Led by City Bureau engagement reporter Jerrel Floyd, four emerging reporters are looking into youth mental health in Chicago. Their focus is on where teens and young adults can access help — and how the city is responding to their needs. Check back here to see what we find.
Who Are We?
City Bureau Civic Reporting Fellows spend 16 weeks improving their journalism skills and immersing themselves in community reporting. (Staff photos by Caroline Olsen/City Bureau)
Kathleen Hayes
by Arieon Whittsey
Writer and educator Kathleen Hayes has lived and worked in Chicago for over 30 years.
Originally from Springfield, Illinois, she aspired for several years after college to make the move to Chicago.
“People say that Chicago is ‘The City that Works,’” she says. To her, the phrase nods to “the people who have been divested in and who have been able to make things work by demanding and creating solutions for themselves.”
Her start in journalism came when Hayes moved to Chicago to pursue a master’s degree at Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism. She freelanced for trade magazines and other outlets while working as a restaurant server, before transitioning into teaching high school English and writing for six years. But journalism always called to Hayes as her true passion, she says.
Her recent journalism work includes bylines in The Hechinger Report, an education news outlet, and the Chicago Sun-Times.
Becoming a Civic Reporting Fellow at City Bureau was a logical next step, she says, as Hayes saw an opportunity to better understand her own “why” and create stories in community with others. During her time as a fellow and career as a journalist, she says she seeks to honor the important work of Chicagoans who lift up their own communities through collective action.
Monique Petty-Ashmeade
by Lauren Pious
Monique “Mo” Petty-Ashmeade is a Chatham native and a student of journalism at DePaul University. They are dedicated to solutions-based journalism and providing trustworthy news to those in underserved communities of Chicago.
Petty-Ashmeade’s journey toward community empowerment and civic media literacy began when they took part in True Star Media, a youth-led media arts program. It allowed space for them to find their voice and narrow their focus to critical issues within Black and brown environments, they say.
While Chicago is “a place of rich culture … it is also a place of a lot of little issues, a lot of things that need to be addressed,” Petty-Ashmeade says. “I think the segregation of the city is the biggest thing. I think that’s the influence behind what I bring to [my journalism].”
The City Bureau fellowship affords them the opportunity to get more involved in civic reporting, Petty-Ashmeade says. City Bureau’s Documenters program, which they’ve been a part of since August 2023, is a great example of keeping citizens aware of their own ability “to bring about liberation and change,” Petty Ashmeade says.
When Petty-Ashmeade isn’t at City Bureau or studying, they are working at 14 East Magazine. They strive to hone their craft as the magazine’s community engagement editor and being a part of public newsrooms. After nearly a decade of practicing journalism, they hope to continue amplifying local voices and collectively solve some of the foundational barriers to growth.
Lauren Pious
by Monique Petty-Ashmeade
Growing up in Chicago’s Chatham and Auburn-Gresham neighborhoods, Lauren Pious used her poetry as an outlet to interpret the world around her, at a time when she lacked a community foundation to express herself. Art is a guiding principle for Pious, who roots her inspiration in intersectionality, restorative justice, spirituality and healing.
“Everything comes with an artistic and spiritual lens for me,” Pious says. “Art is very fluid to me. Journalism is an art form, and I am learning more about that, given the different mediums you can use. Art is how I’ve been healing on my journey.”
After receiving her bachelor’s degree in English Language and Literature at Arizona State University, Pious found herself back in Chicago at Columbia College as a graduate student in poetry. It was there she broke out of her comfort zone as a writer and felt affirmed by her community.
“It really helped me to build my confidence with experimenting,” she said. “One of my teachers made me feel confident in the fact that my voice is all over the place, but it’s still a narrative.”
For Pious, joining City Bureau's mission of community outreach and involvement aligns with her vision of expanding her capabilities as an activist and writer.
“I feel like within the Black community, there’s hunger for a new way of living that’s tailored to our specific needs,” she says. “There’s a cultural shift that is really highlighting the fact that the system isn’t really working.”
Arieon Whittsey
by Kathleen Hayes
The Chicago of Arieon Whittsey's childhood is, to them, a much different place than Chicago today.
As a child growing up in the Austin neighborhood, “it was constantly being communicated to me how dangerous it was,” Whittsey recalls. “I couldn’t really go places and experience much of Chicago.” Yet, they emphasize, “I had no sense of danger.”
This sense of safety at home and in their neighborhood juxtaposed against contrasting stories about Chicago and the West Side intrigues Whittsey to this day.
Whittsey sees the written word as a vehicle for illuminating the often contradictory dynamics of neighborhoods and cities. They began their exploration of poetry in high school and at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Most recently, they offer cultural criticism on their Substack page, “The Final They.”
Their interest in articulating the human experience is one reason Whittsey was attracted to the City Bureau Civic Reporting Fellowship, they say. Having first engaged with City Bureau as a Documenter, Whittsey sees the fellowship as a way to expand their interest in amplifying others’ experiences.
“I have to be on the ground and talk to people and get to know a community. That’s really important to me,” they say.
Whittsey also views the fellowship as an opportunity to continue reckoning with the narrative of Chicago as a dangerous city.
“We are all facing a systemic struggle, but what are the ways we work around that?” they ask. “And what’s the resilience that has kept so many people here?”
Jerrel Floyd
by Sarah Conway
Jerrel Floyd feels his roots in small-town Alabama in Black Chicago from the way that people walk down the street to catching a family relaxing on the stoop. Sharing Black stories is exactly what brought him here – documenting living history through communities telling their own stories.
“People want to be storytellers about where they come from, how they feel about their lives. They want to tell their individual stories,” he said. Inquisitive, thoughtful and perceptive, Floyd creates space in his reporting for communities of color to explore memory and process how systems impact their daily lives.
Floyd found his footing in journalism as a reporter and editor as an undergraduate at Morehouse College’s student newspaper, The Maroon Tiger. He began his career at ProPublica Illinois as a reporting fellow where he explored the powerful histories of abandoned black cemeteries, an interest sparked during his graduate studies in investigative journalism at American University where he collaborated on projects with PBS Frontline and the Washington Post.
Before City Bureau, he was as a local government reporter with the Post and Courier in Charleston, South Carolina, covering a broad range of topics from growth and development to education and health. He brings eight years of reporting experience to his work as an engagement reporter covering affordable housing, development and food access, a beat he anchors in connecting communities with resources and ultimately building their own narratives.
Have Your Say
Do you have questions about recent arrivals in Chicago? Or want to share a tip? Reach out via email at tips@citybureau.org. You can also leave a voicemail or text message for us at 312-361-0881.