Describe your pitch being as SPECIFIC as possible:: Record stores are about community. Visits are for more than browsing and buying; they were about the music — listening to it, talking about it and, sometimes, hearing it live and meeting the music makers.
But the advent of the Internet, iTunes and digital downloading both legal and illegal has changed the way the music business works. We find out about bands from Facebook and MySpace, not the record store clerk. Buying your favorite band’s new CD is as easy as clicking a button; there’s no more waiting in line with other eager fans. Virgin Megastore and Tower Records have shut the doors to even their busiest outlets; locally, we had to bid a fond farewell to New World Records.
How has the climate of the music business has affected the community of music buyers and store owners? Has the digital age made record stores obsolete not just in their wares but in their social purpose? Or do clients miss the opportunity to socialize with other audiophiles, making friends and finding new music at the same time?
What Do You Hope to Accomplish with this Story?: This story will explore how the social aspect of record stores has evolved, changed and/or died as digital downloading and social networking have come to prominence.
How Much Money Do You Need: $300
What Will the Finished Project Look Like:: The finished project will include an approximately 1,000-word story, plus an audio piece and pictures.
What is your proposed Deadline?: Spring 2010
Tell us about you and why you can tell this story:: I am a 2009 Boston University College of Communication graduate interested in, among other things, music and sociology, key elements in this idea. I also spent many an afternoon during high school in New World Records and miss it quite a bit.
]]>With ALL the problems in our nation’s foster-care system, nothing short of a major overhaul would serve as a lasting solution to this national disgrace. Keeping the kids out of the system seems to be the best way to protect them.
There are over a 500,000 children in the foster care system in the United States today, with about 123,000 available for adoption. The majority of them are over the age of four years old. Children are more likely to be adopted if they are under the age of four. That is, unless those thinking of adoption decide any one of these children over four year olds are the ones for them.
For years, children have been sentenced to navigate the system. They do this in the name of refuge from abuse and neglect in their own homes. However, foster care remains as inconsistent, abusive neglectful and dysfunctional as many of the homes from which the children were removed from in the first place. Without cohesion, leadership and accountability, the system continues to fail too many of the 500,000-plus children assigned to it (Lawrence Adams who survived 18 yrs. in the foster care system. Lawrence is also the author of two books and numerous articles on the need for foster care reform).
One story: Michael wants to “make it” – but the odds were stacked against the 18-year-old man.
The reason: he spent his formative years as a ward of the state, bouncing among more than a half-dozen foster homes.
“When you grow up like I did, you can’t wait until you turn 18 and can get out of the system,” said Michael, who was in foster care since age seven. “I thought I would just pack my bags and walk out and have my own life.”
What these children/adults are not, is properly prepared for their self care. After aging out of foster care, 27% of males and 10% of females were incarcerated within 12-18 months. 50% were unemployed, 37% had not finished high school, 33% received public assistance, and 19% of females had given birth to children.
“Age-Out,” is a term that refers to children who become of legal age and are no longer required to stay in foster care, have a higher than average incarceration rate and a higher than average drop-out rate. They are adults, if you will.
Each move a child experiences is another loss-of friends, school, and surroundings-and another rejection for the child. Without consistent moral guidance, without a positive self-image, and with no cause for hope, the child becomes a fertile soil for failure and hopelessness.
Nearly 75% of children experience more than one family foster home placement during their time in out of home care system
One out of every ten children in the current foster care system can expect foster care to be permanent care, given that they will spend more than seven years in the foster care system
Being raised by the state can be a ticket to a lifetime of struggle and failure for foster children, according to a new study by the Harvard Medical School and Casey Family Programs. Researchers found young adults are often released from foster care without important life skills – many are alone and adrift after foster care with little or no support from state caregivers.
The picture grows even bleaker as teens age and leave foster care – as all must, ready or not – at age eighteen.
Many social agencies established to help children and youth are too overload with problems to provide services effectively. William Zinsmeister has described how “many child protection agencies are now doing little more than preventing murder, and sometimes they fail even to do that.” For example, one Maryland social worker, when asked why a six-year-old had not been removed from a known crack house run by his mother, responded that there were “twenty similar cased on his desk, and that he didn’t have time to go through the time-consuming process of taking a child from a parent” unless there was an immediate emergency” (Zinsmeister, 1992, pp. 30-37).
