El Centro Trip Reflection By Samantha Festin

Samantha Festin (right) interviews a transient homeless together with Sgt. Thompson from El Centro Police Department.

My class, JMS 494: Writing for Spanish-Language and Latino Media, partnered with the Sage Project in efforts to uncover ways El Centro residents have worked to prevent and eliminate homelessness in El Centro. The objective was to produce multimedia stories and tell the stories of El Centro. My experience included two visits with my professor and classmates to meet the city’s council and police and other local organizations.

In our first visit, we had a packed agenda. We met with city staff and council members and learned how they communicated with each other to increase productivity within the community and the Homelessness Task Force. I used my laptop and camera to document the meeting and topics discussed throughout the session. What I liked about this visit was that I was able to work with my classmates in order to discover the importance of team efforts to build a city in which residents prosper and are offered help by trusted individuals.

Next, the class visited WomanHaven and had the opportunity to interview Gina Vargas, the executive director. What I did not like was that we only had a limited amount of time to speak with Ms. Vargas. I would have liked more time to obtain answers from the director. Other than that, I appreciated the time we had with her and would like to go back to discuss future plans for helping women in the El Centro community.

Learning from experts

As part of the class, we met virtually with journalists who are experts on the topics we were covering. I have learned lessons about Solutions Journalism from Emma Athena, a Boulder Weekly reporter who specializes in homelessness and trauma. I have discovered how to use environmental topics about awareness and human resources within the community. Athena helped me realize the importance of being in touch with the people around us in terms of finding new ways to help and deliver news about the events happening locally.

The second reporter I learned from was Lisa Halverstadt, a Voice of San Diego reporter who helped the class realize how solutions-based journalism can incorporate new ideas and approaches to fighting homelessness and preventing residents from becoming homeless.

The time it takes to work on a story involving community, residents and needs took most of the semester because our class spent most of the class and homework time working alone and in groups on the project. This time we spent in labs, on video calls, in class and away from class helped us complete more aspects of the project that required interviewing, creating content, posting and researching about our subject. Interviewing people during class time and on field trips gave our class a new perspective of what it is like for the El Centro workers and residents to do what they do.

One example included a homeless man and woman my professor and I interviewed during the ride-along with El Centro Police Sergeant James Thompson that helped us know what the living situation was like in encampments and participating in a codependent relationship, where they were reliant on each other for drugs, alcohol, money and other items.

It was helpful seeing police officers and city council members work together to discuss and improve solution-based actions for the community and city of El Centro. Listening in and taking notes during the meeting made me think of the opportunities possible to make homelessness, housing, unemployment and illness less of an issue.

The El Centro community differs from the San Diego community in that people in El Centro have more Spanish-speaking residents, while in San Diego English is more dominant. I would need to prepare and be trained for El Centro reporting by practicing journalistic methods within this environment to further study and develop my understanding of the people and city.

Overall, I enjoyed working together with the whole class to contribute information and create content for the final website. My favorite part was seeing the finished product and watching the video my classmates and I put together. I would say the trips were worth attending because these experiences gave me more insight on the status of the city. I learned about homelessness first-hand by riding along with El Centro Police Sergeant James Thompson.

What I think could be improved for the next class that goes on this trip and works on this multimedia project is the planning and scheduling of times of visits. I would like to advise future students who work on this project to try to go on as many trips as they can to experience the El Centro culture, community and city life. I would recommend students research the organizations, stores and groups that go out to beautify and improve El Centro and its residents’ lives.