Michael Kraft
If you’re a Humboldt citizen who believes in democracy—and there are still a lot of us around—you should know Access Humboldt. While events and shenanigans in Washington, D.C. dominate the news cycle, local politics and governance impact our daily lives at least as much as those far-off events do. The good news is that the local stuff is accessible, and Access Humboldt plays a big role in why. It’s, like, right in their name.
What people tend to know about Access Humboldt has to do with their several public access channels on TV. And for good reason. This is where you and our fellow citizens can keep an eye on the county supervisors, the city councils, the planning commissions, the harbor district and others. Shining a light on these bodies, in the context of strong public meeting laws, represents our first line of defense against corruption. (Jurisdictions must follow those laws to make this work, of course, something which has been dicey a couple of times in recent months.)
But Access Humboldt also supports democracy by helping people to use and deploy their voices. The organization provides studios for podcasting, television production and radio. By becoming a member, which is super-affordable, you get access to these assets, along with tools and training, all to enable local citizens to be heard. Click here to become a member: https://www.accesshumboldt.net/home/membership.
Christina Marie Jeffers, who joined Access Humboldt six months ago as Executive Director, is an award-winning independent filmmaker who is passionate about freedom of expression. She laments the high cost of film and television production and, even more, the economics of getting distribution. “These are the only art forms,” she says, “where the artist can’t afford their canvas.” She contends that this makes public access where it’s at, for artists in television and film.
Christina wants you to know a few other things. First, public access television is different from public television. Public access is entirely locally driven and locally produced. It further differs from a web platform like YouTube in that content producers and their audiences are not being monetized and mined for data. It seeks to provide democratized access. “We are the enactment of your free speech. We will never exploit your viewers for their data.”
Next, she wants you to know “that we’re here for you.” The offices and studios are easy to get to on the College of the Redwoods main campus.
The funding environment is challenging for Access Humboldt. In this case, it’s not related to DOGE budget cutting, but rather the choice that consumers have been making over the years in cutting the cable TV cord. Access Humboldt funds come primarily from a small fee included with cable bills. The steady reduction in those funds make the organization reliant on donations, underwriting and sponsorships.
In response, the organization is ramping up fundraising, often in collaboration with others. The month of May is dedicated to Bold Giving. Some two dozen nonprofit organizations in Humboldt will benefit from this initiative, including Access Humboldt. Go
to https://bolddayofgiving.org/ to participate and look for profiles of nonprofits on Access Humboldt’s stations all month.
If you just want to donate to Access Humboldt directly, go here and press the red button: https://www.accesshumboldt.net/support/donate.
Democracy is not a spectator sport, and free speech is not automatic. Citizens, all of us, need to be involved. Access Humboldt makes it much more possible to participate in a good-sized chunk of local government, to watch what is being done in our names locally, to track where the money goes, and to say our piece.
Good Work is a series written by Michael Kraft, who volunteers on behalf of theNorthern California Association of Nonprofits (NorCAN). NorCAN supports connections between people and organizations that work every day to keep our communities healthy and strong by offering professional development, board support, networking connections and more. Learn more at https://norcal-nonprofits.org/. To nominate a deserving nonprofit organization to be profiled, email michael@kraftconsultants.com.
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