In its eighth year, the Urbana Champaign Independent Media Center is a grassroots organization committed to using media production and distribution as tools for promoting social and economic justice. The UCIMC fosters the creation and distribution of media, art, and narratives emphasizing underrepresented voices and perspectives, and promotes empowerment and expression through media and arts education.
The UCIMC owns and operates a Community Media and Arts Center located in the historic post office building in downtown Urbana, Illinois. The Center includes a radio station, media production studios, a performance venue, gallery, art studios, a library, public access computer labs, bike repair center, and meeting spaces. The UCIMC runs a 24/7 low power radio station, publishes a monthly newspaper, operates a daily website, and hosts numerous community listservs. Volunteer "citizen journalists" produce content for the local public access television channel and sister full power community radio station, as well as for national independent media programs. In addition, over 12,000 free books have been shipped to Illinois prisoners through UCIMC's Books to Prisoners programs which collects book donations from the community and ships them based on prisoner requests. UCIMC's Bike Project recycles donated bikes back into the community by training volunteers to repair and distribute used bicycles. Serving as a free public access computer center and media production center, the UCIMC is an official Community Technology Center in Illinois and a federally recognized 501c3 tax exempt organization.
The UCIMC is strongly supported by and embedded in communities with little access mainstream media. The roots of poverty lay in a lack of access to participation in the decisions that affect one's life, including the decisions about the allocation of resources and power. The UCIMC works to eradicate poverty through empowering ordinary residents to "become the media" - amplifying unheard voices, inspiring and uniting those who work for change, and helping to shift and reframe public discourse.
The two CTC VISTA members will help the UCIMC build the capacity of all of its programs by further developing the outreach, fundraising, and training capacities of the organization.