Dennis Jarrett talks about how the Indy Far East Magazine came to be and what the Next Generation Initiative contributes to the Far East side community.
Find the Indy Far East Magazine Online
Learn More About the Next Generation Initiative
Learn More About P30 (Coworking and Event Space)
Here is the transcript from the presentation:
Ryan: We get together here every Monday at 11:30 except for holidays so that we can learn about each other’s business and how we could be stronger advocates for each other’s brand, we also like to roll some education into that so everyone walks away from the meeting knowing something that you can put to use in your business right away.
Ryan: And so, we’re going to do things a little differently today. Our speaker today is Dennis Jarrett, who is a fellow member of the Indianapolis East Rotary Club, where I’m also a member.
Ryan: And Dennis has recently, earlier this year, launched a magazine and I’m going to leave it to him to give us the name of it and talk about the process of what it takes to start a magazine and his mission to give back and support his local community.
Ryan: So, everyone, let’s give Dennis a hand.
Dennis: Thank you all. Thank you all very much. Again, it’s my pleasure, Ryan.
Dennis: Thank you very much for the invitation, and again, great to be a part of your meeting.
Dennis: This morning, I’m going to dive right into it and just give you a real quick little background on myself, then go right-
Dennis: But I want to definitely spend the bulk of the time I’m talking, about what we’re doing and why we’re doing what we’re doing here on the on the Far East side of Indianapolis in particular, but not restricted to that area.
Dennis: But yeah, I, I work now for the MSD of Warren Township. I am the director of Media and Community Relations for the district and I also head up the training program for, in the Walker Career Center, for those young people aspiring to be in the media communications field.
Dennis: I came from WRTV Channel 6, where I worked for 11 years in the news operation and where I was at the, my last position there, I was the news assignment editor which is, if you ever have a chance to be the news assignment editor in a local news station, do yourself a favor, don’t take that job, it is, it is, it is the toughest job in the news, in the news department, and because you’re always listening to radios and, and everybody, and then you, you, part of your responsibility is, is matching the reporters with the photographers.
Dennis: And if you’ve ever worked in anything with people, you can imagine how that goes with personality so, but had a great experience there for 11 years and then went to MSD of Warren Township to start the video program.
Dennis: So, I did the video program and, and about seven years ago, really, yeah, about seven years ago, we applied for a grant from the Department of Education, and we were, we were fortunate to receive $1.7 million to build out a production studio and a, and production facility to train students.
Dennis: And from that we started a 501(C)3 called the Next Generation Initiative, where our main focus is on just that, training young people for careers in media communications.
Dennis: And so up to this day, we have about 70 of our former participants who are actively working right now in the media communications field, and that’s probably the one thing that we’re more proud of, than any of the equipment any of the facilities, is the fact that we feel we’ve had a positive impact on young people’s lives.
Dennis: And, in particular, young people who probably would not have had an opportunity to have an access to, have access to this field, to this field of work.
Dennis: So, we’re, we’re, we’re, we’re very proud of that, and so earlier this year, and I’m gonna give the Cliff Note version of how we got to the Indy Far East magazine, which is really what I call for myself, a, a legacy project.
Dennis: So, earlier this year, a, where I live, I received a, a community magazine. And this magazine was what was called a hyper-community magazine. All the stories about what was happening locally.
Dennis: So, I, I got curious and I went on the, the publishers website and said, well, where else are they doing these magazines, and when I got on their website, I saw Fishers, and Geist, Carmel, Avon, Center Grove, Broad Ripple even, I saw all of these areas, until I got over to the Far East side where I work, where I have spent the last 23, 23 years of my career.
Dennis: So, I got over to the Far East and, and they didn’t have anything. And they, and there was nothing.
Dennis: And if you’re, if you are from this area, you are very, very, and we all are, very familiar with the negative perception that exists when, when we talk about the east side of Indianapolis and it’s unfair. Because yes, there are some issues on the Far East side, but there is a lot of great people and a lot of great things happening, so, I decided right then and there that if no one’s gonna tell the story, we’re going to tell the stories about the positive things that are going on on the Far East Side.
Dennis: And so, we embarked on a mission to bring a monthly magazine called the Indy Far East. And, I’ll put the, I’ll put the URL of the website in the chat before I wrap up.
Dennis: But we decided that we’re gonna do this and didn’t, and to be honest, didn’t know how we were gonna fund it. We just knew that we needed to do it, that it was something that we needed to do.
