The Spanish Community of Wallingford (SCOW) has a track record of providing basic services for the diverse Spanish speaking immigrants in the Wallingford/Meriden area that spans five decades. Its mission, like the culture & heritage organizations a century old or older, is to respond to and assist with the needs of immigrants as they achieve success in U.S. society.
It is common for immigrant communities to establish formal clubs in order to welcome and serve individuals from their homeland. Such clubs include: The Hungarian Club (104 yrs), the Italian Club in Wallingford (111 yrs) formally known as Libero Pensiero Mutual Aid Society, and the Polish National Alliance (122 yrs). Some have strong affiliations with places of faith like the Irish Ancient Order of Hibernian Club, Meriden (186 yrs NYC) and the Jewish Community Center of Greater New Haven with roots 168 yrs deep. Each organization serves as an important base for cultural heritage and community engagement to this day. Unlike many of the cultural immigrant organizations that precede it, The Spanish Community of Wallingford (50yrs) serves the local Latino Community, which arrives from various points around the globe. The new arrivals share a language, some traditions, and the universal desire to succeed in the USA.
A Decade of Language Literacy with local-global TV
A decade ago, during a frank conversation about not being multilingual, the concept of #in2languages #en2idiomas television program was born. This program, a language literacy ‘learn by watching TV’ show, became a collaboration between SCOW and WPAA-TV. The pilot #in2languages #en2idiomas was launched in 2013. Initially, WPAA-TV scheduled programs when the likelihood was high that community members would be in SCOW’s lobby where a television was tuned to WPAA-TV.
When individuals in our organizations, network and experience each other’s programs, we find ways to amplify our mutual interest in public service.
At first, program content was underwritten by a grant and contract arrangement between WPAA-TV and Deutsche Welle, the German media company. When the grant ended in 2017, Ion Bank helped with the acquisition cost of Spanish language content for one year. They also underwrote production of promotional videos for #in2languages #en2idiomas. By this time, content had expanded to three news magazines. The scheduling was midday from Monday to Friday and simulcast on the Internet by WPAA-TV.
Two members of the SCOW community, with the help of Team Hercules interns, provided some transparency on language learning with their personal stories. It may be hard to believe but the ubiquity of television is as old as SCOW. Sitcoms and other serial television programs have been a resource for language literacy for many immigrants since in the 1970s, starting with the AARP generation.
Community collaborations can transform lives.
Within this collaboration, each organization has a role. SCOW commits to representing the content for play as #GoodEnough2Share. SCOW is publicly identified as representing content for local play and as with all Good Enough2Share programs, SCOW assumes some promotional responsibilities. WPAA-TV handles all the administration including contracting, downloading, ingesting, scheduling and processing payment for content.
#in2languages #en2idiomas now includes four news magazines. The latest show added to the line-up is the health news magazine In Good Shape | En Forma. Content is now scheduled midday from Monday to Saturday. This content becomes more than a great source for quality news based on how it is scheduled. The same news magazines, in each language, are scheduled consecutively. This approach creates an opportunity for viewers to learn either English or Spanish while viewing current global news. The 11:30 am-12:30 pm hour is cablecast in Spanish, including Public Service Announcements.
For more about the program go here.
Community Support Keeps Language Literacy on WPAA-TV
Content and administrative costs are about $1,000 each annually. Donations received in the Annual Great Give from friends of WPAA-TV and SCOW help underwrite the cost of the exceptional magazine style content contracted from DW.DE. Grassroots support (donations as low as $5 a year) help us demonstrate the value of this program to the community. If you are just hearing about this for the first time, we encourage you to watch. If you agree with us that it is a excellent public service, we look forward to your support in May during TheGreatGive. 2022 updates will be live April 1st.
