If you spend any time with young people, you know that the best among them don't always get the attention they deserve.
This is especially true in the media's coverage of the daily news.
It shouldn't be that way. News, by definition, is what's extraordinary to our readers. And when young people achieve remarkable accomplishments, that is extraordinarily good news.
The Observer has long valued this news. It's why each spring we honor more than 100 of the region's top students as Observer All-Star Scholars. It's also why we've been proud to sponsor the Charlotte Observer Regional Spelling Bee for 57 years.
On Tuesday, we introduce another way to mark the accomplishments of young people with a new feature called Young Achievers.
Each week, we will bring you news and insightful profiles of young people in our region who are excelling in academics, the arts, public service and a variety of other settings that are richer because of their involvement.
On Tuesday, for instance, you will meet Manasvi Koul. Manasvi's personal battle with a potentially fatal illness motivated her to raise more than $500,000 in support of other sick children while she was still a high school student in Union County.
Young Achievers will appear in our printed edition as two full-color pages inside our Carolina Living section. Online, you will find that content, plus videos, photo slideshows, archives and the means to share your own stories about inspiring young people.
Some readers may be surprised to see added community coverage in an era when the trend has been for most news media to cut back.
This is possible through a new funding model the Observer is developing for coverage that you would welcome. Under this approach, we find a company, foundation or individual willing to underwrite the cost of high-quality content as an important investment in the life of its community.
Similar to underwriters of content on NPR and PBS, our underwriters play no role in the selection or editing of the content. But their support is a high-profile commitment to coverage that is good for our region.
This is how we are able to bring you our widely acclaimed Sci-Tech section each Monday. Its exclusive coverage of advances in science and technology across the Carolinas is underwritten by Duke Energy.
For Young Achievers, we found another willing underwriter: Piedmont Natural Gas.
"We see this as a wonderful opportunity to recognize the accomplishments of young people throughout our community and to show appreciation for the contributions they are making, not only in their own lives but in the lives of others," said Thomas Skains, Piedmont's chairman, president, and CEO. "I have no doubt that the talents, energy, and passion represented . . . will be as impressive as they are inspirational to us all."
Of course, there are many more young people deserving of recognition than we can mention in any weekly package. So this coverage is in addition to ongoing schools and youth-oriented features you find now in our community sections and daily news coverage. Many of those features also invite you to submit an idea or an item for publication.
Our goal is that, with your help, we will leave no significant achievement unrecognized.
I think you will be touched and encouraged by what you read. These are remarkable individuals. To know them through their personal experiences is to appreciate all the more how far they have come already in such young lives.
-- Reach Rick Thames at rthames@charlotteobserver.com, twitter.com/rthames and www.facebook.com/rthames.obs. Phone: 704-358-5001.
Saturday, July 9, 2011
New feature: Young people who inspire
Saturday, April 30, 2011
Alliance to bring you more local news
More news is good news. And that is what we have for you now, through a new feature on CharlotteObserver.com.
It’s called the Charlotte News Alliance (CNA). This is a network of 16 local websites, and growing, that have partnered with The Charlotte Observer to offer you the region’s most comprehensive look at local news.
You can find summaries and links to the best of these stories in the lower half of the home page on CharlotteObserver.com. A number of these stories will also appear on the printed pages of the Observer. In turn, some Observer stories will appear on the partner sites.
Some CNA sites are operated by journalists, some by civic-minded citizens. But all are opening doors to a tier of news coverage that is uniquely “hyper-local.”
By that, we mean news that can be as local as your own neighborhood or your own particular topic of interest.
For example, BallantyneScoop.com is a hyper-local site based in south Charlotte’s Ballantyne community, while QcityMetro.com is a news and information site focused on African-American life across Charlotte.
Through this alliance, we believe we are building on the strengths of all of the partners. How?
CharlotteObserver.com is the most visited local news site in both Carolinas, attracting 2.4 million viewers a month from around the world. But our region is vast and still growing, making it very challenging to deliver everyone the most intensely local news possible.
This, however, is the primary mission of hyper-local sites. They can deliver readers a more narrowly targeted area or topic. Their challenge often is building enough audience to generate revenue needed to operate their sites. Their affiliation with CharlotteObserver.com adds to that audience.
Working together makes us all stronger. It also provides you richer choices of content in one convenient place.
We began assembling this alliance more than a year ago, initially as the Charlotte News Network . Our preliminary work was aided by a grant from J-Lab: The Institute of Interactive Journalism at American University in Washington, D.C.