Dennis: And, and for two reasons, and here are the two reasons that motivated us number one, we wanted the other people throughout the city of Indianapolis to understand that there are positive things going on, on the east side and the Far East side of the city. That was one, but that was not the most important one.
Dennis: The second reason I’m saying, it’s more important. We wanted people in the community to realize that there were positive things going on right in their neighborhood, because, again, we believe that for too long and for too many, we live under, or people on the Far East side live under the shadow of that negative perception, and we wanted to do our little part to see what can we do to change that, or at the very least, to have an impact on that.
Dennis: So, we, so I went to the Superintendent of Warren Township, Dr. Tim Hanson. He’s my boss and I immediately went to him and say, hey, this is what we want to do. This is an opportunity for our district to take a lead on doing something positive in the community and, and believe it or not, he agreed.
Dennis: He, and not only did he agree, he, the district, the district, was willing to fund the magazine for the first four months, which they did, and so, we, we, in addition to, so, we launched from there, and, and one of the beautiful parts of what we do is that, we have young people, people writing for the magazine, so we’re training young people in journalism and how to use their talents to impact their community and at the same time making an impact on the community with the work that they and others are doing.
Dennis: Now all of our writers are not students. We have adults also writing for the magazine also. But, it’s a great marriage of both professionals and young people who are aspiring to be journalists, to realize that they can use their talent to impact their community.
Dennis: And so, in May of this year we had our first issue.
Dennis: And basically is, our focus is on people that are doing positive things on the Far East side of Indianapolis and the east side of Indianapolis and organizations or what have you. We’re just telling positive stories.
Dennis: For instance, in our last issue, when you, if, when you get a chance to check it out, we did a special 5-page spread on women making an impact, because we wanted to highlight the women on the east side that are doing some tremendous work on the, you know, on, on the on the east side of Indianapolis and really making a difference and so, so that’s what’s the, the origin of the, of the magazine.
Dennis: As I said, this one, we’re working on our 8th issue and I we’ve had some, I don’t know how we’ve been able to do it, but we’ve, we’ve been able to do it. We print about 4000. We print about 4000 hard copies per month and that we, that are distributed in places like Communities Hospital, the YMCA, some of the, the community organizations like the Community Alliance of the Far East Side and Pathway Resources.
Dennis: So, we have a distribution of about 4000 magazines per month, as well as a web presence so people can go out and get the digital version also. But we find that believe it or not, in 2022 people still, you like to, to touch and have a printed copy, and that’s kind of how I am. I like to have a I like to have something in my hand rather than looking at a screen all the time.
Dennis: So, we believe that the feedback we’re getting has been tremendous. We are really trying to expand our distribution with the magazine. We know that we are very, we’re just scratching the surface with 4000 copies when it comes to the, the area that we’re serving, and just to let you know we’re serving Irvington, Raymond Park area, the town of Cumberland, along with the Far East side of Indianapolis.
Dennis: So, those are the areas recovering, and then just telling stories about positive things that are going on.
Dennis: That kind of brings you up today.
Dennis: As I said, we’re working on our 8th, our 8th issue, is coming out in December and we try to have a thing we, we, we primarily focus on, on, on, on community development, economic development, jobs, health and wellness and education. Those are the things that we that we kind of are, are our pillars, I can call them.
Dennis: Those are our pillars for the magazine, but of course we do, we cover a lot of other feature stories and people and those things. So, I don’t know Ryan, did I give a good enough overview of that or are there any questions?
Ryan: Yes, Carol.
Dennis: Yes, Carol, yes?
Carol: Right, question, so, they funded it for the first four months, who is funding it now? Is your advertisers that are funding it currently, and how many advertisers do you have?
Dennis: Yeah, we are currently, we, we currently do have advertisers. Eskenazi is an advertiser. That’s one of our, and we call them our partners, because we, we did not want to be in the business and we’re not in the business of selling ads, so, with our partners, what we do is we give them, yes, we give them a full page ad, but we also want them to contribute content also.
Dennis: So, Eskenazi will have a story that benefits the people in the community, along with the full-page ad every month.
Dennis: And we also have Chartwells. Chartwells is another partner. Anthem Blue Cross is a, is a article sponsor. They sponsor an article, so, and that’s how we’re trying to build it now, and, and fortunately for us, because we have about a $6000 monthly budget, it costs us $6000 a month to produce, distribute the magazine, and right now we receive about $3500.
Dennis: So, you would say, well, wow, where’s the other $2,500 coming from? We are fortunate that our printing is done through the Walker Career Center. And, and although they charge us for printing, they are not knocking down our door to get paid. They’re knowing that we’re trying to build this, as, you know, as a project, a legacy project.
