Community Engagement

Research demonstrates that successful engagement outcomes hinge on building relationships of trust and accountability with community members through addressing issues of relevance, in a way that is accurate and representative, and following through on any proposed changes/ideas. These processes can be measured over time and those data used to continually evolve community engagement practices. While most of our Structural Equity work focuses on an organization's Internal work, as a news organization, your community plays a central role In how you do your work. Equitable engagement structures are essential for your business and Resolve is well-positioned to support you in deepening your relationships with the communities you serve.

Resolve has demonstrated its capacity to carry out some of the most notable community-engaged reporting projects in the nation. We have honed our replicable processes while identifying practices that underscore the key elements of successful engagement along the way, developing equitable approaches that work for newsrooms of varying size and scope. From full newsrooms ready to invest big to individual reporters interested in doing their work differently, Resolve Philly has been working with journalists to deepen equitable community engagement practices since 2018.

Resolve Philly can support your community engagement activities through a host of channels including newsroom trainings on building community/neighborhood partnerships and best practices for facilitating long-term trust-building. Expanding on these trainings, we work with clients to develop skills that lead to more engaged reporting and provide templates and modeling for developing and implementing small-group community-based convenings. When done right, these are a powerful tool that can lead to ongoing identification of information needs, story ideas, and long-term trust-building.

Our experience has positioned us to provide advisory support and thought partnership on new or larger commitments to community engagement within your news organization. Through conversations, technical assistance, templates, and modeling, the Resolve Philly Community Engagement Team can add value to your news organization's engagement work, from hyperlocal to global, and anything in between.

Our experience has taught us that behavior change around equitable community engagement happens slowly, and it happens by doing. Our approach—training, combined with supporting journalists through an engagement opportunity (or a few) that result in enhanced reporting— provides the opportunity for our clients to learn by doing.