Community Impact Report

2022

Finding Common Ground

ear Friends and Supporters,

Each day, Coloradans come together in ways big and small to support each other in working to make things better. We may not always see this below the surface of the discord and divide that often dominates our collective psyches, but it is there.

Throughout the year, we aim to share moments with you of celebration, loss, struggle, growth, and resolve that make up our complex communities. We work hard not to oversimplify issues affecting Coloradans, but to illuminate the interconnection between people and the systems upon which we all rely.

Our work at Rocky Mountain Public Media (RMPM) invites audiences on a journey to expand your cultural experiences, create more access to trusted resources and opportunities, cultivate empathy and understanding for our neighbors, and inspire positive changes in the world. All these intentions stem from a common goal of creating a Colorado where everyone feels seen and heard.

As the parent organization of Rocky Mountain PBS, KUVO JAZZ and THE DROP 104.7, RMPM sets a collective course to build community trust by showing up in alignment with our core values:

Culture is Something Everybody Has

We all bring unique value into our communities, and each person has their own culture to share. We thrive together in community when we recognize and appreciate our cultural connections, celebrating what we have in common alongside what makes us unique.

Actively Engage Multiple Perspectives

By learning about each other’s lived

experiences and listening to understand each

other with open hearts and minds, we discover more opportunities to find common ground and inspire positive change.

Building Cultural Bridges

Sharing stories builds bridges. Bridges create access to new people, places and experiences that connect us all.

Co-Responsibility

RMPM has a responsibility to earn and expand the public’s trust in local media because a free press is central to a healthy democracy. We strive to operate in co-ownership with the communities we serve, expanding access and impact through authentic relationships that build trust.

This community impact report is intended to touch upon the many ways we strive to achieve each of these core values through all we do. Thank you for sharing in our progress this year and thank you for being a hero in your community. We are so grateful to partner with you in the important work ahead.

Amanda Mountain

President and CEO

Rocky Mountain Public Media

Duke Hartman

Chair, Board of Directors

Rocky Mountain Public Media

D

We’ve got to get back to a place where we’re starting to see the humanity in each other… No matter what you look like, no matter what your sexual orientation may be, no matter what your race may be, no matter what your economic level may be, it doesn’t matter. We’re human beings and we need to learn each other’s stories…

It’s hard to hate someone once

you know their story. ”

- Tommy Watson, Denver

Author, Motivational Speaker, and Executive Coach

Interviewed in a recent RMPBS story

Who WeAre

Our staff continues to reflect and represent the racial, ethnic, and cultural backgrounds of

the communities we serve.

Why are demographic percentage totals more than 100% in each column? Our staff survey reflects the Census Bureau guidelines that include overlapping selections for race and Latinx, Hispanic and Spanish identities.

White

86.5%

Latinx, Hispanic orspanish

22.3%

TWO OR MORE RACES

3.3%

BLACK OR AFRICANAMERICAN

4.7%

Asian OR

ASIAN AMERICAN

3.6%

INDIGENOUS OR

NATIVE AMERICAN

0.2%

1.7%

Native Hawaiian OR

pACIFIC iSLANDER

White

61.7%

Latinx, Hispanic orspanish

22.3%

TWO OR MORE RACES

13.8%

BLACK OR AFRICAN

AMERICAN

11.7%

Asian OR

ASIAN AMERICAN

4.3%

INDIGENOUS OR

NATIVE AMERICAN

5.3%

Native Hawaiian OR

pACIFIC iSLANDER

0.0%

Aerial shot in a Colorado Lottery conservation

campaign.

Colorado Lottery

Conservation is at the core of Colorado Lottery’s mission. In fact, it’s the only lottery in the country dedicated to funding the great outdoors. Rocky Mountain Public Media campaigns educate audiences about lottery-funded programs that support parks and public lands across Colorado. To date, more than 3.7 billion dollars from Colorado Lottery proceeds help to protect open spaces, preserve Colorado’s wilderness, and build parks, trails and recreation centers throughout the state.

Opera Colorado

When COVID-19 precautions limited capacity for in-person performances,

Rocky Mountain Public Media partnered with Opera Colorado to create original digital programs. This year, we produced several educational series together. “Anatomy of an Aria” includes filmed performances and interviews with artists about the significance and meaning behind famous operatic solos, or arias. Another filmed performance, “The Pirates of Penzance,” broadens access to Opera Colorado’s educational outreach programs with students across the state.

RMPM crew films digital “The Pirates of Penzance”

performance in the Masterpiece Theatre.

Use this QR Code or visit:

https://www.rmpbs.org/2022-community-impact/

to view our online multimedia report, including video,

audio, and other digital features.

