On Irvington’s fourth floor – just around the corner from the elevator – a loud clanging sound rings out every now and then. Typically a quiet space inside Harris County Department of Education’s (HCDE) administration building, the noise can be startling if you’re not ready.
The clanging sounds?
A cowbell.
The Center for Grants Development team rings the bell to celebrate. When funding is acquired to support a project’s enhancement and a program’s expansion, as well as other significant accomplishments.
On Nov. 6, the team rang the beel to mark a milestone. It’s podcast, “Focus on Funding,” reached its one-year anniversary and began its second season.
“It went by so fast,” said Venetia Baldwin, the division’s development coordinator and host and voice behind the team’s podcast. “You do a little bit at a time and then you look up and you say to yourself, ‘We made a year.’ This center has never had a podcast, so this was completely new territory and it’s a really big deal.”
The world of podcasting isn’t new within HCDE. As a unicorn in the public education space, Superintendent James Colbert Jr. and his leadership team encourage divisions to seek out new trends and strategies to best serve Harris County learners, stakeholders and partners.
Podcasts are digital audio programs made available for download or streaming over the internet. They can cover vast topics while popular podcasts can reach millions of listeners every episode.
At HCDE, podcasts help divisions expand their outreach and better educate community members. The Center for Grants Development, Center for Safe and Secure Schools (CSSS), Choice Partners Cooperative and Center for Afterschool, Summer and Enrichment (CASE) for Kids currently host podcasts dating back to 2019.
The “Making Afterschool Cool” podcast features more than 150 episodes. CSSS’s “Take Care Tuesday” podcast released bi-monthly when it launched in 2020 and has settled into monthly episodes over the last three years. The “Choice Chat” podcast offers insight into Choice Partners, a national purchasing cooperative that connects its members to vendors and services.
Those successes planted the seed for Grants Development Director Joyce Akins. Unlike HCDE’s instructional and external support service divisions, whose team members routinely interact with community members and business partners, the Center for Grants Development has fewer face-to-face interactions. It holds the All About Grants workshop each February, but attendees and partners typically have questions and requests beyond the day-long event.
“Our division has a lot of important information to share with the community and podcasts offer a convenient way to disseminate information,” Akins said. “I’m thankful that Venetia volunteered to spearhead our effort.”
While Baldwin said she’s flattered the team immediately thought of her as the perfect host, she admits part of it was because she “talks the most.”
“At first, it was awkward, but it was because this is formatted,” she said with a laugh. “All of us are creative but as the person that is very talkative, I think that’s why I was pegged for it.”
Baldwin was the right choice.
“She’s a natural in this,” said Resource Development Specialist Sharvon Pipkins Kamaya, who joined Baldwin for the second season’s first episode. “She has a great personality that shines through in this podcast and just throughout. I don’t think there’s a better person for the job.”
With no podcasting experience, Baldwin reached out to HCDE team members for guidance and assistance. Baldwin worked with Marketing and Client Engagement Director Stephanie De Los Santos on parameters and guidelines. She met with Dr. Vida Avery, Grants Development manager, to plan a schedule of episodes.
Michael Wilson, a CASE for Kids outreach coordinator, provided technical support as he’s done with other HCDE divisions in their podcast journeys. He went over his process, which included using Zoom for interviews and audio recording, and Adobe Audition for multitrack editing.
“He was very helpful, especially during that initial phase because it’s one thing to be talkative and get recorded, but to get it up and posted and even still I had to learn a new skill,” Baldwin said. “I’m not a person like a YouTuber who always has content coming out every day and knows where to post.
“Even looking at things like analytics and now having to think about all these other things. That has been the biggest adjustment, but it’s been fun.”
“Focus on Funding” launched its premiere episode on Sept. 13, 2024. It introduced listeners to the Center for Grants Development and gave team members the opportunity to share their backgrounds and highlight their roles in helping secure funding for projects.
“When I listened to the complete episode, I had a perpetual smile on my face,” Akins said. “We have staff with a lot of good experience and it was very rewarding to hear them speak so positively about their jobs. It kind of felt like a fireside chat.”
Added Baldwin: “I felt great, especially getting positive feedback from friends. And of course, you send your first one to your mom. She’s always going to give you a thumbs up.”
Akins, Avery, Kamaya and Development Prospect Researcher Kristal Frazier each joined Baldwin for episodes during the first season, while she also connected with Education Foundation and Partnerships Director Trina Silva for conversations on fundraising within organizations, the donor cycle and best strategies as efforts ramp up during the holiday season.
Baldwin went live from the All About Grants workshop, where she took listeners inside the sessions. She’s even tackled artificial intelligence and evolving technology in the world of grant writing.
It hasn’t always been smooth in this learn-on-the-job venture. Baldwin admits she expected podcasting to be something that came nicely packaged and ready to go.
Instead, there were interviews recorded on phones with background noise and dealing with construction sounds during renovations of the Irvington building.
Baldwin learned and adjusted, from added sound proofing in her office by the windows to purchasing the same microphones for the Grants team so everyone sounds similar.
The result is a product business and community partners are benefitting from, hearing directly from Grants Development and picking up tips and insight to benefit their initiatives and projects.
There are already plans for even more guests in season two.
Baldwin even encourages others to jump into podcasting.
“HCDE is very supportive and people need to hear your voice,” she said. “Even with things like learning the technical aspects of podcasting, go do it. Your voice is very important and the great thing about podcasts is no matter where I am, I can listen to one. It’s a really good time to get into people’s heads and impart some wonderful nuggets about what you do and your organization.”