Feature package produced for KPBS & Speak City Heights.
In this collaboration with KPBS reporter Megan Burks, we profiled a mother’s daily journey to get her older son to school on public transit and with no child support for her younger son. She transferred her children on two buses and a trolley to get near the school and then walk the last mile. There were no public restrooms along the route. The franchise sandwich shop at the transit center told the mother that restrooms were for customers only. Fortunately, her son had a change of pants at school.
This is just one issue parents may have to get their children to class on time and the school has an epidemic of student absences. It’s an issue that creates many problems. Foremost, if the child is not there, they will not be learning and may get behind. For the school, it’s also a resource issue. Absent children equal less government funding, which reduces the resources schools have to curb absenteeism.
A collaboration developed between the school and a collective impact partner to change the school atmosphere to further incentivize and promote a sense of pride in attendance and care for the social welfare of the students’ families. This early intervention in a young student’s life may have long-term consequences for ensuring student graduation.
Speak City Heights was a collaboration of the public media reporters at KPBS, nonprofit journalists at Voice of San Diego, community and teen video producers at Media Arts Center San Diego, and youth photographers at The AjA Project to amplify community voices in one of San Diego’s most diverse neighborhoods and bring greater attention to the community’s social inequities. The unique and successful journalism project was recognized by San Diego’s Society of Professional Journalists for the stories brought to one of the nation’s top 30 media markets.
