Quality Connections Launches ‘Diverge Media’

Something special is happening behind the studio door at Quality Connections (QC). Members gather around microphones, cameras roll, and voices that have sometimes never been heard before find their platform.

Welcome to Diverge Media, QC's reimagined online radio station that has evolved into a full media production program where members create videos, podcasts, radio shows and more.

Learn by making

“These production studios are incorporated into what we learn in our daily activities in the day program,” explained Mo Burres, director of Day Program. “Diverge Media is one way we implement skills they have in their current goals.”

Those goals include reading, writing, math, social skills, planning and time management. And Diverge Media's superpower is that practicing those skills is much more fun in a studio.

“It’s a lot easier to talk a lot of our members into going into our media room than it is to hand them out a math worksheet,” Burres said with a smile.

Burres and Casey Everett, QC's media instructor, are both experienced broadcasters and are now using that expertise to empower QC's members – and help change people's perceptions of people with disabilities.

“We serve a wide variety of individuals with a great difference in abilities,” Burres explained. “Some people who have a harder time with things like reading comprehension have no problem going into the radio room and talking about all the things they love. Or we have a non-verbal person who, as soon as the door to the media room opens, she walks in and jumps on the microphone and starts singing along with the song that's playing.

Only good news

The growth in the studio is palpable. Ryan Day is the anchor of “Only Good News,” a video series highlighting positive stories from the Flagstaff area. Burres and Everett note how he is thriving in ways they have never seen before as they work on his memory skills through the project.

For some members, hearing their own voice for the first time was transformative.

Adam, who has a mild stutter, heard himself playing it back and said, “Wait, I can just hear my stutter. Let me do that again. I know I can do that again.” He practiced until his stuttering was barely noticeable.

Member-Member, member-driven

Members research, conduct interviews, write copy, film and edit. Burres and Everett handle the technical aspects, but the creative vision belongs to the members.

“Our main goal is to let the members kind of come up with the ideas that they want to talk about,” Everett explained. “Whatever they want to do, we want to give them the ability to be like, 'Yeah, go with it.'”

The idea started years ago when QC members toured the KAFF studios to record public service announcements. They liked it so much that they lobbied QC leadership to create their own studio. Members researched equipment needs, created a budget and presented their case to create the station. In its latest iteration, the name “Diverge” plays on the word neurodivergent, while the idea is to break away from the norm and do things your own way.

The studio offers members a stage without the pressure of performing for a large crowd. “It's a safer space that allows them to do something they may not have experienced before,” Burres explained. “They have this creative goofiness that they just let loose in the studio.”

Everett added, “Because it's all members, we just give them the tools to create it. The content is already here in the day program.”

What is next

“I get emails from parents who are like, 'Oh my gosh, I just heard Mary talk about vampires on her podcast for about 30 minutes,'” Burres shared. (That would be “Vampire Talk,” which airs on Friday.)

The Page program is poised to launch its own studio, with a member with deep knowledge of the local sports scene already identified as its first potential presenter.

Back in Flagstaff, members make their enthusiasm clear every day. “Ryan literally follows me around every day, and he's like, 'Are we going to go into the radio room? When are we going to do this?' ” said Everett. “They are very excited about it.” FBN

Courtesy Ppicture: Diverge Media was inspired after a tour of the KAFF Radio studios.