This This former Documenter is joining our team to support and grow sites across the Documenters Network.

By Maja Stina Sunleaf

Portrait by Caroline Olsen

We’re thrilled to welcome Anastazia to the team as City Bureau’s new Documenters Network Coordinator!

Based in Cleveland, OH, Anastazia first got involved with her local Documenters program in 2021 as a Documenter herself. She has a background in journalism, as well as facilitating and organizing community gatherings with nonprofits and newsrooms. In her work, Anastazia focuses on eliminating barriers to participation and creating resources to support our growing network.

We asked Anastazia to share a little bit about her experiences, background, and what she’s bringing to the role. Here are some of the highlights, edited for length and clarity.

TELL US ABOUT YOUR CONNECTION TO CLEVELAND, THE CITY YOU CALL HOME.

I've lived in Cleveland for about 10 years now, and I think that makes it the longest place I've ever lived. I had moved around a lot beforehand with my family, and then came here for college. I think graduating from college and getting out of the campus bubble gave me a lot of opportunities to explore the city, get to know it better, and connect with people who’ve lived here for a long time and could show me community gathering spaces. It made it a lot easier to plug into the organizing community as well, because they'll define people with similar interests.

YOU GOT INVOLVED WITH SIGNAL CLEVELAND AND THE DOCUMENTERS PROGRAM IN 2021, TELL US ABOUT YOUR PATH FROM COMMUNITY MEMBER TO DOCUMENTER TO NETWORK COORDINATOR.

In 2020, I was looking for more community groups to get involved with during the pandemic. I was feeling like the groups that I was involved with at the time weren’t doing things responsibly during the pandemic, so I wanted to take a step back from that. I found Neighborhood Connections, which is where Cleveland Documenters was originally housed, and learned about Documenters through them. I attended an orientation in 2021 and started documenting. I had a journalism background from college, but had ultimately decided to not pursue it. This was a way to feel like, “Okay, I can start writing again. I can get plugged into what's happening in my city and actually see it firsthand, rather than reading about it in the news.” 

Then in 2023 I started working with the program, editing Documenters’ notes and also doing more of the community building. This meant getting to create spaces for Documenters to connect with each other; I thought about how we can dig into some topics that people asked questions about in their notes and basically create spaces that Documenters have expressed that they wanted. That's also what I felt led me to the Documenters Network and City Bureau. We get to think through what we’re hearing from Documenters sites and designing spaces that work for that, as well as creating resources that will help people do that.

HOW HAVE YOU SEEN THE NETWORK GROW AND IN WHAT WAYS ARE YOU EXCITED TO CONTINUE BUILDING IT?

When I first got involved with Cleveland, it was only the third site. It seemed like Documenters programs were growing pretty slowly. Then hearing, “Oh, now there's three more sites that entered,” I thought, “It's already doubled within a year!” Then it felt like it exploded from there. I think it was really cool to see how quickly it was catching on. I feel like now that I'm involved with it, I want to help it grow sustainably and be able to find that sweet spot of how we can sustain this for ourselves and also help this network grow in a way that will continue and ensure success. I want to shout out everyone already involved with that. I know that's something that everyone is thinking about, and that's also part of why I want to be with this team, because I’m working with like-minded folks.

WHAT ARE YOUR APPROACHES TO BUILDING COMMUNITY WITHIN THE DOCUMENTERS NETWORK AS A NETWORK COORDINATOR? 

Creating spaces where folks can be honest with each other and ask for what they need. I think that it can be easy–because there is that power dynamic between City Bureau and Documenters Network sites that we support–to fall into a pattern where folks are trying to impress City Bureau. Initially when folks join the Network, a lot of it is learning about what it means to be a Documenters site, and learning those things from City Bureau or sites that are already in the Network. The best way to grow is having the space where we can talk to each other freely, because at some point that balance is going to tip to where the Documenters site is going to be doing cool, new things that they can teach others about. We're only going to get there if we can brainstorm through the challenges and be honest with each other.

HOW DO YOU STAY GROUNDED IN YOUR WORK?

Trying to remember that what we’re doing is really connecting people, creating resources, and supporting sites. Especially when things start to feel a little overwhelming, like when there are a lot of to-do lists, just trying to focus on those three things and think through what are the most important things to get done to actually support the people I work with.

To connect with Anastazia, feel free to reach out at anastazia@citybureau.org.