Barrie Community Media (BCM) has been impacting the local community in various ways including influencing local decision-makers by highlighting homelessness; generating dialogue about important civic issues; and strengthening the community by showcasing the diversity of the community.
Influencing local decision-makers -
Barrie has been facing homelessness and an affordable housing crisis. LJI (Local Journalism Initiative) reporter, Deepak Bidwai has created stories to bring to the light the human cost of homelessness to the attention of decision-makers. For example, Deepak Bidwai visited Ash Wolf, a homeless woman, who is hiding out; she has no home. She told him of her many difficulties being in that position. Bidwai brought her story to the attention of the councillors, who expressed the need to be sympathetic to the problems of the homeless and to build affordable housing.
Generating dialogue about important civic issues and strengthening the community -
Before the arrival of Europeans, areas surrounding Lake Simcoe had been centers for Indigenous communities. Every year on the National Day of Truth and Reconciliation, Indigenous communities gather at Spirit Catcher place. For the past two years, BCM has been the only media organization to provide video coverage of the entire event. Bidwai also interviewed a representative of Barrie Native Friendship Centre and direct descendants of residential school survivors to educate the non-Native population about the Indigenous culture and the harmful legacy of the residential schools. A short video of a drum circle received thousands of views on Instagram.
Breaking down barriers between different groups -
Barrie has become more diverse in recent years as many non-white people moved to the city in search of housing. One of them was Barrie's new poet laureate, Tyneisha Ternent. Bidwai interviewed her about the January 14 "Rap Is Poetry" event that she initiated and the importance of diverse voices being heard and seen in poetry and art. She said that she wanted to set up ongoing events to showcase local talent. They also discussed Ternent's last poetry book, Bearing Fruit, which is all about her journey through pregnancy.
The relationship and trust built with the community in the past year has been helpful in getting these diverse groups of people to talk to BCM, and we hope to continue doing so.
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About LJI
LJI Impact is the section of commediaportal.ca where the journalists and their organizations participating in CACTUS' Local Journalism Initiative can share their greatest successes.
Through the written stories, photos and videos you see in the LJI Impact section, you'll be able to read first hand accounts about how the presence of a community journalist is making a difference in communities across Canada through the Local Journalism Initiative and the Community Media Portal.
The Community Media Portal is a gateway to the audio-visual media created by community media centres across Canada. These include traditional community TV and radio stations, as well as online and new media production centres.
Community media are not-for-profit production hubs owned and operated by the communities they serve, established both to provide local content and reflection for their communities, as well as media training and access for ordinary citizens to the latest tools of media production, whether traditional TV and radio, social and online media, virtual reality, augmented reality or video games.
The Community Media Portal has been funded by the Local Journalism Initiative (the LJI) of the Department of Canadian Heritage, and administered by the Canadian Association of Community Television Users and Stations (CACTUS) in association with the Fédération des télévisions communautaires autonomes du Québec (the Fédération). Under the LJI, over 100 journalists have been placed in underserved communities and asked to produce civic content that underpins Canadian democratic life.
