Video Story Pitches

1. Immigrants and Refugee

Found an organization called MIRA (Massachusetts Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy Coalition). I have talked to one of the program officer. She doesn’t think she is the best person to be interviewed, but she is willing to help me reach out to some of the AmeriCorps members, who are teaching ESOL/job skills to immigrants/refugees and/or assisting them with their applications for citizenship. They are placed at various immigrant- and refugee-serving organizations across Massachusetts, and they’ll have many more personal stories and experience to draw from in the work that they’re doing right now.

Through them, I can ask for immigrant’s contact and interview immigrant who has received help from MIRA. I have also registered for their upcoming event called “Immigrant’s Day at the State House” on April 5. Their advocacy this year will focus on the Safe Communities Act, a bill to protect the civil liberties and safety of all Massachusetts residents. The event starts at 9am and there will be keynote speakers from 10-11am. After that, I can have a chance to meet the legislator: senator and representative.

2. Lemberg Children’s Center

Lemberg is children’s center located in Waltham. Its goal is to guide children’s development of the essentials skills for healthy living. I have reached out to the executive director of Lemberg and talked to him about an hour. He wasn’t thinking about doing education initially, but after he attended U.S. army, he found that the way people in military talk to each other is different from his way of thinking. So, he started to work as an educator and has been working at Lemberg since 1979. I was introduced to one of the children’s classes and I also talked to one of the teacher, Katharine, who is willing to let me interview her. The next time I visit there, I will be looking for some experiment they are potentially working on and scenario if they have been working with disabled child and figure out a more specific story when I interview the teacher.

3. Women’s March

After the Women’s March, the Women’s March organization launched another actions for the First 100 days campaign, called Next Up Huddles. I contacted them through email but haven’t received any response yet. I will go to their office in Boston this weekend and things I will be looking for are: what are the women behind the Boston Women’s March and what is their specific plans for the Huddle event. I have also reserved seat for the two upcoming events they hold in the area. One called South End is Woke Huddle on March 30 and the other is Activism that Works workshop in Cambridge on March 26. I’m planning on going to both and I can interview the organizers of the event after them.