The KUOW Program Venture Fund (PVF) provides special support for staff and independent producers to develop new programming focused on the Puget Sound region. Programs funded by the PVF can be a series of feature reports, documentaries, or a variety of short audio pieces. The PVF accepts project proposals from producers and reporters three times per year.
Applications for Round 17 of the Program Venture Fund are now being accepted.
Download an application: PDF or Word Doc.
Deadline: October 30, 2009.
Grants Awarded for Radio Projects
The KUOW Program Venture Fund has awarded grants to fund four new radio works. The diverse mix of projects includes series about human trafficking, immigration detention, Main Streets and a radio drama about cooking. The projects will be produced over the next year and air on KUOW.
Human Trafficking in Washington State
Grantee: Sara Lerner
While human trafficking is often associated with the sex trade in foreign countries, the issue is a growing problem here in Puget Sound. But it goes far beyond prostitution. Local victims are also forced into domestic servitude and farm labor. This three–part series will look at the crisis of human trafficking in Western Washington and what the state is doing to address the problem.
Sara Lerner has worked for KUOW since 2005 as a producer, reporter and announcer. Sara hopes her job will continue to take her to unfamiliar places. And, she says, more than anything, she aims to continue telling stories, truthfully.
Between Worlds / Behind Bars
Grantee: The Common Language Project (Jessica Partnow, Sarah Stuteville and Alex Stonehill)
From the dark days of the Chinese Exclusion Act to post–911 policies on the incarceration of undocumented immigrants, immigration detention has a controversial history in both our nation and in the Puget Sound region. This five–part series will explore immigration detention from its roots in the 1930s at Seattle's "Ellis Island" in the International District to today's privately–run Northwest Detention Center in Tacoma's Tideflats.
Jessica Partnow, Alex Stonehill and Sarah Stuteville are producers for Seattle–based The Common Language Project, a nonprofit multimedia publishing house whose mission is to engage, educate and inform Americans of all ages on the crucial human issues of our time through innovative and accessible journalism.
Mapping Main Street: Puget Sound
Grantee: Kara Oehler and Ann Heppermann
"Main Street" is an American political and cultural mythology as old as the country itself. Main Street is invoked in stump speeches and news headlines and may be politically handy, but it is also dehumanizing. This two–part series will put a face on several Main Streets in the Puget Sound region and capture the stories that characterize the people and the place. This series is also funded by the MQ2 grant program in association with The Association of Independents in Radio and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
Ann Heppermann and Kara Oehler are Peabody–award winning public radio producers and media artists based in Brooklyn, New York. For the past three years, they produced for American Public Media's "Weekend America" and hosted and produced the national show, "Hearing Voices" from NPR.
Cookus Interruptus
Grantee: Megan Sukys
The Pacific Northwest is recognized internationally for its strong culture of eating locally and seasonally. In this humorous, five–episode radio drama, Seattle–based cookbook author and nutritionist Cynthia Lair stars as a mother who demonstrates how to prepare healthy, home–cooked meals while managing the constant interruptions and chaos of family life.
Megan Sukys has been with KUOW since 2000. She has 12 years experience in radio and a degree in theater. She has been cooking since she was four, when her grandmother taught her how to make biscuits. With two kids at home, Megan experiences the hassle of making a good meal despite life's interruptions on a daily basis.
The KUOW Program Venture Fund was initiated in 2003 by a key gift from Paul and Laurie Ahern, long–time friends to KUOW. They encourage other KUOW members and friends to lend their financial support to this valuable and innovative program initiative. The more financial support provided to the Program Venture Fund, the more new voices and stories from our region can be heard.
Get involved in this exciting and important program initiative:
- If you are a KUOW member – make a special gift this year in addition to your regular annual membership and designate that gift to the KUOW Program Venture Fund.
- Become a new KUOW member – by designating your first gift to KUOW to the Program Venture Fund.
To support KUOW's Program Venture Fund please contact Karyn Andriesen at 
or by phone, 206.616.5256. Thank you for your interest and support.
