Who Are We?
Gateway Media Literacy Partners, Inc. (GMLP) was incorporated in Missouri 2004. Our goal is to attract individuals, organizations and institutions who as community citizens strongly believe media literacy is a democracy skill, is a survival skill and a nexus for change, vital to developing critical thinking, and media literacy empowers citizens to make intelligent and healthy choices throughout their lifetime.
Media are defined as a channel of communication, whether print, TV, movies, radio, internet and any other sources of information.
Why is GMLP Important?
Besides being a survival skill to interpret content and understand the implications of the 24/7 barrage of media messages in an open and thoughtful way, we believe media literacy education is one of the pathways to better economic development. Further, GMLP is a unique, education-based entity in the St. Louis region, already holding a track record, locally, nationally and internationally, via successful growth, educational programs and collaborations with local, national an international entities who’ve recognized and appreciated our work.
Gateway Media Literacy Partners, Inc is a 501c3 organization registered in the State of Missouri.
Interested in joining us? Please visit our membership page.
Our Organization’s History
GMLP’s History In August, 2004, an invitation went out to numerous community citizens from the region’s public, private, volunteer and independent sectors, asking them to come to a meeting to explore the viability of starting an organization that would create awareness about the need for more media literacy in our communities—understanding, then, that media literacy makes good economic development sense– and to consider the viability of a media literacy organization to carry out that goal. Sixty-two people showed up for that meeting at Cooperating School District’s Florissant location.
In that time, with thanks to Cooperating School Districts and other organizations who have hosted GMLP meetings/programs in the last four years, GMLP has joined forces with various community partners to address the formal academic field of media literacy and its subsets (i.e. the arts, health), These include Webster University, Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, ARCHS/ FOCUS St. Louis, KETC-Channel 9, the National Association For Media Literacy Education (formerly the AMLA), the University of Missouri-St. Louis, the RAC (Regional Arts Commission, Lindenwood University, Maryville University, the Missouri Foundation for Health, The Midwest Center for Media Literacy, the Council on World Affairs.
In December, 2007, GMLP chose to go for not-for-profit status, to elect a board of directors and seek 501c3 status. Today, with the strong commitment from many of those who showed up at the first meeting, and others who have since joined in, GMLP is meeting a unique need in the community. We have gone from affinity-group status to not-for-profit status, and are committed to our mission and goals, pursuit awareness of as well as on-going media literacy and media literacy education in our bi-state region.
Gateway Media Literacy Partners, Inc. By-laws and Articles of Incorporation
