Hello, and welcome to Community Case Studies.
A look at how belonging is really built.
I'm Seth Resler.
I'm your host.
I'm also the founder of Community Marketing Revolution.
Today, we're gonna look at an example of a community from the world of public broadcasting.
This actually comes from WYSO, which is better known as WISO in Southwest Ohio, and they built a community of local producers.
They actually train them to create content for their airwaves so that the content that they are putting out on their airwaves better reflects the larger audience.
And my guest today is a storyteller and an educator with extensive experience in radio and podcasting.
He is the director of the Eichen Eichelburger Center for Community voices at WYSO.
He is dedicated to amplifying diverse voices through community driven storytelling.
The center offers a platform for marginalized groups to share their stories and spark meaningful conversations about critical issues.
I'm very excited to have him on.
Please welcome Will Davis.
Hi, Will.
How are you? Hi, Seth.
How are you? Good to see you.
Good.
Thank you so much for joining me.
Uh, I'm really excited.
So tell me a little bit about the program.
Tell me about the Center for Community voices.
Well, the Center for Community voices started about fifteen years ago, and I've been involved for about thirteen years.
It was started by Nina Ellis, who was a recent recipient of the Leo Lee Award in Public Radio.
So, um, yeah, but she started this program called Community voices and it turned into a center.
But the reason it began was to, um, give people in the community.
And our community is, um, you know, 14 counties in Southwest, Ohio.
People in the community, the tools to tell their own stories in their own voices and to democratize storytelling, get local voices on the air and, uh, return WYSO to a to a truly, um, community radio station.
So that's how it started.
And in the last fifteen years, it's grown and grown, and we're so happy to say that we're going really strong today.
That's great.
And I understand that Nina just, uh, was given an award, uh, a couple of weeks ago.
Tell us a little bit about that.
Yeah.
This is a, uh, Leo Lee Award that she won and, uh, received that in Kansas City and gave a really lovely speech that's available online in case anybody wants to hear it.
And she talks in that speech about the history of the Center for Community voices.
And this is one of the she's not a lot in her career, but this is one of her points of pride.
And, uh, so it's it's, uh, it's a really good thing.
We we were we got off to a great start.
Thanks, Dina.
Yeah.
And Nina, I should say, is still very involved today.
We work together a lot, and I speak to her several times a week.
Well, I listened to the speech as she was accepting the award told the story of this, and I'll include the link to that speech, uh, wherever this is posted because it it's fantastic.
You know, great.
One of the stories she tells in that speech is about Mary Evans, and how she sort of embodies this program.
Can you tell us a little bit about Mary? Yeah.
Mary, uh, was our friend, and and she came to Wiseau a couple years ago, and and did a lot here, um, but what what she's most known for WYSO is a series called reentry stories about, um, return citizen, people that are formally incarcerated, becoming, uh, returning to their civilian life.
And Mary, uh, was a return citizen herself.
And so she had access to that community and, and that community trusted her.
And, and I was Mary's editor for the last season of, reentry stories, which was the fifth season.
All of this is online, by the way, at WYSO, and reentry stories is a podcast too.
Wys0.
org.
Um, and then Mary Mary passed away a couple weeks ago.
Uh, so we lost Mary, and we're still grieving her.
Um, but still just so so fortunate that she was a part of our lives because we've learned a lot from her.
Uh, my condolences, and I'm I'm very sorry to hear that, but it was It was wonderful that you could have such an impact, uh, on her life.
So Well, she had an impact on our lives.
Yeah.
Uh, that's that's great.
Uh, I want to, for the sake of this conversation, draw distinction.
And I don't mean to get buried in the semantics because, you know, we could go down that rabbit hole, but, um, often when talking to content creators, uh, it's helpful to draw a distinction between an audience and a community.
And I I I think it's worth it to, you know, draw that distinction here because you have both in play.
Uh, when we are creating an audience, we create content and by and large broadcast that content out in one direction.
Maybe the audience can talk back to us a little bit.