Among our partners are several startups, including HoodieCharlotte.com, which covers uptown Charlotte and four surrounding neighborhoods. We also have the websites of established media, including La Noticia and Mi Gente, both Spanish-language newspapers.
If you know of a local website that would be a good fit for this alliance, email a link and description to the Observer’s innovations editor, Jen Rothacker. You can see examples from all the partners, as well as other details, at the Charlotte News Alliance page.
Reach Rick Thames at rthames@charlotteobserver.com, twitter.com/rthames and www.facebook.com/rthames.obs. Phone: 704-358-5001.
The Charlotte News Alliance
Ballantyne Scoop: Community website based in Ballantyne.
Carolina Public Press:
The Catawba River District: News about nature, learning, recreation and community development along the Catawba River.
Charlotte Viewpoint: A web-based magazine of essays, reviews, fiction, poetry, photography and video produced by citizens.
CLT Blog: A community website with users submitting Charlotte news, video, photos, links and blogs.
The Gatton Report: Investigative reports from the Mooresville/South Iredell area.
Hoodie Charlotte: Covers five center city neighborhoods – Dilworth, Myers Park, Plaza Midwood, Elizabeth and Center City – with news, features and photos.
The Johnsonian: Winthrop University’s student newspaper.
La Noticia: Website for the city’s largest Latino newspaper.
Mi Gente: Online report from this weekly Latino newspaper.
Monroe Scoop: Community website based in Monroe and Union County.
Niner Online: UNC Charlotte’s student newspaper.
Qcitymetro: News, commentary and events about Charlotte’s African-American community.
Tega Cay Talk: News, events, people, places, and “The Good Life,” in and around Tega Cay.
Villa Heights: Community website serving Villa Heights and surrounding neighborhoods.
Wednesday, March 30, 2011
A bank unlike any Charlotte has seen
Is there room in Banktown for a lender willing to finance the dreams of entrepreneurs living below the poverty line?
A civic-minded group of local business executives remains $1 million short of its goal to establish a Charlotte version of the world-renowned Grameen Bank of Bangladesh.
The sooner they get that money, the sooner they can bring to Charlotte the micro-credit concept that won Grameen founder Muhammad Yunus worldwide admiration and the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize:
You can make a small business loan to people who are poor and expect it to be paid back, with interest.
The public had the opportunity to see this idea explained in a documentary, “To Catch a Dollar,” which was shown Thursday in uptown Charlotte’s Epicentre Theater. The film features Yunus and personal finance expert and TV personality Suze Orman.
Yunus, a professor, established the Grameen Bank in Bangladesh in 1983. He got the idea after loaning small amounts of money to poor basket-weavers in the mid-1970s. Replicas of the bank now operate in more than 100 countries.
In 2008, supporters brought this idea to the United States, opening Grameen America in Queens, NY. That organization now operates branches in Brooklyn, Upper Manhattan and Omaha, Neb. It is preparing to open two more in Indianapolis and San Francisco.
Charlotte’s organizers have $1.5 million of the $2.5 million they need to open Grameen Charlotte, which will operate as a nonprofit. They expect to assist 3,500 borrowers in the first four years.
Borrowers targeted are below the household poverty line of $22,050 a year. In 2009, that amounted to 14,500 households in Charlotte. Applicants undergo a financial training program before being approved for a loan of up to $1,500. Loans are repaid over six to 12 months.Grameen America reports a repayment rate of 99 percent.
“The nice thing is, this is ready to go,” said John Lassiter, a former city council member, mayoral candidate and businessman who co-chairs the Charlotte effort and helped lead an informational session at Whitehead Manor this week. “Once we have the cash in hand, they have a branch manager who is ready” to come to Charlotte.
Their biggest gift to date has been $500,000 from Wells Fargo, followed by the Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation ($450,000), the City of Charlotte ($230,000), the Leon Levine Foundation ($100,000) and the Ginter Foundation ($100,000). Gifts from individuals total $71,500.
People can also choose to invest in Grameen, in $1,000 increments. Those investments are repaid in five years at an annual interest rate of 1%.
For more about the Grameen Charlotte campaign, contact co-chair Sara Garces at sgarces@redf.com or campaign committee member Joe Mynatt at joe.mynatt@wachovia.com.
Reach Rick Thames at rthames@charlotteobserver.com or 704-358-5001.
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