, the Solutions Desk, an initiative she started with Alaska Public Media to feature “people and programs making Alaska communities stronger.” Through her work on the Solutions Desk, Hillman has spent a lot of time focusing on efforts to reduce recidivism for incarcerated people. After developing relationships with Department of Corrections staff, she shared a big idea: “I want to bring the community inside of a prison.”
Hillman figured that any worthwhile conversation about life in prison, reentry into the community, and recidivism should include all the stakeholders in one room. Fortunately the Spring Creek Correctional Center administration agreed. Inmates have organized a Restorative Justice Initiative where those with long-term and life sentences mentor inmates who will potentially be released, and make sure they’re prepared for reentry. The administration at Spring Creek has made efforts recently to create an environment that’s less punitive and destructive and more about restoration. These conversations were already happening at several levels, both in and out of the correctional center, and this event was about bringing together everyone involved to open dialogue face-to-face. “It’s a different perspective than we’re used to hearing,” Hillman said. “People aren’t just describing their lives inside prison to those outside. They are face-to-face, talking with people who wouldn’t otherwise be sitting in a room together.”
“Is good conversation happening? Are we hearing from people we don’t normally engage with?” Those are Hillman’s barometers for success with her community events. “The intent of these events is not to bring in money or membership. The intent is for us to be a vehicle to amplify more voices for other people, ” she says. That’s not always an easy sell in the newsroom. Despite having fantastic responses from those attending events and from listeners who tune in to the broadcasts, measurable impact is difficult. And, like any small newsroom, having a dedicated reporter for one specialized project is a luxury. Fortunately, Hillman is able to integrate the work she does with the Community in Unity forums into her weekly reporting with the Solutions Desk. Reactions from inmates and staff at Spring Creek and from community members have been so positive that Hillman is planning to work with the Department of Corrections to host more forums within the prison system. Even Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski has expressed interest in attending future events.
Hillman says successful community journalism forums come down to a few key things:
- Don’t be afraid to push beyond traditional partnerships (Department of Corrections) to reach people who aren’t your regular audience.
- Make events accessible and in a variety of locations to get people in the room who wouldn’t normally be and then get those voices on air.
- Advertise through a variety of partners, not just on air in order to reach a different group of people than your typical listeners.
The Listening Post Collective is a project of Internews. We provide journalists, newsroom leaders, and non-profits tools and advice to create meaningful conversations with their communities. We believe responsible reporting begins with listening. From there, media outlets and community organizations can create news stories that respond to people’s informational needs, reflect their lives, and enable them to make informed decisions.