Um, whereas when we create a community, we are creating a space for people to come together, uh, because they have shared values or a shared admission, they're trying to do something.
And what's so interesting about what you're doing here is you've got both.
So you have a larger audience, and you wanted to create content that better reflected that audience, uh, And so what you did is you created a space to bring together and created a community of local producers.
I think that was how Nina described it, uh, who have that shared mission of creating content that reflects the audience.
And so In this conversation, you know, the case study that we're looking at is actually that smaller community of producers that are producing that content.
Um, talk to me about how you view the shared mission of those producers.
What are they trying to do? Well, that's an interesting question, um, in distinct a distinction you bring up.
I mean, the word community is a is a big word around here and certainly to me because, you know, it's part of my job description.
When I think of community, Gosh.
I do think of our audience, but I think more to your point, I think of the community of producers, community of storytellers that I work with in this region to create content.
So that's that's my first thought when I think about community in the center for community voices, you know, um, the they're producers that that we work with and train.
So that's that's my first thought when I think of the word community.
And Yeah.
So they are different than our audience.
I mean, we have our our our bigger audience, but then within that, we have this group of community voices, community storytellers.
I say local stories by local storytellers.
And those are the people that that I work with the most, both in terms of training and editing and and, uh, telling stories.
So they are there to tell stories and to tell their stories.
You know, one of the things that we often draw a distinction between is the shared mission of the community members.
The mission that they all have, which, you know, as you said, is to tell their stories.
But then there's the business purpose.
I don't know if business purpose is the right word when you're talking about a nonprofit organization, but the organizational reason for hosting a community, which may overlap, but is often a little bit different.
Why does why so build this community and host this community of local producers? Well, I think there's a few reasons, um, but in terms of maybe business reasons, I think the community voices program in the center for community voices is such a such a known and beloved part of the WISOO brand.
So there is brand building around what we're doing.
Um, you know, also when we're we're a public radio station.
So also when we are fundraising and we have membership drives, certainly, uh, the local content that we have created the local stories when when our members are our audience because we know not all audience, uh, are members.
But so when our audience, uh, you know, hear these local stories and and hear their neighbors, and that makes a more compelling pitch, I think, in terms of of raising funds.
Um, then there's an educational and workforce development part of what we do too, just in terms of the area because we are working in radio and podcasting.
But, you know, these skills, as you know, are transferable.
One of our programs is why so youth radio when we work with high schools in the area And, you know, we know from from that and from working with teachers that the students become better writers when they do this kind of work and, you know, just structuring a story and being concise and all of that is those are skills that that move across mediums So there are reasons outside of, um, just creating local content for the audience that I think you could consider to be sort of business reasons.
And then two, you know, I mean, not all of our instruction is monetized, but some of it is.
You know, we've done we've been doing this for a long time.
So we've tried all kinds of different models.
Uh, when we are able to secure grants, which we've been able to do lately, then we can offer that training to people for free.
But times when we're not able to secure a grant, we do monetize that training.
So there are some business, um, ways to look at the work that we're doing.
I mean, I'm fortunate because at least yet, as you and I've talked about offline, it's You know, it's a tough time in public media and public radio.
So who knows what the future holds? But so far, I've been really super fortunate that I haven't had to approach my work first and foremost with a business lens.
Um, I've been able to think about it more in terms of the creative vision and, um, democratizing storytelling and hearing from people in our community.
Yeah.
You could apply a business lens to it.
Maybe I will.
Sometimes I do, but I haven't had to to focus on that yet if that makes sense.
Yeah.
Yeah.
But I think the idea here is that there's an organizational reason for doing this that goes beyond just the shared mission that maybe the members have that Oh, yeah.
Yeah.
That that that that that there's a reason for doing so.
Um, you know, I said at the outset that when we, you know, when our goal is to build a community, what we're doing is creating a space for people to come together and connect for a common purpose.
Let's talk about what your space looks like.
