Community Media Resource Center
MRAP works with groups that directly organize under-represented constituencies. MRAP does not do direct organizing. We prioritize ties with organizations that represent constituencies, are member driven, demonstrate a commitment to social justice, and lack staff with media expertise. We provide trainings and materials in English and Spanish, and work with other language groups through translators (Khmer, Haitian Creole, and Cape Verdean). Our constituents are largely poor and working class. Program participation reflects our commitment to serve marginalized constituencies. Our 1998-1999 Community Media Resource Network Media Fellows Program serves primarily poor, working class, participants of color constituencies: African-American, Afro Caribbean, Asian, Latino and newly arrived Irish immigrants.
MRAP and eight community organizations located in the Greater Boston area are organized into the Community Media Resource Network. The Media Fellows Program, a collaborative action research training program, is the glue that holds the network together. The Media Fellows Program consists of two representatives from each participant community organization who are designated as Media Fellows to represent their respective organizations. MRAP staff led by co-director Charlotte Ryan, and including Boston College graduate students, working as MRAP staff trains the Media Fellows. The Media Fellows learn: how media functions; to access media; and to develop an organizational media strategy including the establishment and development of an organizational Media Committee.