FJP Community Network Grant Winner: The Sacramento Bee

Amplify and elevate the voices of residents living in underserved communities through a partnership that empowers their civic participation and expression.

$21,000

Sacramento is among the most diverse cities in the United States. However, like many legacy media companies, The Sacramento Bee has struggled to properly serve our region’s low-income and diverse communities. We must make progress.

Over the past 18 months, The Bee has hired 19 journalists, 13 of whom are women or people of color. We recently conducted an intense diversity audit of the sources we interview and photograph; the results clearly show we have areas that require immediate improvement. And in consultation with the Maynard Institute, we have developed a guiding principle: it is not our role to give a voice to underserved communities. Those communities have a voice. We can and must help ELEVATE their voice.

It is within that philosophy that we will partner with a local arts and culture nonprofit to support emerging writers and artists from underserved communities, offer workshops and publish creative and informative work on our platforms. By working with Sol Collective — a community organization with a longstanding history of providing artistic and educational programming that empowers marginalized communities — The Bee will amplify the voices of residents living in those neighborhoods and greatly expand our audience. This work will help build civic participation in underserved communities, while contributing to The Bee’s long-term sustainability. To prepare for this partnership, we are drafting a Letter Of Intent with Sol Collective and have scheduled our first workshop for late January.

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