Share your story

We got a lot of response from yesterday's piece about an after-school music program for disadvantaged youth in Grand Rapids.

But here's a little secret: That story came to us pretty much 'as is' - meaning Casey Stratton reported and produced the whole audio piece and sent it in to us. We tweaked it a bit here and there to fit our style, and voila! Stratton and company made their radio debut.

I spend a lot of my time, as many journalists do, trying to convince people to share their experiences and stories. Sometimes it takes a lot of work. 

Most of my persuasive skills have to be channeled into convincing people they have a story worth telling, that their experiences matters. It does matter. The telling of every day experiences informs and connects people. Reporters can put connective tissue made up of context and background around these experiences and out comes a news story. 

State of Opportunity is committed to telling stories about some of life’s tougher subjects in a way you can listen to, connect with and talk about.

To use SoundCloud you’ll need to use your computer or your smartphone. And, you'll need something to say.  Tell us your story or answer these questions we're always curious about.

Here are the computer instructions:

1.       Go to www.soundcloud.com

2.       Sign in to make your own account (it’s free) or push this button to use ours (you’ll need Flash or Google Chrome if you use ours).