The Eichelberger Center for Community Voices is WYSO’s award-winning public radio training program and storytelling initiative. Through intensive hands-on workshops, participants learn the craft of audio journalism—from interviewing and script writing to editing and voicing. The result: powerful, personal stories that reflect the diversity, resilience, and creativity of life in southwest Ohio.
Since its founding in 2010, Community Voices has trained hundreds of local residents, educators, students, and nonprofit leaders to tell stories from their own communities. The series centers voices often left out of mainstream media and uplifts first-person narratives that deepen public understanding.
Whether you're hearing a story about immigration in Dayton, a family legacy in Springfield, or a local artist’s journey, Community Voices brings you closer to the people who shape the Miami Valley.
Want to become a storyteller?
Learn more about Community Voices workshops
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Bill Short and Willa Seidenberg discuss their decades-long project documenting Vietnam War GI resistors, including rare interviews with Donald Duncan and Howard Levy. -
Festival director Eric Mahoney previews the 2025 lineup honoring Rod Serling. Plus a rare interview with legendary filmmaker Jim Jarmusch on collaboration. -
The initiative brings strangers with different beliefs together for a conversation — not to debate politics — but to simply get to know each other as people. Sign up now. -
Navy veteran Monica Helms explains how she created the iconic transgender flag in 1999, its symbolic meaning, and how it became a rallying point for the trans community. -
Springfield, Ohio, High School sophomore Emerson Babian created a PSA urging teens to trade social media time for daily movement to improve sleep, mood, and brain power. -
On May 4, 2025, transgender people and allies gathered in Dayton, Ohio, for a rally to demand transgender rights and resist anti-LGBTQ+ legislation and systemic erasure. -
In this WYSO Youth Radio episode, high schooler Tobias Ashlock interviews his mentor Tracey Schalk about navigating life with arthrogryposis multiplex congenita (AMC). -
Arienne Childrey, Ohio's first transgender city council member, urges the LGBTQ+ community to take "Stonewall spirit" and fight anti-trans laws through political action. -
NPR's education desk experts, Steve Drummond and Janet Lee, offer advice on teaching students audio storytelling skills, including tips on equipment, editing, and more. -
Arnold challenged Republican Rodney Creech, who she says is a former trans ally, for the Ohio House in '24, raising awareness about trans rights in conservative districts -
Landon Keaton from Ponitz Career Tech interviews beloved author Lois Lowry about her Newbery Award-winning novel "The Giver" and the power of reading. -
Trae Elzy joins "Everybody Birding," a group creating welcoming outdoor spaces for BIPOC and LGBTQIA+ communities in southwest OH.