For me, working for the public good means helping members of our community understand their legal rights and find access to resources that allow them to become part of an inclusive society where everyone plays by the same rules.

– Evan Banker, Chalat Hatten & Banker Law Firm,

RMPM Underwriting Partner

Values-AlignedPartnerships

As a non-commercial media outlet, Rocky Mountain Public Media (RMPM) is highly selective about the businesses with whom we partner and even more so about the messages we share with you. We don’t take your trust for granted, so we work hard to partner with businesses who share common values and a demonstrated commitment to helping our communities thrive.

Community Impact Report 2022

Amplifying Community Voices

Throughout Colorado

RMPM hosts a screening and community conversation in the Masterpiece Theatre at Buell Public Media Center.

Following audience responses from RMPBS stories, Rocky Mountain Public Media hosted statewide community engagement events, including monthly Community Circles with panels focused on addiction recovery, housing and homeowners associations, Colorado’s increasingly competitive rental market, and microdosing psilocybin for mental health.

Community Circle events create in-person and virtual opportunities for communities across Colorado to actively participate in our journalism by engaging in dynamic discussions and sharing resources with each other. These in-depth sessions help us discover what Coloradans value and the issues impacting your communities with a focus on exploring solutions together.

We need to get more involved in our communities, go to these meetings and become more of a voice because maybe your neighbor or somebody in your neighborhood needs you to be there and spread word of the need that’s out there… Connecting and partnering with people… That’s what we’re here to do.

– Joseph Dominguez, Affordable Housing Advocate and Panelist,

RMPM Community Circle: Colorado Rental Market

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Rocky Mountain Public Media

Colorado

Experience

Community

Conversations

In partnership with History Colorado’s State Historical Fund, the Sturm Family Foundation, Telluride Mining Historian Rudy Davison, and other community supporters, we host regional Colorado Experience screenings and community discussions with local historians exploring the people, places and events that shape Colorado. Screening events in 2022 included:

“Women of the Santa Fe Trail”shares the unique

challenges and triumphs of the astonishing women who traveled and lived along the trail – from Native Americans and adventurers to formerly enslaved people and

suffragettes.

“Twin Lakes”explores the underrepresented history of bro-ken treaties and modern-day discussions of reconciliation around this region, a cultural and hereditary homeland of the Tabeguache Ute people.

View Colorado Experience Episodes at:

https://www.rmpbs.org/coloradoexperience/

In the Masterpiece Theatre at Buell Public Media Center, we facilitate community-centered conversations around national PBS programs, such as “Making Black America,” “NOVA: The Cannabis Question,” and others.

Rocky Mountain Public Media hosts these events in

partnership with local historians and QTBIPOC (queer, transgender, black, indigenous, and people of color) facing

organizations, including Metropolitan State University of Denver’s Chicano/a/x Studies, Chicano Humanities and Arts Council (CHAC) Gallery, Museum of Contemporary Art

Denver, Black Pride Colorado and more. Virtual options offer greater statewide access and regional perspectives from Coloradans in rural communities.

Panelists and attendees preview Colorado Experience “Twin Lakes” episode in Colorado Springs.

Nikki Swarn facilitates audience discussions during a screening of “Making Black

America.”

RMPBS

Engaging Multiple Perspectives

Every month, more than a million Coloradans turn to Rocky Mountain PBS to experience inspiring local, national, and international programming; diverse viewpoints; front row center seats to world-class performances; and lifelong learning experiences.

Through your feedback, we know our audiences value Rocky Mountain PBS’ captivating dramas, enlightening documentaries, and

trustworthy journalism that explores issues important in your communities. Rocky Mountain PBS strives to deliver daily stories that amplify voices and diverse perspectives from across the state – all to further our shared vision of a Colorado where everyone feels seen and heard. We invite you to explore how Rocky Mountain PBS brings this vision to life.

What You Value Most About PBS

By staying true to our core values – engaging multiple perspectives, honoring diverse cultures, building cultural bridges, and operating in co-ownership with our community – we commit to upholding and expanding your trust in everything we do at Rocky Mountain PBS.

For the 19th year in a row, Americans rank

PBS the most-trusted media institution.

Graph indicates “trust a great deal” and “trust somewhat.”

86%

agree

PBS stations provide an

excellent value

to communities.

Believe PBS features a diverse range of people.

Believe PBS content appeals to people of different ethnic

backgrounds.

75%

74%

Believe PBS does a good job of

representing people of color in its content.

Believe PBS is in touch with today’s culture.

71%

68%

View Our Statewide Story Map

Journalism shouldn’t start and stop along the Front Range. As Coloradans, we discover greater understanding of complex issues by engaging in multiple regional perspectives.

