
The NPT Storytellers team, from the left: Kevin Crane, Will Pedigo, and Soraya Salam
We are excited to share that last week, the Storytellers project received the 2012 National Educational Telecommunications Association (NETA) award for Best Nontraditional Community Engagement. We are humbled by this recognition and glad that immigrant and refugee voices are being heard beyond Nashville. While this project hasn’t always been easy, it’s an initiative that we at NPT feel is important to our community.
Storytellers grew from the belief that immigrants and refugees in Nashville have important stories and perspectives to share. Often those stories remain untold. With making technology and training available, it is possible for immigrants to find and express their own voice. The result has been a broader awareness of communities and experiences that exist in our city.
Below are some of the judge’s comments about the project. Storytellers is much bigger than those of us at NPT; the real stars of the project are our immigrant storytellers, and the thoughtful, in-depth stories they continue to share with our community and beyond.
This online project is outstanding…The fact that this wonderful project and all of the work behind it happened on such a relatively small budget says a lot about the big success of this project.
The timeliness of this project is excellent given the pressing national immigration issue, especially regarding the concerns for humane treatment of immigrants across the country and how they can best be helped to thrive in this country.
If you want to connect with immigrants and refugees in your community- what better than to work with agencies that serve that population.
The strong partnership here easily could be considered innovative for a public media station…the stories are compelling and it’s no wonder that major national media has picked up on it.