Truth Has a Voice Foundation

The Truth Has a Voice Foundation is a nonprofit formed in Nov. 2019 with the mission to support quality, objective, fact-based local journalism in the Upper Arkansas Valley, ensuring that the public has the facts and information to participate in a democratic society and hold government accountable to the people.

The Foundation will nurture informative reporting, fund educational opportunities in journalism, and support programs and work leading to a better-informed community, wider civil discourse, education on misinformation/disinformation and greater government accountability. We believe that building trust in community news reporting and understanding perspectives that influence media presentations, are critical for the survival of our democracy.

Our Goals and Projects
•The Truth Has a Voice Foundation Board has funded two journalism internships, one for a recent college graduate and one for a local high school graduate at the digital media daily, Ark Valley Voice, to learn reporting in a variety of contexts with a vision of awareness of how different journalistic approaches reflect cultural norms.
•We sponsored a real-time 2020 virtual forum on Oct. 1 for the County Commissioner candidates so that our community would have an opportunity to learn about candidate perspectives and proposed policies, even in the midst of a pandemic.
•In August, 2021 we held a community discussion between left- and right-learning residents after viewing a documentary on Thomas Sowell. This is the first in a series of films designed to open dialogue to address the polarization in our county.
•On October 21, 2021 we held a panel discussion and showing of "The Social Dilemma", a trending documentary and critique of social media platforms and their effect on users. The link to that recording is available at: https://youtu.be/lJc_yeZaEtM.

The panel discussion was focused on local impacts of social media and was moderated by Leslie Matthews. Panel members were Kelsey McNeill, a mental health specialist with Solvista Health; Michelle Pujol, an MBA in International Management with extensive experience in the digital marketing and operations industry; Dr. Libby Stuyt, a licensed psychiatrist with expertise in addiction and brain functioning; and two Salida High School students, Stella Veazey and Kalister Banghart, who brought an important current youth perspective to the discussion.

Future Plans
•We are also in the planning stages of a 2022 conference to explore the role of media and threats to our digital security, providing a community educational opportunity to inform and lessen the impacts of polarization.
We will raise funds to expand the journalism internship program to include high school students and to have more than one internship available each year. We hope to help support training for and funding of working journalists.
•We would like to apply ideas generated at the conference and from within our community to focus discussion on themes that impact our community and generate differences in the ways we view community needs. Developing an approach and model for other communities to emulate is a key priority.

Please visit our website at https://truthhasavoicefoundation.org/.

Photos:

Jan Wondra, AVV Managing Editor works with Brooke Gilmore, AVV Reporter and former intern preparing for the Truth Has A Voice Foundation County Commissioner Candidate Forum.

Maddie Porter, Summer 2021 High School intern

"The Social Dilemma" Film and Discussion Panelists.