Are your members are they actually coming to the station or or what do you do with them? Well, the space that we have created, um, looks different in different circumstances, but we, you know, oftentimes it's it's instructions, it's editing, it's revision, it's things like that, and we do that in person.
Um, you know, we prioritize in person meetings and sessions just because, you know, the power of connecting is is different in person and better.
I'll say it's better.
That's my opinion.
So we prioritize that But we also do a lot of work online, of course, you know, in terms of instruction and in revision and editing, we work online.
We have in person listening events where we come together and just listen to things together.
One of the last, um, listening events we had.
One of the big ones was with Mary Evans that we mentioned earlier and listening to, um, some of the excerpts from the latest season of Ranchry Stories, and it was a wonderful, powerful event.
And it's fun to think about it because Mary I loved working with Mary because she really enjoyed sometimes, you know, I we say storytelling, but I'll say story building because a lot of the times it feels like we're really building something and putting this here and this and this and it's feels like you're building rather than telling.
And I love doing that.
That's when I'm in my happy place is when I'm story building.
And Mary was loved to do that too, you know, um, she and I just had a lot of fun, but but we would kind of just blow things up and what about this, and we'd have a great ending, and we'd say, what if we put the ending at the beginning? What would that, you know, and she is much as I just like love to kind of like get in there and just kind of create and build stories.
Anyway, I'm thinking about Mary, so I got off off topic.
But yeah, so the space that we create looks different all the time.
And You know, we've been doing this for a long time.
So we've tried a lot of different things just in terms of, like, uh, instructional design even.
You know, we've taught the community voices program across six months.
We've taught it over the course of a weekend.
We've gone to schools and businesses and done one day workshops.
We, you know, we've done every kind of instructional design, and we've been able to kind of work the bugs out and just really sort of refine it.
But in that discovery and experimenting, we've done all kinds of different things.
So whenever we have an opportunity to work with a new storyteller, a new group of storytellers, one of the first things I do is just kind of an assess about do you wanna do this in person? Does it work to do this online? How much time do you have? Whatever it is, we can accommodate it because we've been doing this a while, and we've kind of figured out ways that it works.
You know, you touch on something that's really important there, which is that There's a lot of experimentation that goes into creating the space.
It's not just a matter of if you build it, they will come, that it it sounds like it's changed and it's evolved.
And I assume it's changed and involved in part in response to feedback from the actual community members, the producers themselves.
Is that what happened? Oh, absolutely.
You know, and things are always changing.
I mean, this is this is the the fun of this industry is that it's kinda different, you know, from year to year.
So, um, I wouldn't become too too precious or too invested in any one particular kind of space because it probably will be changing soon enough.
We found that, but we always lean into that and embrace it.
And for me, that's kind of the fun of it just because you know, I like new things and I have kind of like the novel Jean.
Um, I was in education for a long time.
So I I'm pretty comfortable with instructional design, and I'm comfortable just kind of, you know, changing things up based upon who the community is, who the audience is, who the storytellers are, and what, um, you know, what what they have available to them and what they don't.
And that can sometimes that's tools, sometimes that's you know, locations.
Sometimes that's time.
But we it really is kind of a case by case thing.
But, yeah, so feedback is a constant.
Um, again, one of the benefits to being able to do something like this over years is just collecting all of that feedback that you get about what's working, what's not working.
And, you know, we knew that we were going to be doing this again and again and again.
And so there was no particular, like, well, now we're collecting feedback.
That was just a part and still is a part of the process.
So we're always, you know, we approach all of this with a yes mind, ask a lot of questions, what's working, what's not working, and we're always changing based upon what our community is telling us.
And that changes from year to year because like I said, this this industry changes from year to year.
And the tools are so different.
I mean, I can remember, you know, I've been doing this a while, and so I remember, um, we still work with professional recorders, but I remember working with them at the very beginning of this kind of project.
And and there was a lot of time that we would spend on these little digital recorders, you know, at these zoom devices or Marantz or whatever it was that we were using, spending a lot of time in class going over that.
