The RTR-FM Social Impact Project kicked off last week with a workshop exploring the multitude of ways RTR might be making a difference. Staff, Board Members and volunteer broadcasters worked with facilitator, Stuart Reid and social impact specialist consultant, Lauren Webster to identify some of the values that underpin the station.
Together they explored many of the ways the station reflects those values and expresses them through broadcasting, online services and off-air interaction with listeners.
They identified pages and pages of examples of real and potential impact and these will now be used to shape the surveys, interviews and focus group sessions that will gather real examples, true stories and some reliable data that can be used to provide a measure of the station’s impact.
The project is also a capacity building one in that WACOSS will be providing training for RTR volunteers to undertake the interviewing, focus groups and reporting roles, so RTR will be able to conduct their own impact assessments in future.
WACOSS will also document the process to produce a Toolkit that any community broadcasters will be able to adapt to measure their impact.
To the best of our knowledge this is the first time social impact methodology has been used in a community broadcasting context and there is widespread interest in both the WA and National Public Broadcasting Associations.
The project will continue through July with survey development and interview training. Interviews, focus groups and targeted surveys will take place through July and August, with a major listener survey following the RTR Radiothon in September.
For more information on the project, or to see how WACOSS can help you measure your social impact, please contact Stuart Reid on 0439 098 386 or at [email protected]
