Loisaida Speaks has begun podcasting! Their first podcast, Jenasis, can be downloaded on their website at http://www.girlsclubworldwide.org/wp/. The Girls Club has also received help from interns from New York University’s Interactive Telecommunications Program.
The Lower Eastside Girls Club in New York City has launched the newest addition to its website, www.girlsclub.org, to house the podcasts that club members will produce for their forthcoming Loisaida Speaks program.
Loisaida Speaks will be a program of weekly podcasts, with Girls Club members, ages 15-21, acting as correspondents and covering community news and issues. The first podcasts are expected to be posted in September.
Twelve girls have been fully trained in recording technology and have already begun recording audio clips to produce their podcasts. Another 12 to 15 are to be trained by the end of August. Also, five members of the club’s staff have been trained in podcasting. Dave Pentecost, an experienced blogger and website specialist, has been conducting the training sessions.
Over the summer, a couple of the girls worked to build a new podcasting booth and begin sound-proofing it.
One offshoot of the New Voices grant for the podcasting initiative was a surprise donation of 20 iPod shuffles from Tekserve Corp., a local computer company. The shuffles will be distributed to the girls so they can listen to Girls Club podcasts during their day-to-day activities in the neighborhood. Also, Program Coordinator Miriam Fogelson recently reached out to the women of Rise Up Radio, a Pacifica Radio program, to see about the possibility of a future collaboration with the Girls Club.
The response from the girls has been so enthusiastic, reports Purva Panday, the club’s acting executive director, that the staff is considering ways to incorporate podcasting into all of the club’s programming. For example, current plans to run an arts program in which girls will help teach photography to HIV-positive patients and their families may translate into a more in-depth podcasting project.