And I noticed that, you know, at some point, people just started getting really, really fast with it.
And, you know, people were like, just really good with these and I thought, well, how is everyone getting so comfortable? And, you know, I realized, like, oh, yeah.
You know, the more people work with their phones, you give them a little recorder, like, uh, Marantz, and they just kinda, like, can go in and say, yeah, phantom power.
I don't know, but I'll figure it out.
You know? So anyway, yeah.
Uh, again, it's you don't get don't kind of lock yourself into anything because things change.
The industry changes, technology changes.
People change.
So these spaces change.
You know, you mentioned educational design.
Um, I I'm assuming that this is not just lectures that that you're giving when people come in for the training.
What is engagement between your community members look like? You know, it's not just lectures.
And in in lecture, you know, I I was a professor or call it professor for many years.
So lecture is a word that like, oh, you know, who wants a lecture.
But, um, but there is, you know, yeah, We do we do a lot of hands on work, you know.
I mean, one of the things so, yeah, there there is lectures.
We do a lot of listening.
We do a lot of editing.
We do a lot of, like, peer to peer, uh, listening and editing.
One of the things, like, just for example, one one assignment that I do all the time is that, um, I work a lot with story core.
I work with story core on lots of projects, and I'm working on a big project with them now.
So, you know, I have, um, raw access to to raw interviews, people having conversations.
And I'd give my students, um, these fifty minute conversations since they cut it down to five minutes.
Okay? And, then listen to what they did.
I I always do the assignment, and it's amazing to me that in that one assignment, how quickly, and how much students learn about storytelling, that assignment gets them into the doll whatever we're using, audition, Hindenburg, whatever it is we're using.
So it gets them into the weeds in terms of editing, but also, you know, when you give 10 people that same tape and have them cut it and you listen to them, there's 10 different versions of that story.
And, you know, you'll see the students say, you know, I was thinking about ending it that way, but I just couldn't figure out how I love the way you started.
I thought, you know, it so much has learned about storytelling in in one assignment like that.
So, you know, no, not lectures so much as really, really getting into the weeds in terms of building, telling stories, editing, sharing, peer to peer listening.
That's that's what we do in our classes.
Yeah.
That's fascinating.
The the value that you can get out of hearing how somebody else did the exact same task and and wound up coming up with something completely different.
Yeah.
It's fun that, you know, I mean, I worked with a lot of students and and, you know, you can tell when they're like engaged and when they're not engaged.
And when you're when you're in a classroom for a long time, you know, you really kind of develop that, hone that skill.
And with that assignment, when they're listening to how someone else told the same story that they told.
It's really interesting because there's like a 100% engagement.
They're just like really, really listening to what their peer did and how they did it.
And that kind of it's almost electric.
And this is like a teacher talking, which is boring, but but that kind you can, like, almost see the learning and it's electric.
Yeah.
Let's talk about onboarding.
And onboarding is sort of the digital term for you know, when you're dealing with digital communities, I I think it's different when you're talking about communities that are a little more in person like yours, where we might talk about orientation or, frankly, just welcoming or the initiation But the idea here is that when somebody first joins a community, their first moments in, they've been accepted, they've crossed the threshold, and you're trying to orient them and welcome them and show them how to participate, what does that look like for your program? Well, I'm always interested in in who, you know, who the audience is and and who your neighbors are.
So regardless of what we're doing, whenever we get a group of people together that haven't met, we introduce ourselves to each other and and and talk about why we're here and why we are a part of the space because people come to this kind of work, uh, to storytelling for different reasons, you know, and they they have it's it's important, helpful, certainly to know um, what their expectations are and what they're confident about, what they're maybe insecure about.
Those are the things that we talk about at the very beginning.
And so, I when you say the word onboarding, that that's kind of what comes to my mind.
It's the first time we meet.
I want people to get to know each other and be comfortable with each other because I mean, as you know, it's like when you're when you're doing this kind of work, or regardless, I mean, even if you're a a writer and you're in a creative writing group and you're going to be sharing your work with people and with peers, that's That's takes a lot of bravery to do that.
