ConnectVA Spotlight: Gabrielle Jones, Community Idea Stations
Tell us about yourself
What is the focus of your work, the need you are addressing?
What do you find most rewarding about your work?
It is extremely rewarding to meet the kids and parents who find value our educational outreach programs. Watching a child meet Curious George, who they’ve only known from books and TV, or meeting the parents who are members of the PBS Parents Club at Woodville and now Chalkley Elementary Schools, helps remind me that real people care about what we do at the station.
What are some major challenges you have faced and how you handled them?
One of the biggest challenges I face is communicating the importance of the local station to PBS and NPR fans. All of the national shows people love are made possible by funding local public broadcasting stations raise in their community then give to PBS and NPR national in Washington. Plus the local stations do so many things in the community from local news and educational outreach, to fun events. I’m working to help people understand that the Community Idea Stations is their station. We are a community licensee which means we are owned by our community. We’re hoping to overcome this by stepping up our efforts to invite people into the station, partnering with other organizations on events, and building a strong relationship with the community in-person and online.
What would someone be surprised to know about your organization?
I think people would be surprised at the relatively small staff we have at station. For example our Community Engagement department of five produces or participates in nearly 130 events. We don’t believe in silos, we all work together so each department can produce the shows, events, and initiatives we hope the community will love.
Do you have any interesting initiatives or programs on the horizon?
We just started a new board to help us build engagement we’re calling the Next Gen Board. We’re hoping this accomplished and diverse group of community members will create awesome event and engagement ideas to help us grow the next generation of public media viewers and listeners. We’re also preparing for our spring Mug Stops. During our Mug Stop events we invite people to grab a free cup of coffee with us at a local coffee shop and meet their favorite 88.9 WCVE host. We’re beginning the process of reaching out to local coffee shops to see if they’d like to collaborate this spring, and will soon begin soliciting designs from local artists for our new mug.
Are you and/or your organization involved in any exciting collaborations or partnerships?
How are you leveraging ConnectVA/The Community Foundation to achieve your mission?
Anything else you would like to share?