Community Engagement
Our Community Engagement (CE) Team directly engages with, and broadens the visibility of, communities who have long had limited access to the tools and mechanisms for elevating their own narratives.
Why we do this
We do this because we believe that this makes journalism better—and this is what leads to more just and equitable societies. Bridging the gap between historically mis- or under-represented communities and journalists, we increase trust and make local reporting more useful to the people it’s intended to serve and reflective of their lived experiences.
To carry out this work, Resolve’s CE Team builds relationships with grassroots organizations as well as individuals in a way that is impactful instead of extractive. The CE Team facilitates small conversation and listening sessions, known as Sound OFFs, in order to better understand information needs, narratives, and what’s happening at the most local level in our city. Resolve then funnels those insights, perspectives and questions from these communities to our newsroom partners.
The CE Team also plays a key role in enabling personal narratives from excluded communities to be published or broadcast on a city-wide level. Our team also spends time creatively disseminating valuable resources, information, and local service journalism produced by our newsroom partners, to people in neighborhoods or sectors who have limited online access.
Though Resolve’s direct community engagement work is carried out in Philadelphia, our model is learnable and replicable. Our CE Team consults nationwide with newsrooms, journalism organizations, and trade groups across the US to help guide the strategy and execution of other local or national engagement work. If you are interested in learning more about Resolve’s CE Team, or to work with them directly, please email Derrick Cain, our Director of Community Engagement.