You know, you have to put yourself in a place of vulnerability.
And and also we do a lot of revision too, you know.
And that's one of the things I tried to do when I was teaching, uh, in college because I don't know that, um, you know, oftentimes and this is not always the case, but oftentimes, you know, in students, in classes, you do an assignment, you turn it in, you get a grade, and then that's it, you know, and classes over or the semester's over.
And That's not how it is in the industry.
And so I wanted my students to be comfortable with revision in doing something and making it better and better and better and not think it was punitive because if you haven't had a lot of experience with it, it it feels punitive.
Like you did something wrong, and that isn't the case.
And so anyway, I think it takes a a a real vulnerability and a real bravery to put yourself in that situation to share something creative and artistic that you did and ask for feedback and not just compliments, but generally how do I make this better? Um, that's hard.
And so I think in order to be able to to do that successfully, people have to know who their neighbors are and who their peers are.
And feel comfortable with each other.
So that's something we try to do at the front end in the onboarding process.
Yeah.
And what we're talking about here is essentially establishing psychological safety making sure that everybody feels safe because like you said, they're gonna be in vulnerable positions.
They're going to get feedback, and they need to make sure that they're not feeling attacked when they get that feedback that it that, you know, they understand that it's a place where they can be vulnerable and it's safe to do so.
And once you get comfortable with that process and it all, you know, it's you never really get over it.
It's always hard to share something you did with someone and say, really honestly tell me what you think of this.
That's always hard to do.
But once you recognize that that is, uh, can be, should be, is a positive process that will lead to the work getting better.
That's wonderful.
Like, that's a great feeling to have something that you created that you're really proud of.
Share with people that you trust and know that it's going to get even better because of them.
Like, that's that's lovely.
Yeah.
Um, you know, we're talking about how your community members can get feedback on their work, but I wanna talk a little bit about how you get feedback.
And we touched on this earlier.
Uh, you said that, you know, we're all experimenting.
We figured out what works over the years.
Do you have a formal process for getting feedback from the people who go through are you surveying them or or what are you doing? What does that look like? Yeah.
We do.
And, you know, um, part of this probably is because again, I come from a higher education, uh, environment there's always, you know, evaluations at the end.
But we do a similar thing in community voices every time we end a class or we, um, yeah, whatever training, whatever that particular training looks like, we have an assessment and ask what know, what what we could do better, what they, is this what they had hoped, if if if all of that.
There's a number of questions around how did we do and and how can we get better.
Um, and let's talk about metrics.
What how do you measure your success? What does that look like? How do you know whether this program is work? Well, um, there's a few things.
I mean, you know, there are metrics available just in terms of, like, well, how many downloads has this got and how many hits on the website.
You know, what is the listener engagement? All of those things can be measured, you know, since we are a radio station.
We have a web presence.
We have a podcast presence.
Um, all of those things can be measured.
So there's there's that.
Is one way to to get metrics.
You know, and and then there's anecdotal things too, you know, like, um, just is is your work being seen and heard? We did a series not long ago.
You know, I'm not far from Springfield, Ohio, just a couple of miles from Springfield, Ohio.
And so in the debate last year, when that, uh, community was targeted and lied about in the presidential debate, We wanted to work with some of the Haitian Americans there on a storytelling project.
And so we, uh, put together a group and, uh, worked with them over the course of several weeks, training them how to make audio stories.
And they created a series called Haitian's in the Heartland, and it's super popular.
You know, it's a beloved series that we have.
And, uh, so yeah, I mean, it was featured all over the state, and it was even featured on PBS Newshour.
Um, so In addition to metrics, you can you can kind of tell if if your work is getting out there, if people are paying attention to it, if they're sharing it, if it's being seen and heard.
Um, and so we we do that.
And and I I have a lot of just I it's it's kinda rare that I go sounds like I'm bragging, but, you know, it's rare that I go through a day that I don't get some compliment on something that came out of the center for community voices.