Maisah Robinson, Ph.D.English educator, educational consultant,researcher.
What Do You Hope to Accomplish with this Story?
Shrink the number of children going into the Foster Care System. This is an opportunity for interactive journalism working for the social good. We, as a community, may be able to make a difference. This isn’t just a story. It’s a step towards helping children get media exposure that may offer them the opportunity to be adopted immediately.
I want to use my background as a story producer to find out if this is possible. So, together, with you, my community, one child at a time,we can keep kids out of foster care and give them the chance to be part of loving, permanent families. Today, through technology, this new type of community journalism, and the current popularity of reality TV….maybe, there is an opportunity to work together to do that. I don’t know. But I want to use my skills and passion to do the research and find out….and wouldn’t that be amazing.
How Much Money Do You Need: $2000
What Will the Finished Project Look Like: A 5 minute video that creates a segment of what the program Up For Adoption might look like. The initial hope will be that the piece will be shown on local television… as a feature. Ultimately, the goal will be to pitch the program to cable networks, using the video as an example of what the show might look like.
What is your proposed Deadline? Spring 2010
Tell us about you and why you can tell this story:: Professionally I have been a short form (5 minutes)story producer for programs airing on The Learning Channel, Discovery Daytime and The Food Network. Over the course of a decade I traveled across the country and to Europe to talk to people on any number of soft subjects. I’ve interviewed Chefs, Master Craftsmen, Farmers, Wine Makers, to name a few. In addition to the guest,I was gathering the story of the town, traditions,friends and family. This developed my passion for all stories and an eagerness to listen, and… an opportunity to be nosey and ask questions. I have, myself, adopted a Russian baby as a single mom. This has instilled in me more than a passing glance at the world of adoption. More specifically, it has given me a feeling that I want to try to make a change in the system.
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This story will teach, help, inspire people to make, cook, eat breakfast at home and save money on the drive-thru breakfast, coffee, danish, doughnuts.
What Do You Hope to Accomplish with this Story?: Get people eating breakfast at home, eating healthier, not spending money at the drive-thru window or the chain coffee shops.
I also hope to show people that they shouldn’t be ashamed of their desire or need to be frugal. That there are others out here, and that we enjoy sharing our knowledge.
How Much Money Do You Need:: $50
What Will the Finished Project Look Like:: 1,000+ words with links to recipes I have previously published, as well as a possible slideshow.
What is your proposed Deadline?: January 13th, 2010
Tell us about you and why you can tell this story:: I have been frugal for as long as I can remember. I’ve been mocked, judged and laughed at about my frugal ways. It has never stopped me from being frugal, but for many years it forced me into “hiding” my knowledge. All of a sudden, with this economic down turn, I’m being sought out by the very people who mocked and judged me and they want my help.
I want to be the voice in this city, the 3rd poorest city in the nation, who delivers the message that being frugal is not a bad thing, that you are not alone, and that you too can save money and not feel deprived, starting with a simple thing like breakfast.
You’re stuck with an automotive lemon, so what do you do?
Well, I write about it. Just what the heck is wrong with the 2004 Mercury Monterey? Why does the transmission suddenly stop working when the tranny shop can’t find any problems?
Why are thousands of other owners of Montereys and Ford Free Freestars having the same problems? And just what the heck does a NHTSA investigation mean, anyway. And what do Ford dealers tell me? Will I ever buy a Ford again?
Goal: I plan to break down the various issues with the car in a series. The first story will look at how bad this problem is, just what the car does, and what has happened to people. From my experience, I think the car is pretty dangerous. I’m looking to find out what other people have to say, and to pinpoint what the potential problems are.
Subsequent stories will be detailed in following pitches, but will cover more of the subjects listed in the above pitch.
Reporter Needs: $100
Deliverables: 1,500-2,000 words of text, plus some photos, perhaps video, audio.
About the Reporter: Elmer Ploetz is a former Buffalo News reporter who now teaches journalism. I’ve written news, sports, arts reviews. One of my strengths is researching.
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