Thanks to member support and values-aligned foundations, underwriters, and major donors, we can invest in hiring regional journalists and collaborate with hundreds of individuals and organizations throughout the state. Together, we explore opportunities to share a deeper context that elevates unique exper-

iences and expertise found in every Colorado community.

Community Impact in Your Own Words

Click the video tothe right to see a collection of inspiring community responses from recent RMPM stories, performances, and programs.

What are the issues or opportunities in your community that you’d like to share with Rocky Mountain PBS audiences across Colorado? Send us a message with your thoughts and ideas at:coloradovoices@rmpbs.org.

Reaching Every Corner

Of Colorado

We Want to Hear from You

RMPBS coverage map highlights stories throughout the state for 2022.

Addressing HOA Foreclosures

Rocky Mountain PBS profiled cases that reflect the enormous power more than 10,000 homeowners associations (HOAs) wield over Colorado residents. We shared these stories in advance of the Colorado legislature passing a bipartisan measure, limiting HOA ability to file foreclosure cases. When these stories can be heard and used to support action, such as legislation regulating HOA power, we know we are on the right track.

A New Chapter: Coming to Terms with a Gruesome

Legacy

Centuries after its disturbing creation, a religious book, at one time on display at the Iliff School of Theology, was at the center of a reparations meeting this year with the Lenape Nation. The two groups discussed how the school can amend a shaded past, marred by cover-ups and controversy surrounding the book’s cover – made from the skin of a murdered Native American. This story isn’t just about the book. It’s about accountability, the future, and changing our view of the world.

Our Democracy

As part of our Colorado Voices series, we traveled across the state to find out what democracy means to Coloradans from all walks of life. We invited them to answer three questions ahead of midterm elections to explore common perspectives and desires around the concept of democracy: What does democracy mean to you? What do people with different views from yours get wrong about you? What does your community need?

In-depth reports are really where we can expose the real truth about where things are going wrong and what’s happening. And now when we go back and try to change policy on that, we can point to the truth that’s been presented.

– Brianna Titone, Colorado State Representative

Empathy is what we need in order to see ourselves in others… And that’s the power of storytelling. When we sit down and listen to people and begin to see ourselves within one another, that’s when we begin to understand the why and the how, and those are the places where we can change.

– Jeff Campbell,Creative Director & Founder, Emancipation Theatre Co.

A 26-minute must watch that will shake you and inform how you see and engage with others going forward. This is so important!

– Margaret Bobb, Colorado Voices Viewer

RMPBSKIDS

Rocky Mountain PBS KIDS: Early Childhood Initiative

Use this QR Code or visit:

www.rmpbs.org/[landingpagenamehere] to view our online multimedia report, including video, audio, and other digital features.

Thanks to more than a decade of incredible support from our partners, RMPBS KIDS Fest continues to be an event that communities throughout Colorado look forward to each year. In October, RMPBS KIDS Fest brought more than 1,500 kids, families, caregivers and their neighbors together in Grand Junction to celebrate, learn and connect with local community resources.

Rocky Mountain PBS KIDS (RMPBS KIDS) continues to evolve our early childhood initiative after developing Colorado Classroom and other educational resources in partnership with the Colorado Department of Education. This effort connected us with new community partners that help to increase family and caregiver connections to relevant local stories, resources, and opportunities.

Use this QR Code or visit:

https://www.rmpbs.org/2022-community-impact/

to view our online multimedia report, including video,

audio, and other digital features.

Community events mean a lot to our family, especially after we’ve all spent so much time apart over the pandemic. RMPBS KIDS Fest gave us a chance to get outside, stretch our legs, share quality time with one another, and connect with some really valuable community resources.

– Paige Cadman, Grand Junction Parent

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Community Impact Report 2022

Parents Say

PBSKIDS...

Helps prepare children for success in school.

Graph indicates “agree strongly” and “agree somewhat.”

Which network best prepares

children for success

in school?

Which media brands do parents value as educational resources for children?

Is the most educational media brand.

82%

of parents agree that PBS KIDS is a safe and

trusted source for kids to watch television and play digital games and apps.

Graph indicates “most educational” and “second most educational.”

Use this QR Code or visit:

https://www.rmpbs.org/2022-community-impact/

to view our online multimedia report, including video,

audio, and other digital features.

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Rocky Mountain Public Media

Connecting Parents & Caregivers

with Community Resources

This year, RMPBS KIDS launched a weekly newsletter and a partnership with Bright by Text to offer care- givers age and stage-specific text messages curated from trusted national organizations on physical and mental health, social-emotional wellbeing, safety, brain develop-ment, supportive connections and more.

Bawby joins RMPBS KIDS as a lovable big horn sheep character who is super curious about kids and families, excited to learn about their worlds, and ready to jump into all the cool things happening around Colorado.

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Community Impact Report 2022