Who Can Help Me?

As you develop your proposal, you may want to engage the services of either an outreach staff person from your presenting station or an independent consultant to serve as your project's educational outreach manager.

National outreach campaigns are generally launched one of two ways. If you are affiliated (either as staff or in a presenting-station relationship) with a major producing station, the station outreach department or the consultants it generally works with can help you develop and later implement your educational outreach initiatives. Try to involve the station's outreach staff as early as possible in your production development process. The more time you give staff members to develop the educational outreach elements of your project, the stronger your proposal and project will be.

If you are an independent producer without access to a presenting station's outreach department, an independent educational outreach consultant can help you develop, budget, and implement your educational outreach plan. The National Center for Outreach maintains a list of educational outreach consultants that it will share with you. The NCO Pipeline, which lists upcoming PBS-related outreach projects available on their Web site, is also a good resource. You could look for projects similar to yours in the Pipeline and see who is handling the outreach to try to identify a good match. PBS itself can also provide referrals and editorial assistance (see below). Check the CPB Web site (http://www.cpb.org/tv/funding/ or http://www.cpb.org/ed/funding/) to see if there are any systemwide initiatives around a similar topic that can serve as an umbrella for your project. In addition, you may also want to attend the NCO's annual conference, where you can network with educational outreach professionals and consultants and hear about other projects.

In addition, some funders (such as ITVS and the Annie E. Casey Foundation) provide outreach consulting and support to help you develop your educational outreach program. Sometimes they will even implement your program for you, or fold it into an umbrella initiative that they or their consultants are implementing.

National Center for Outreach
The goals of the National Center for Outreach (NCO) are to provide resources, training, and funding for public television stations, promote meaningful outreach at the local level, and expand the presence of outreach within public broadcasting. The NCO is committed to supporting producers as they develop and implement national educational outreach initiatives.

Among the many services the NCO provides are the following:

Outreach consultation and technical assistance
Contact lists of outreach consultants and PTV station outreach coordinators
An annual NCO conference
Presentations at national conferences in and beyond the industry
A producer outreach day camp (in planning process)
Pipeline, a listing of upcoming broadcasts/initiatives with related outreach, available online and in print
Grants to public television stations to support local outreach initiatives
Developing and modeling best outreach practices
Fostering local and national outreach partnerships
Facilitating national evaluation initiatives

For more information, contact
National Center for Outreach
975 Observatory Drive
Madison, WI 53706
Tel: 608-263-9295
Fax: 608-265-5039
www.nationaloutreach.org
Executive Director: Maria Alvarez Stroud alvarez-stroud@wpt.org

PBS Interactive Learning
PBS is another valuable resource for shaping your project. Producing for PBS (http://www.pbs.org/producers/) provides an overview of key PBS priorities and processes. Since your project will likely have a Web site that will live on PBS.org, you'll need to become familiar with the guidelines found in the PBS Web Production Manual (http://www.pbs.org/producers/webmanual/ -- note that you must register to use this site). PBS Interactive Learning staff will provide resource information and support. They can help you shape your project plans, offer curriculum developer referrals, and provide editorial assistance.

For more information, contact
PBS Interactive Learning
1320 Braddock Place
Alexandria, Virginia 22314
Tel: 703-739-5127

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    What is Educational
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        Educational Outreach
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