About Resolve Philadelphia

In the U.S., false, but dominant, narratives shape the way people think about our nation’s economic reality and other pressing challenges.  These stories are embedded with the power to justify the status quo. Turned on their heads, they become a means through which change seems both urgent and imaginable.

Resolve Philadelphia aims to shift the narratives on complex social issues through collaborative solutions journalism, redesigning community conversations, and elevating the voices of those closest to the problem.

Resolve’s groundbreaking initiatives are based on fundamental principles of collaboration and equity, with journalism at the heart of its theory of change. Resolve envisions a future where standard journalistic practice has evolved to a point at which the voices, experiences, and stories of individuals who are most intimately acquainted with our most urgent challenges  are the voices, experiences, and stories that form the dominant narratives in journalism.

Resolve emerged from a 2016 initiative by the Solutions Journalism Network to catalyze sustained solutions reporting on prisoner reentry, a critical issue facing the city. Throughout 2017, The Reentry Project with its 13 newsroom partners reported and broadcast approximately 200 stories, bringing a topic previously on the margins to, literally, the front pages. In April 2018, Resolve launched Broke in Philly a collaborative reporting project on solutions to poverty and the push for economic justice. This initiative includes 21 partner news organizations.