Manhattan Neighborhood Network
The “Source” for Community Media

When it comes to making media a part of your advocacy program, Manhattan Neighborhood Network is sort of a combination Santa’s Workshop and philanthropic big box store. 

MNN is responsible for administering Public Access cable television services in Manhattan and is supported by TimeWarner Cable and RCN Cable, under a franchise agreement with the City of New York.   In addition to operating the four public access cable channels, MNN is a leading source for technical and financial assistance to community organizations wishing to develop a media program.

Unlike most Public Access Centers, MNN’s Community Outreach and Media Department  boasts a staff of four which provides an array of services for community organizations.  “And on top of that, we are fortunate to have a grant program,” says Betty Yu, Director of Community Outreach and Media. 

MNN currently awards $170,000 annually to Manhattan-based organizations with the grants falling into three categories.

Training and Production grants are typically in the $10,000-$20,000 range and provide a package of equipment necessary for an organization to shoot and edit its own video programming as well as training and some funding to support the organization’s personnel costs associated with ongoing media projects.

Tactical Media Toolkit grants are approximately $9,000-$10,000 and include just the equipment and initial training.

Curatorial Media grants are MNN’s newest program and offer funding to support efforts by community organizations to gather, screen and distribute existing videos from a variety of sources.

In addition to the two organizations highlighted in this issue – the Coalition for Institutionalized Aged and Disabled (CIAD) and the Self Advocacy Association of New York State – MNN has provided grants and training to a long list of Manhattan-based community organizations.  Among those with which it has worked closely are Picture the Homeless, National Mobilzation Against Sweatshops, Esperanza del Barrio, the Women’s HIV Collective, the Neighborhood Economic Development Advocacy Project, and many others.

“Our approach is not to provide an organization with the tools and never see them again,” says Yu.  “We really see ourselves as community organizers.  We do a lot of proactive outreach.  We seek out communities that are absent from corporate and mainstream media. We go out to conferences and workshops and get involved in on the ground organizing with different communities.  We provide them with the tools to tell their own stories.”

MNN also provides community organizations with media consultations to help develop a realistic communications and media strategy.  Programs produced by community organizations can be aired on MNN’s four public access channels.

MNN will begin seeking its next round of Community Media Grants this summer with submissions likely to be due at the end of October.   Yu expects awards to be made in November.

For additional information about MNN’s Community Outreach and Media programs and services, visit www.mnn.org.