Episode 232: Who Is Documenting The Community Meetings?

In every city, state, and municipality, there are community meetings that are held where the things that affect your everyday life and how your tax dollars are spent, are discussed…and you may not be there! Getting people civically engaged is L. Joy’s reason for creating #SundayCivics so she is bringing Derrick Cain and Julie Christie to the front of the class to discuss how their organization, Resolve Philly, is using the Documenters program to get folks engaged around local government. 

Homework:

• Check out the Documenters, which is network of newsrooms and community organizations committed to participatory civic media that train and pay hundreds of people to attend under-reported public meetings and publish the results https://www.documenters.org/ 

• Explore ways to bring the Documenters program to your community.

• Check out City Bureau which is a journalism lab reimagining local media & powering the Documenters program https://www.citybureau.org/ 

• Check out the work Resolve Philly, an unconventional journalism organization, is doing to challenge their industry to be more equitable, collaborative, and based in community voices and solutions. https://resolvephilly.org/ 

• Support local journalism

Our Guests:

Derrick Cain is the Director of Community Engagement at Resolve Philly. Derrick is a Philadelphia native and is passionate about shifting the news paradigm and connecting with people to ensure accurate and authentic storytelling. Most recently, Derrick was a 2019 Reentry Think Media Justice Fellow, where he created and told stories about returning citizens that challenge stereotypes and illuminates hurdles to reentry. Derrick has several years of experience in criminal justice reform, and as a public and motivational speaker. In addition to serving as a volunteer and mentor for several organizations and continuing his personal public speaking, Derrick is the Chair of the Professional Men’s Group with Menzfit, where he helps formerly incarcerated individuals by connecting them to resources.

Julie Christie loves charts like nobody's business. After three internships with Resolve at different phases of its existence, Julie joined the team full time to report with data, track Resolve's impact, and yell about ZIP Codes. She also brings a concerning amount of knowledge on Lord of the Rings and houseplants to most staff meetings. She is currently the Director of Data and Special Projects at Resolve Philly.