Um, just today, I got several about it.
Why so youth radio story? We have a series called We Outside, which had a wonderful episode yesterday about birdwatching.
It's about a series of of, uh, people of color being in parks and outdoor spaces.
And, uh, yeah.
So anyway, Those are the metrics that I like when people stop me and tell me, I heard this story.
I loved it.
But if, you know, I know that's that's not always compelling to business people.
So when business people are in the room, we can get out the get out the metrics But it's not always quantitative.
It can be qualitative.
Right? I mean, it can be things like what you're talking about, uh, where where you just get that feedback from the audience, and and it tells you that you're moving in the right direction.
Yeah.
And again, I'm lucky.
You know, like, I'm super lucky because of my job.
I've been able to to work in that space.
You know, we're talking about spaces, creative spaces.
I've been fortunate because that's where I'm able to work and not worry about who I need This many more downloads for why so youth radio this week or else.
I haven't had to deal with that.
You know, I mean, who knows what the future holds for public radio? But I work with such a such a lovely and generous and high minded group of people.
I don't see that happening anytime soon.
But, you know, nothing happens by accident.
Right? I mean, that's why I'm here.
That's why I took this job because I knew this group.
I knew this community, they're super talented, and they're they're great people to work with.
So this is where I wanna be.
Uh, so what's been the biggest challenge in all of this? Did people think this work is easy? And again, you know, I'm a teacher.
So this is this is how I'm how I'm receiving your question.
But, you know, one of the things that I hear from people over and over again, and this includes when I was teaching at the university.
You know, people people hear podcasts, they hear audio stories, they hear the radio, and they just think like, you know, anybody can do it.
You just need to not even a microphone.
Right? You just need a smartphone, and you can do it.
So I I hear from people um, over and over again.
When you go through the process and you learn how to write for the ear and your voicing and your, you know, cutting, it's it's an art form, you know.
And so they'll they'll say, oftentimes, I didn't know this would take as long as it does, and I didn't know this would be as hard as it is.
Um, and it is, you know, like to do any work that is broadcast quality that's that's publishable, whatever the medium is.
It requires a lot of work.
But, um, so that's the challenge, I think, is is trying to and this is goes back to our onboarding question about at the beginning of these in session these in instructional sessions and things like that, the classes.
I am interested in what who's there and why they're there and what what they're confident about, what they're insecure about, what they wanna get out of it, because I as an instructor am also sort of, you know, gauging.
Okay.
This I need to work more with this student or or maybe we need to communicate more about, like, the actual work involved in this because to do this work, and I'm a production person.
So I like to.
Spend a lot of time with these things and really create a nice crafted story.
It's gonna take some time and it's gonna take some work.
So communicating that, I think, is is the biggest challenge.
Just just people knowing what they're getting into.
Uh, I will vouch for how difficult it is to do what you do.
I've been a radio broadcaster for thirty years, but I've been a commercial broadcaster, which is very different than what you do with, you know, putting together in a set like you said, building the story from all those pieces in editing.
Uh, you know, my skill set is I can hit a post, which means I can talk right up to the moment that the lyrics and a song start, and then I can shut up.
That's not a very useful skill path.
I know you.
I know you do a lot more than that.
That's not your mom doesn't.
That's a that's a that's it.
Uh, let me ask.
Is there, you know, we talked a little bit about how there's experimentation, and and I think this one of the things that, you know, frankly, is so different about being a community builder versus being a content creator, and you're in a position where you are both.
With the content, you have control over it until the moment you hit publish and it goes out over the airwaves on the internet, wherever it might go.
With the community, it is something that you are essentially cocreating with the members.
That's it's an iterative process.
And like we said, you experiment and it changes.
Is there anything You know, knowing what you know now that you would do differently, uh, about building this community of producers that you've been building.
Oh, gosh.
Um, I'm I think it's gonna sound like I'm begging the question and I don't mean to, but I don't really have an answer for that because because we've been doing it for so long and because I've been doing it a while.
