Want to know how Chicago ticks? Trying to get involved in your community? This people-powered civic newsletter has you covered.
By Darryl Holliday
Sign up for the Newswire by Chicago Documenters today.
How do you build a reliable news service for and by Chicagoans? City Bureau launched Documenters.org in January 2019 as a new form of civic infrastructure that makes journalism accessible to everyone. After more than two years of fine-tuning our unique system, covering more than 1,300 public meetings and training more than 1,000 people to hold local government accountable, we’ve launching the Newswire by Chicago Documenters. This free, daily newsletter summarizes the latest news from local government meetings—because your elected officials are making big decisions every day, and Documenters are helping you keep tabs on them.
Each morning, Monday through Friday, the Newswire will summarize local policy decisions, story leads, civic news and local projects that you can engage with—curated by City Bureau staff—because we believe that everyone can play a role in a better Chicago.
If you, like us, believe in equitable access to public information and collective civic action, sign up for the Newswire today.
Chicago Documenters are a diverse and intergenerational group of Chicagoans trained and paid by City Bureau to attend and report from local city and county public meetings. These public meetings are important spaces for democracy where any resident can participate in civic life and hold public figures accountable. But as newspapers are shuttered across the country, coverage of these meetings has been cut while the need for civic news and political accountability is higher than ever. We recognize that multiple crises—systemic racism, pandemic, economic depression and ecological disaster—threaten communities everywhere. And we know that Chicagoans are stepping up to meet these challenges.
Each week, Chicago Documenters produce notes, photos, video and live-tweets from 10 to 20 public meetings and, after editing and reviewing their work, City Bureau makes all their findings available to you via Documenters.org, our custom platform that serves as the home base for Documenters sites in Chicago, Cleveland and Detroit.
Documenters are helping other cities reimagine reimagining local government reporting as well. Detroit Documenters have informed stories produced by our partners at the Detroit Free Press and WDET, Detroit’s NPR affiliate. In Cleveland, Cleveland Documenters have produced projects like Voices on the Vaccine, a set of more than 40 interviews exploring how Clevelanders are approaching the COVID-19 vaccine published in collaboration with the Cleveland Observer and other local media outlets.
In Chicago, City Bureau tested and refined the Newswire from January–March 2021 with a cohort of leaders in community organizing, journalism, public education and government, in partnership with the Institute for Nonprofit News. The Newswire is better because of their feedback on everything from our visual design to editorial content. We’re grateful for the support.
(PS: You can also sign up to become a Documenter and follow us at @CHIDocumenters)
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If you like learning about our organizational culture and lessons learned from our programs, sign up for City Bureau’s Notebook newsletter.