Story

Our Story

Our work centers on improving how misrepresented communities are covered by the media. We believe that in a time of widespread mistrust, political division, and industry upheaval, journalists must reconsider not only what they report, but how they find, frame, and tell stories.

The organization grew out of a collaborative reporting project around reentry from prison, a critical issue facing Philadelphia. In 2017, 13 newsroom partners produced approximately 200 stories, bringing attention to a previously marginalized topic.  The project was, at the time, a unique and ultimately pioneering approach to local news.

After seeing tangible success from the project, including policy change in the city, The Reentry Project editor, Jean Friedman-Rudovsky, launched Broke in Philly — a collaborative reporting project on economic mobility and solutions to poverty — in April 2018. Shortly afterwards, she partnered with Cassie Haynes to found Resolve Philly. 

In the years since, Resolve has grown from its two co-founders to 21 full time staff. Broke in Philly fulfilled its 5 year timeline, ending with 29 newsroom partners, and also our programmatic work has expanded. We run Equally Informed Philly (launched in 2020), which aims to bridge the city’s information divide through text and place-based news and information delivery. This initiative includes Germantown Info Hub, a hyperlocal outlet serving the Germantown neighborhood of Philadelphia. Resolve also leads Shake the Table (launched in 2022), a reporting and community engagement initiative to ensure greater local government accountability. 

In 2022 we also launched Modifier, a practice change and professional development service grounded in Resolve’s best practices in its areas of in-house expertise.

Our Strategy