Our second cohort of the year is reporting on alternative courts, local elections and generational wealth in Chicago.
By Bettina Chang
On June 30, our Summer ’18 fellows got to know the good folks at Yollocalli Arts Reach for 10 weeks of co-creating, co-mentoring and summer magic!
Meet City Bureau’s Summer 2018 journalists! For the next 10 weeks, our reporting fellows will be in your communities, seeking your input.
What’s new this cycle? Long-time followers may notice a change in the grouping of our cohort: This spring, we’ve decided to run teams of four (instead of teams of three). With the support of our Press Club members and foundation partners, we were able to increase the size of our overall fellowship by 30 percent this past spring. Increasing the size of each team will make our fellowship more manageable and, in turn, increase the amount of personal attention given to each team throughout the fellowship. At the same time, we’ll add resources for community events and workshops in the form of an additional reporter per team.
Another change this cycle is our youth media partner. We partner with mission-aligned Chicago youth media organizations for each of our Civic Journalism Fellowship cycles. This past Saturday our Summer ’18 fellows got to know the good folks at Yollocalli Arts Reach for 10 weeks of co-creating, co-mentoring and summer magic!
Without further ado…our Summer 2018 cohort:
Erisa Apantaku, Arabella Breck, Olivia Cunningham and Tonia Hill
GENERATIONAL WEALTH TEAM: This team is exploring how generational wealth is built and lost within the Black community on Chicago’s South and West sides. The team aims to tell stories using data and oral history.
Sarah Conway, Sajedah Al-khazaleh, Lynda Lopez and Bia Medious
ALTERNATIVE COURTS TEAM: Returning team leader Sarah Conway will continue work that began at City Bureau in Summer 2017. The team will look into Cook County’s alternative court system, including how officials are and aren’t held accountable and what outcomes emerge for defendants.
Kim Bellware, Marley Arechiga, Annie Nguyen and Samantha Smylie
ELECTIONS TEAM: In an effort to provide a more holistic picture of the 2019 municipal elections, we’re starting early. As part of our ongoing elections project at City Bureau, our elections team will examine voter turnout and voting patterns in Chicago municipal elections, including the historical and sociocultural context for low voter turnout.
Davon Clark
PHOTOGRAPHY FELLOW: We’re excited to welcome Philadelphia’s Davon Clark as our resident photojournalist. Davon will assist all teams with their visual work, in addition to producing his own photo project from our South Side newsroom. Welcome to Chicago, Davon!
Have a tip, comment or contact for our reporters? Get in touch with our team at info@citybureau.org
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