So with the assessment and with the feedback and with implementing the feedback, I don't I can't recall a moment or a thing that I would do differently because it's always evolving.
It's always getting better.
Um, now that the classes that we teach now compared to maybe the classes from fifteen years ago, I think In some ways, you know, are very similar, but in other ways because of technology or because of some of the, um, the the the things we have available to us in terms of remote interviews, remote, you know, instruction, what you and I are doing now.
You know, they they look different too.
So, yeah, I I it's since it's evolving and since it's changed over the course of fifteen years, um, I can't recall anything I would do differently.
I think we did something differently after every single class we taught.
And really after every single story that we create and air, you know, there's something that that happens when you, um, and you can Wait.
I'm I'm sure you experience this too.
You know, you you'll have a a experience or a memory of what you and I are doing right now.
But then when you consume this media later, and you're out of the moment, you you will see and hear and experience it differently.
And I have that experience with every single story I hear on the radio that I'm involved in some way.
Um, so it's always changing and learning and getting better and this and that.
So I feel like that didn't really answer your question, but I really can't think of anything I would do differently.
Well, I I think the important thing here is that on the one hand, there's nothing that maybe you do differently.
On the other hand, it sounds like you do everything differently every time.
Every single time.
Yeah.
I don't I don't ever do the same thing twice.
Right.
So so and I think that that's that's so important for this is this this idea.
And and I do find this as somebody who has worked in content creation for most of my life, that is one of the things that I have found personally that I've had to adapt to when it comes to community building.
Is this idea that it's it's kind of this living, breathing thing that is always evolving, and and always changing.
Uh Yeah.
And that's the fun of it.
Right.
And it's not a it's not a set it and forget it kind of thing, and and you leave it behind.
Um, well, we'll let let me ask you one last question.
You know, you've been doing this for a while now.
Uh, what's your your biggest win or or or just one that you're really proud of, uh, in the course of doing this? Oh, boy.
I mean, you know, I learn I just learned so much, you know.
And and I think if I'm learning, then then the audience will circle back to the audience conversation.
If I'm learning, the audience is learning, and I have learned so much about young people through Yso youth radio.
I've learned so much about return citizens and people who formerly incarcerated through Mary's series reentry stories.
I have been producing a series called Veterans voices for ten years now.
I've learned so much about veterans and their experiences.
Um, you know, Haitian's in the heartland.
I mentioned that.
You know, I learned so much about our Haitian American friends in Springfield.
And what they're going through and what they went through last year.
So, you know, the win to me is just I get to oftentimes, you know, be with a physically in person, be with people that I don't know, and and they have a different lived experience.
And I get and I'm curious.
I'm just curious about that.
And so I get to to talk to them and and learn from them.
And, you know, when when we, um, make it possible for them to to tell their own story and their own voice, I just learned so much.
And I'm curious.
I mean, you know, who is not curious about their neighbors? I think maybe some people aren't, but that's weird to me.
But, you know, like, I mean, I feel like I have the best job in the world.
I guess to just meet people that that I would never meet otherwise and get to talk to them and work with them and learn about their lives.
And I'm curious.
I'm nosy.
Me.
I'm curious.
And so that's a great gig.
So my biggest win is just learning so much about so many different people that'll arm literally my neighbors.
Well, that's fantastic.
Sick.
Will Davis, thank you so much for joining us.
Uh, again, it's the Center for Community voices @atwysoyso, uh, in Ohio.
And people can go and they can actually hear, uh, some of the results of, you know, the the things that your community is putting out, just by going to wys0.
org and clicking on the community voices, and and you've got all sorts of stuff there.
Yeah.
I hope they do.
I want you to.
I hope I hope they do.
And then send me an email.
You know, there but you can contact me through the website.
Any questions or anything, send me an email? I love to love to engage with people.
Well, well, thank you so much for joining us.
I really appreciate you coming on.
Thank you.
Thank you, Seth
