FJP Community Network Grant Winner: Manchester Ink Link

Launch a membership program and citizen journalism bootcamp that places community voices at the heart of coverage.

$25,000

Independent publishers struggle with growing their news organizations beyond themselves. After 5.5 years our site has proven itself vital and capable of generating income from ad revenue. To continue growing our relevance and reach we are about to launch a membership program aimed at building community in real-time. We also will launch a citizen journalism boot camp which will provide a series of free/paid-for opportunities for readers and other stakeholders to take more ownership over their community and become news “activists” (rather than passively consuming news). Bootcamp series will provide training for: those in addiction recovery to increase advocacy opportunities; students interested in journalism; nonprofits to share their mission; immigrant/refugee advocates, etc.

The plan is for boot camp to sustain itself through organizations (some already identified) willing to pay for the service to cover cost of instruction and compensation for participants (one group has already identified $5000 for this project once launched and we can cultivate more.) Grant would be used to partially compensate a Community Engagement Manager for the six-month launch to oversee and develop the Community News Initiative so that our news site belongs to the community, rather than one person, and helps define what is news uniquely to our community. We believe many organizations in our community would see value in providing financial support as Community Partners and other initiatives in place would quickly make this a self-sustaining initiative moving forward.

Website | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | YouTube