This award-winning journalist joins our team to support programs and reporting for Chicago Documenters.
By Yasmin Zacaria Mikhaiel and Louise Macaraniag
Portrait taken by Caroline Olsen
We are excited to welcome Grace Del Vecchio to the team as City Bureau’s new Editorial Program Coordinator for Chicago Documenters.
Grace is a proud Philadelphian with a background in organizing, reporting and producing. Grace has been involved in every City Bureau program, from being a Documenter, Public Newsroom attendee, and Civic Reporting fellow–twice! At every level of her work, she centers her journalism around local communities and movements. Now working as a full-time Editorial Program Coordinator for Chicago Documenters, Grace is developing newsroom practices that prioritize opportunities for Chicagoans to grow as storytellers and stakeholders while deepening their own relationships with civic participation.
We asked Grace to share a little bit about her experiences, her background and what she’s bringing to the role. Here are some of the highlights, edited for length and clarity.
What is your connection to Chicago and the Midwest?
While some of my family has roots in the midwest, growing up, I rarely left the east coast, except to visit my cousins in Chicago. During high school, I began visiting them more frequently and developed a love and appreciation for the city.
In 2018, I moved to Chicago to attend DePaul University. My work in organizing and journalism gave me the opportunity to build connections and relations with different people and communities across the city. I like to say that I am Philly-born and raised, but Chicago-made because of the integral role this city has played in my life–it really feels like a second home and I wouldn’t be who I am without it.
Tell us about your background in journalism work, from fact-checking, to movement reporting, to photography.
While studying at DePaul, I double majored in journalism and geography with a concentration in urban planning and development and a Spanish minor. Those two majors married each other in such a beautiful way, and all these subjects informed my journalism practices in multiple ways. I was learning about urban planning in relation to segregation, displacement and gentrification. So as I was learning about all these histories and structural issues, I was reporting on their impact in real time as a journalist. I also learned a lot about movement history through my education, so when I started to take journalism more seriously, I was especially drawn to movement coverage.
Before I fully committed to journalism, I had an organizing background. When I first moved to Chicago, I worked on small grassroots campaigns. I was studying journalism during this time, and was being taught in classes about this “objective” narrative, which clashed with my work on campaigns. I was pretty disenchanted because I wasn’t sure that journalism could work out for me if I couldn’t express my beliefs or what I care about. But during my freshman year in college, I started contributing to DePaul University's student-led magazine called 14 East, which provided me with a peer-led environment where I could voice my disagreements and frustrations with journalism. It gave me a space to really get into the weeds of journalism ethics and develop intentional journalistic practices. While I definitely learned some things in journalism classes, I often credit 14 East and my early freelance work for building my foundation as a journalist.
What led you to City Bureau?
A good friend and mentor of mine who was running 14 East at the time suggested that I look at City Bureau, because there were people who were really committed to changing what local journalism looks like and who can be a part of it. She first told me about the Documenters and Public Newsroom programs. So in early 2020, I trained as a Chicago Documenter and took on my first assignments. Although the traditional assignments include documenting public meetings, my first-ever Documenters assignment was a special assignment where I got to interview different community members about issues that were really important to them. I remember one of my first assignments involved talking to South Shore residents about housing and displacement, asking them about what it was like being a renter in South Shore. I loved being able to be a part of that project. Ever since that first assignment in 2020, I’ve found ways to stay involved with various programs, providing me with experiences which contributed to my personal and professional growth.
What is your work grounded in?
To me, journalism is a public service. Unfortunately, journalism has a long history of causing and contributing to harm of communities. Journalists have done this by reporting sensationalized stories violence and crime, rather than seeking out stories that are rooted in solutions and care, by spreading and publicizing misinformation – and by upholding this standard of objectivity which has in turn, continuously barred many Black and brown journalists from reporting on their own communities. To me, if you are harming the people in the communities that you're meant to serve, you're doing something wrong.
As journalists, I believe we really have to be grounded in what it means to serve our communities. This means interacting with our communities and hearing what they need and what they want. City Bureau does a really wonderful job with such civic-minded journalism, but I wonder how we could improve on getting our programs and work to those who really need it.
When I was a Civic Reporting fellow focusing on housing cooperatives, I loved what we were doing. We were taking deep dives into the history of Chicago housing, speaking to legal experts and local housing advocates and residents, and I got to interact with so many different people. But I remember being frustrated because we did some excellent reporting, but we didn't really get to do a lot of community engagement after reporting because we just didn't have time. I wanted to make sure that the people who needed that reporting got it in their hands.
Even so, a big value of mine is always acting with humility and recognizing that you can learn from someone and people can learn from you. Journalism should be an exchange, not an extraction.
I’m excited to join the team now in a full-time position, after being involved in nearly every part of the work– attending Public Newsrooms, documenting, the Civic Reporting fellowship in 2020 and 2022, and contract assignments with the Newswire. City Bureau played an instrumental role in who I am as a person, as a journalist, and now as an editorial program coordinator. I definitely wouldn't be here without the different lessons I've learned in the spaces I've been welcomed in throughout my time with City Bureau. I'm excited to continue growing and learning in this position.
To connect with Grace, feel free to reach out at grace@citybureau.org.
Support City Bureau’s civic journalism model by becoming a recurring donor today.
Take a closer look at the nuts and bolts of local government and civic power with help from our Newswire Newsletter, powered by Chicago Documenters. The biweekly newsletter is made for Chicagoans who want to make a difference in the life of their communities.