Informed NJ
NJCH believes that an informed New Jersey equals a stronger New Jersey! Understanding how and why people learn about the issues that matter most to them—from school board elections and town voting sites to environmental regulations and racial and economic justice—is vital to promoting civic engagement.
That’s why we are committed to funding, creating, and amplifying humanities-grounded programming that raises media literacy and expands support for local journalism—particularly in communities and places that are seldom covered by traditional media outlets. Helping New Jerseyans create and consume local news in new and groundbreaking ways helps to ensure the future health of our state and its democracy.
Learn more about our current Informed New Jersey initiatives below.
Featured Program
Fueling Community Journalism through NJ Community Colleges
NJCH and Journalism + Design at the New School are partnering with a set of community colleges around the state in 2023-24 to create and deliver tuition-free noncredit certificate programs, to offer journalism, storytelling, and media literacy trainings to new populations around the Garden State. Learn More »
Informed NJ Programs
Fueling Community Journalism through NJ Community Colleges
NJCH and The New School will deliver tuition-free certificate programs and journalism, storytelling, and media literacy trainings to new populations.
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.
Democracy and the Informed Citizen
We’re training and supporting "Community Scribes" from six South Jersey towns in partnership with community-engaged reporting experts.
Fueling Community Journalism through NJ Community Colleges
NJCH and Journalism + Design at the New School are partnering with a set of community colleges around the state in 2023-24 to create and deliver free noncredit community journalism certificate offerings, to equip people with tools to better understand and articulate what's happening in their communities.
These certificates, unique to each school and created with input from local community partners and media organizations, will give participants transferable skills from a variety of disciplines – including journalism, design, the humanities, media literacy and systems thinking – that challenge them to explore creative ways to better inform their community and circulate high-quality news. Each community college selected for the program will receive an award of $40,000, to develop and launch the certificate program at their institution alongside NJCH/J+D.
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.
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.
Throughout Fall 2022, a cohort of 10 remarkable reporting fellows from the area—including students, curators, organizers, public historians, instructors, and artists—produced restorative narrative storytelling projects about communities in the city of Camden. Stories Invincible reporters delved into topics including financial illiteracy, food insecurity, cannabis entrepreneurship, local artmaking, celebrating Black fatherhood, and more.
NJCH’s sponsorship supported the work of two fellowship project aides, multimedia creator Myles Cream and WHYY reporter/Black In Jersey creator Tennyson Donyéa, as well as a in-person fellows’ showcase in Camden at the conclusion of the fellowships.
To see photos from the showcase, go to: https://elliot99.pixieset.com/
Stay tuned for more news about how NJCH will continue supporting this program in 2023!
Meet Stories Invincible
Stories Invincible Launch Event
Closing Ceremony
View more photos from the ceremony at https://elliot99.pixieset.com/storiesinvincible/.
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.
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 initiative is funded by the Mellon Foundation with support from the State Federation of Humanities Councils.
2022 Community Scribes
Not pictured: Meghan Wren (Downe Township), Shoanne Seijas (Downe Township), Denise Mazzio (Hammonton), Barry Stevenson (Salem), Joe Thomas (Winslow Township), Lisaraye Horne (Winslow Township), Christy Phillips Renzulli (Winslow Township), Renee Giustino (Woodbury)
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.
NJCH announced in a press release the initiation of the Fueling Grassroots Journalism program, preliminary program information, and the $339,000 grant award from the New Jersey Civic Information Consortium to fund its development.
People
Photos by Adeolu Eletu and ConvertKit on Unsplash
