FJP Community Network Grant Winner: Southwest Michigan's Second Wave

Continue investing in the On the Ground Project through the Community Correspondent Program that gives neighbors the tools they need to tell unique, authentic stories in their own voices.

$25,000

Since 2018 Southwest Michigan’s Second Wave has covered Kalamazoo's core neighborhoods through its On the Ground Project, covering the untold stories of those who are moving their neighborhoods forward. The Community Correspondent Program, for which funding is being sought here, is an integral part of the On the Ground work. Six residents of the neighborhoods to be covered attend four classes where they receive basic journalism training and the mentorship necessary to create stories as only they can tell them. When their story is published they are paid at the same rate as current Second Wave correspondents. The goal is that we will create a network of writers and contributors who can tell the story of their Kalamazoo neighborhood from a firsthand perspective.

We are tackling news deserts from the ground up, and using our already-robust embedded journalism program as a launching platform for creating a more authentic narrative for Kalamazoo. We anticipate this will bring out stories from underrepresented audiences and create a way to tell those stories in sensitive and accurate ways. This project is an investment in neighborhood talent; it helps increase communications capacity and establishes a neighborhood bureau of writers that will exist into the future. We anticipate that this kind of coverage will increase attachment between readers and the community in which they live. And as Knight Foundation Soul of the Community research points out: Places with the highest levels of community attachment have the highest rates of local economic growth.

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