A look back at the inaugural South Jersey Community Reporters initiative
In January 2024, the New Jersey Council for the Humanities and the Center for Cooperative Media (CCM) at Montclair State University embarked on a collaborative project known as the “South Jersey Community Reporters” initiative.
The South Jersey Community Reporters program aimed to develop a cadre of skilled community reporters across South Jersey, enhancing local news coverage and fostering cross-cultural understanding and resilience against hate.
Take a look back at the past year of remarkable work, in this post from the CCM »
Informed NJ Programs
Democracy and the Informed Citizen
We’re training and supporting "Community Scribes" from six South Jersey towns in partnership with community-engaged reporting experts.
Stories Invincible
NJCH is a proud sponsor of Stories Invincible, a Camden-based restorative narrative initiative supporting reporting by and for communities of color in South Jersey.
Fueling Grassroots Journalism in NJ Community Colleges
NJCH and The New School will deliver tuition-free certificate programs and journalism, storytelling, and media literacy trainings to new populations.
Democracy and the Informed Citizen
This grassroots initiative explores the essential role that the humanities and journalism play in creating an informed citizenry—and in turn, a healthy democracy. The initiative is funded by the Mellon Foundation with support from the State Federation of Humanities Councils.
NJCH is partnering with the Community Foundation of South Jersey and Journalism + Design at The New School to give more New Jerseyans the tools to effectively tell and share stories from and with their communities. Our 2022-23 work is focused upon South Jersey, a region that is all-too-often underrepresented in media coverage about the Garden State. The program includes training, hands-on project support, and network-building for community participants and members of the media.
The New Jersey Council for the Humanities wishes to thank the Mellon Foundation for their generous support of this initiative and the Community Foundation of South Jersey and Journalism + Design at The New School for their partnership.
Stories Invincible
NJCH is proud to be a sponsor of Stories Invincible, a Camden-based restorative narrative initiative that aims to support reporting by and for communities of color in South Jersey. A cohort of 10 remarkable reporting fellows from the area—including students, curators, organizers, public historians, instructors, and artists—will be producing restorative narrative- and solutions journalism-based storytelling projects through the end of 2022.
NJCH’s sponsorship supports the work of two fellowship project aides, Camden-area multimedia creator Myles Cream and WHYY reporter/Black In Jersey creator Tennyson Donyéa, as well as an in-person community convening in Camden at the conclusion of the fellowships. To learn more about Stories Invincible and to meet the fellows, visit: https://storiesinvincible.org/.
Meet Stories Invincible
NJCH and Journalism + Design at the New School are partnering with a set of community colleges around the state to create and deliver tuition-free noncredit certificate programs, to offer journalism, storytelling, and media literacy trainings to new populations around the Garden State.
These programs, unique to each school and created with input from local community partners and media organizations, will power a more engaged and informed New Jersey.
The Fueling Community Journalism initiative is currently supporting free, non-credit certificate programs at four NJ community colleges. Click here to learn more about them and the program, or reach out to Project Director Cole Goins, cole.goins@gmail.com, for more information.
Fueling Grassroots Journalism is made possible by a generous grant from the New Jersey Civic Information Consortium. The Consortium, created by the state of NJ in 2018, is an independent, 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that funds initiatives to benefit the State’s civic life and meet the evolving information needs of New Jersey’s communities. Learn more about their work and other grantees at: https://njcivicinfo.org.
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Photos by Adeolu Eletu and ConvertKit on Unsplash