KRCB Public Broadcasting Mission Statement
In order to encourage full participation in society and community, KRCB provides educational, informational and cultural telecommunication services in partnership with our community.
GOALS
Programming: KRCB will build community awareness of our cultural richness and human diversity through the production and broadcast of local, national and regional programs.
Education: KRCB will maximize the use of its broadcast and non-broadcast resources in the service of all students in various and diverse settings.
Financial: KRCB will remain a stable and enduring institution by exercising sound financial management.
The People
David Levitt Waxman is a full-time Television Producer at KRCB Public Broadcasting. In addition, he is producing an independent multimedia documentary project called 1 in 5 Stories, with the stated goal of introducing the often-invisible 20% of Americans with disabilities to the other 80% of the population. A suburban Chicago native, he lives with his wife Susie in Marin County, California.
Susie Levitt Waxman, MSW is a disability rights activist. Additionally, she counsels consumers on government benefits at the original Center for Independent Living in Berkeley, engages in public speaking and promotes self-advocacy. She has previously worked with the Lighthouse for the Blind and Visually Impaired in San Francisco and the Marin Center for Independent Living. She got her start in disability rights as a youth volunteer for the Lake County (Illinois) Center for Independent Living, and organized a campus modernization project aimed at improving wheelchair accessibility at her college campus. Married to David, the couple enjoy interacting with their parrot (Thetical).
The Project
As a PBS Station that serves the Bay Area, it is part of KRCB’s mission to educate and to stimulate thoughtful, meaningful discussions. Few people know about the Disability Rights/Independent Living Movement, let alone that it was founded in the Bay Area in the 1970s.
This movement gave rise to many of the state and federal laws that protect people with all disabilities today. As those laws began to take effect, people with disabilities were able to challenge old stereotypes and prejudices, and prove to people without disabilities that they can make positive contributions to society, not despite, but because of, their disabilities. KRCB believes that these community events will help provoke thoughtful, meaningful discussions on the nature of disability.
Another part of KRCB’s mission is to work with underserved populations in our community. KRCB has accomplished this with other populations, and wishes to reach out to people with disabilities as well. This project lays the foundation to create partnerships with existing community organizations, brings important issues to the forefront, and allows us to fulfill our mission to educate, inform, and to involve our entire community, regardless of ability.
As a joint licensee with both radio and television broadcasts, KRCB has the potential to reach tens of thousands of people who would be interested in hearing the stories of people in their communities who they might not otherwise interact with. Because of the Bay Area’s rich history of disability rights activism, this engagement with our diverse population of wheelchair users facilitates local story-telling from a variety of perspectives, thus providing a uniquely non-threatening environment for non-wheelchair using people to learn about those of us who do use wheelchairs.
