[isoc-ny] In coronavirus-hit Harlem, community streaming gives residents a virtual lifeline

[ISOC-NY announcements]

ICYMI a story from June, about how an ISOC-NY affiliated project is helping
Harlem residents

https://www.isocfoundation.org/story/in-coronavirus-hit-harlem-community-streaming-gives-residents-a-virtual-lifeline/

By Jen Ross

When COVID-19 hit New York City, the *Streaming Station Community News
Project *was barely getting started, after receiving an Internet Society
Foundation Beyond the Net grant for close to $30,000
<https://www.isocfoundation.org/2019/12/internet-society-foundation-announces-300000-in-grants/>
in
December 2019.

The original plan was to set-up studios where underserved communities in
Harlem could produce and stream news and informational programming for and
about their community. The project team had opened studios in East and West
Harlem just as social distancing, self-isolation and quarantines began.

Gathering folks together in a studio no longer made sense, so we adjusted
our mission. All of a sudden it made sense for news about COVID-19 to be
shared. People were dropping like flies but we had no way to communicate
with people.”
Stuart Reid, co-Chair of Digital Divide Partners and Internet Society New
York Chapter Board Member

It is estimated that nearly half
<https://www.cccnewyork.org/blog/new-york-citys-digital-divide-500000-nyc-households-have-no-internet-access-when-it-is-more-important-than-ever-before/>
of
New York’s public housing population does not have home Internet access.
Some don’t even have a mobile phone connection.

Many elderly and disabled residents living on high floors of buildings were
unreachable and community leaders from Manhattan North needed help
connecting people. So, the project jumped into emergency response mode and
began distributing mobile radios. It also activated the WHCR emergency
broadcast team
<http://documents.dps.ny.gov/public/Common/ViewDoc.aspx?DocRefId=%7BCC00A37F-1B8C-43DA-B2AD-4028B9FBFA4D%7D>,
created after Hurricane Sandy hit New York in 2012.

Community leader Polly Spain, President of the Federal 8 Housing Group,
says the streaming project has “made a world of difference – it’s been a
matter of life and death, really! … We set up access to food, figured out
who needed health services … and lawyers, because many people are facing
eviction after losing their jobs. It’s been very uplifting for the
community.”
  Preparations underway for food distribution at Grant Houses in Harlem, NY

Spain recounts how one single mother with a baby and a 4-year-old contacted
her after hearing about the streaming project through Facebook. “She was
out of work and desperate. She was crying asking how she could get pampers
and milk for her children. She couldn’t stand in a line for hours with her
kids. Just having someone to talk to was important. We actually delivered
food and those items to her and set up free food to be delivered every
three days from a local food pantry. … It’s a beautiful experience to see
that we’re making a difference. It’s truly been a lifeline for the
community.”

Reid says the project team began streaming shows to keep residents informed
about everything from health and safety precautions to local food
distribution. They also set up a series of websites
<https://safensmart.org/> to host their community-produced content.

“It’s been a powerful adjunct,” says Reid. “And we realized we could use
applications like Zoom as remote studios, then stream these live programmes
on the website, Facebook and YouTube.”

Under a separate four-year project, Digital Divide Partners
<http://www.ddpny1.org/> installed the YFi Community Network with 500 nodes
around the city, which the current project will expand. Some residents can
watch community-produced programming using the YFi available in 10 public
housing developments in Harlem and South Bronx. Those without WFi can use
mobile phone data or listen to streamcasts on FM radio or their mobile
phones (even without using data, by enabling FM reception).

The community-produced programmes include news broadcasts, discussions and
motivational shows. ‘*The Wisdom Table’,* co-hosted by Brother Leroy, is
produced by and for another group underrepresented in mainstream media:
senior citizens. The show invited various doctors to speak about COVID-19
prevention, including naturopaths and a black female microbiologist.
Viewers could ask guests questions via YouTube or Facebook.
Dr. Arthur Lewis, M.D. during a livestream interview on *The Wisdom Table
at GHCR.NYC <http://GHCR.NYC>*, with Host Brother Leroy

“Everyone was scared like hell because we’re in the epicentre,” stresses
project co-lead and Digital Divide Partners co-Chair Doug Frazier. “Once we
got all these doctors on, it helped calm people down. At the time, you
couldn’t see a doctor, and you couldn’t go to the emergency room if you
didn’t have COVID… so being able to talk to a doctor was worth its weight
in gold.”

One *Wisdom Table* show, broadcast on 10 April, garnered over 4,400 live
views on YouTube alone.

“It’s been electricity in terms of the engagement and enthusiasm,” says
co-host Brother Leroy, adding that having the community tell its own
stories “gives added dignity” to residents, making the project “a
game-changer”. His show takes an educational approach to explaining medical
terms, such as viruses, the immune system, co-morbidities and COVID-19. It
also combats misinformation and builds critical thinking, while dealing
with angles not covered by mainstream media.

He plans to examine the global protests that have erupted since the killing
of George Floyd in Minnesota in a future show, and Spain plans to address
how to make policing more humane.

Spain also co-hosts the show *Community and Technology,* has helped
organize townhalls, and posts information in Spanish to reach Harlem’s
large Hispanic population.

Another show <https://safensmart.org/index.php/webt-reports> tackled how
Harlem’s high population density and higher poverty rates
<https://www.osc.state.ny.us/osdc/rpt9-2018.pdf> have made it a hotspot for
COVID-19. In fact, after mapping the city’s death rates and active cases on
a city website
<https://www1.nyc.gov/assets/doh/downloads/pdf/imm/covid-19-cases-by-zip-05032020-1.pdf>,
Reid and Frazier realized that their zip code (East Harlem 11029) was the
hardest-hit in Manhattan – the only one registering 1,449 to 4,104 cases on
4 May.

I don’t think people realize how important it is to have a voice. We say:
‘here’s the FM radio, here’s a walky-talky, here are the cameras, here’s
the YFi and here’s your own community website;’ then, they feed the content
over the free Internet. … We give them a turn-key project that allows them
to do all these things they previously couldn’t do.”
Douglas Frazier, Project co-lead and Digital Divide Partners co-Chair

The streaming project is currently reaching 50,000 people and aims to reach
150,000 by the end of 2020.

Its ability to adapt and shift quickly into emergency response and
preparedness is a testament to the resilience, strength and sustainability
of the project, and of the community involved.

Still, Frazier says COVID-19 underscores the need to further expand home
Internet access:

“There’s been a paradigm shift. It’s not about affordability; it’s about
*access*. You have to give it to everyone. When you guys came along, the
whole thing started to come together. You believe in funding for an
Internet for everybody. Before, nobody believed in that – nobody cared.”
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