Dennis: So, they have not been knocking down our door saying, hey, pay us what you owe. So, but we are working probably at a, currently right now about a $2500 per month deficit, but we’re not just sitting on our hands.
Dennis: We, we have applied for, right now, two or three grants that we’re, that we’re looking forward to, to garnering some financial support, to not just continue to do what we’re doing, but to expand the coverage and, of the magazine.
Carol: That’s it’s a great, great idea and a great concept. How can we here and maybe other people we know help with this?
Dennis: So, I, we, I always look at 4 areas that we really could, could, could, could use some help, in four areas. Number one is to subscribe to the magazine.
Dennis: We definitely want to get the information out, so subscribe is 1, the other one is submit stories. We, we, we definitely want to have stories that are submitted stories, that are, that are about people and organizations making a difference for the community, and then the other thing is support.
Dennis: The next one is support, and that’s where the financial part comes in. We definitely like financial support, all the way from advertising to sponsoring an addition, to just sponsoring, you know it cost us about a dollar per magazine, so we even will accept people who say, hey, I wanna sponsor 50 copies or, or, or 100 copies, or 10,000 copies, whatever that may be. So, so, we have subscribe, submit, support, and then the last one is send.
Dennis: We want people to send the magazine to people within their sphere of influence, to send the magazine out just to let other people know, because again, our number one goal or objective is to let people know about the great things that are happening on the Far East side, so that we can have a part in enhancing the quality of life on that side of town.
Carol: OK.
Ryan: Does anyone else have any questions for Dennis?
Ryan: All right, it must be the cold weather.
Ryan: So, Dennis, let me ask you, of the seven issues that are out there right now that people can get a hold of, what is your favorite piece that has been published so far?
Dennis: Wow, that’s a good question and I’m going to have to say that it was the, the, it was the, the women of impact one, the five-page spread that we just did in the in the recent issue. And just to see and hear from these, these women from all areas of, I mean, from every ethnic group, every age group, but just to hear their stories about how they have committed their, really their life and their career, to making a difference.
Dennis: I think that’s been the, my, without it about, without a doubt, it’s had the most impact and I would just, secondly, now this one, this is the story that’s coming up next month of a young 33-year-old woman, a young lady that found out that she had breast cancer and never thought that she would see another holiday to spend with her family, but yet she, along with some great medical resources at Community, she’s thriving now. And so, that’s my second and so, and that’ll be in the, in the December issue.
Ryan: And Dennis, you guys have a launch party coming up, correct?
Dennis: Yeah, yes, Ryan, definitely. And I want to personally invite you all to come out. It’s going to be on December, the 8th at, that’s a Thursday from 6:00 to 8:30 at the, at the place called P30. And if you haven’t, if you don’t know about P30, P30 is a new coworking space, the only one on the Far East side of town. Very well done.
Dennis: They have a great mission to, to reach people in that community, and we are, we’re thrilled to be able to, to have our launch party at that location, to again, to give them a, a profile also. And, we’ll have community leaders there, business leaders there, from all throughout the city, that will be attending.
Dennis: There’ll be a time of networking, there’ll be some great food and and it’ll just be a good time. So, please, if you’re, if you’re able to, to come out, please accept my invitation.
Ryan: And what’s the address for P30? Yeah, it’s 3039 N Post Rd. It’s right there at the corner of 30th and Post Rd. You can’t miss it. It’s on the, they would be the north east corner. The northeast corner at 30th and Post Rd.
Dennis: And I am putting the URL for the magazine for everyone in the chat and please check it out, and again, I, I humbly ask for any feedback, anything that you guys think that we can do better, please don’t hesitate to send it directly to me or to Ryan.
Dennis: I’m gonna put my e-mail in the chat also, so please reach out.
Ryan: Awesome, and Dennis one final question that I have for you since tomorrow is Giving Tuesday and the Next Generation Initiative is a non-profit. How can anyone here or anyone watching this later on make a donation to support your guys’s mission?
Dennis: I think, thanks Ryan, now and matter of fact, our web, and we hope to have this up, is unfortunately that we were not a, we were not keen on the the Giving Tuesday, but we will have a donation button on our website here shortly, and again any support is appreciated, and also any, any, if there’s any way that we can support what you all are doing, please let us know.
Ryan: Alright, well if there aren’t any other questions for Dennis, let’s give him a hand for his presentation today.
Dennis: Thank you all very much.
