Free Press

A one-year grant to continue the organization's work with the Shift the Narrative collaborative which helps build power in local communities by bringing together journalists and communities members to learn from and work with one another on collaborative reporting projects, with the goal of building lasting trusted relationships and creating community-centered processes and narratives within newsrooms.

The 2020 Community Voices grant will support a collaboration between 215 People's Alliance, Reclaim Philadelphia, Free Press, and Movement Alliance Project to strengthen and expand information networks that were created in response to the COVID-19 crisis. Using innovative outreach and organizing tactics to meet information needs, the group's project will lift up stories of disconnected and disaffected Philadelphians, and support Black dignity, where systemic barriers to timely, quality information have left city residents in the dark during a public health emergency.

COVID-19 Emergency Fund to 2019 Grantees.

Through this three-year grant, in collaboration with Free Press and Media, Inequality, Change Center, Movement Alliance Project (MAP) will convene and connect community-based organizations and local leaders in an educational and strategic visioning process that will lead to action-taking to reshape narratives around safety, trauma and violence. In this work, MAP and their community partners will center, support, and help cohere people impacted by violence and the criminal-justice system.

With this three-year grant, Media, Inequality, and Change (MIC) Center will lead two integrated, multi-phase research projects focused broadly on Philadelphia's media ecosystem and community networks, while convening researchers, practitioners and activists to collaborate on outlining a vision for remaking media in ways that reflect communities' information needs. Together, with Free Press and Movement Alliance Project, MIC aims to transform prevailing media narratives and elevate complex stories about trauma, safety, crime and criminal justice in Philadelphia.

This three-year grant supports Free Press' collaboration with Media Mobilizing Project and Media, Inequality, Change Center to organize journalists, newsrooms and community media allies to bring them into closer relationships with residents who want to take an active role in shaping local news. Free Press will also produce guides and workshops for constituents, support community-newsroom collaboration, and develop strategies to disincentivize the dominant “if it bleeds, it leads” newsroom mentality.