Karen Quebe,
Outreach Coordinator

Mailing Address:
Bridging the Divide
KLRU
PO Box 7158
Austin, TX 78713

Phone:
512-475-9050
Fax: 512-475-9090
karen_quebe@klru.pbs.org

Austin:

On one side of town, Austin is a high-tech mecca and a hot job market. A few miles away, the community suffers from a median income of $6,000, poor schools, drugs, gangs and violence. The gulf between Austin's technology "haves" and "have-nots" is widening and is a serious threat to the community. As a public television station moving towards digital conversion, KLRU has a stake in finding community solutions.

Bridging the Divide is a multi-year project that will pioneer efforts to bring the human element, compassion and empathy, to the digital divide discussion. KLRU will integrate sustained community dialogue around issues of race and diversity with local efforts to create awareness of the disparities in local technology access. The project will be a part of and build upon the Television Race Initiative (TRI) using national programming as a catalyst to conversation about issues that divide and unify us. The proposed project will adapt TRI strategies to build a sense of community as it tests and refines methods to address the local digital divide.