About MPT's Community Listening Project

Public broadcasting is gradually becoming the one of the few remaining outlets of community engagement in our modern society. Local stations, such as MPT, provide opportunities for outreach and community development in ways that have long disappeared in many other facets of our communities. It is the aim of these community-oriented public broadcasting stations to find new ways for their work to strengthen civic life and deepen its local significance.

In an effort to better serve the needs of the community, MPT is engaged in a Community Listening Project. The goal of this project is to gain a better understanding of local issues by convening small discussions all over our viewing area.  We hope to gain new insight into the concerns of several diverse sub-groups in the community and use this new knowledge to create programming and outreach initiatives that can directly impact the most significant needs of the community.

The Community Listening Project is sponsored by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting as part of the Harwood Institute’s Community Engagement Initiative (www.theharwoodinstitute.org). MPT is one of 12 stations nationally to be involved with this initiative. This ongoing initiative provides a great opportunity to foster an even stronger relationship between MPT and the communities we serve.

Through our involvement with this initiative, MPT seeks to add a broader dimension of local relevance to the broadcast-related learning opportunities we offer. There is a growing need for community engagement, but we cannot adopt a one-size-fits-all approach to meet this need. In order to gain a better understanding of the specific concerns of the individual and dynamic communities that we serve, we will need to go directly to the source—the community members themselves. Several community conversations among diverse participants will convene all over the state. These conversations will provide our station with crucial understanding of our community context and its implications for our relationships and work.

Launched in March 2007, this Listening Project is intended to be an ongoing effort to understand local thinking on community issues across the State of Maryland. MPT values this level of input and believes that these conversations will help strengthen our public service over time.

Made possible in part by funding from the Annie E. Casey Foundation.