South Jersey Information Equity Project congratulates 2023 reporting fellows, gears up for the next cohort
By Cassandra Etienne and Adrienne Bauldock
The South Jersey Information Equity Project recently hosted a closing ceremony in June to celebrate our 2023 fellows. The event took place at the WHYY Studios in Philadelphia with the goal of recognizing and celebrating the hard work of these fellows. Over the last several months, SJIEP fellows have been producing solutions-based, restorative narrative journalism in their respective communities across Camden, Burlington, and Gloucester counties.
The ceremony also included remarks from Sarah Glover, Vice President of News & Civic Dialogue at WHYY, and P. Kenneth Burns, president of the NJ Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists and South Jersey reporter for WHYY. Both journalists shared their journeys in the news industry and encouraged the fellows to continue honing their craft and persevere despite challenges.
Post-ceremony, we’re still feeling inspired and excited about this run as well as future SJIEP plans. As we reflect on the South Jersey Information Equity Project’s second round of reporting fellowships, the Center for Cooperative Media at Montclair State University is excited to announce new funding and plans underway for the third cohort in 2024.
Taking stock of success and areas for growth
SJIEP was created to help increase the amount of quality local news and information produced by and for communities of color in South Jersey, primarily in Camden, Burlington and Gloucester counties.
This year five fellows were assigned to work directly with SJIEP media partners Black in Jersey, Front Runner New Jersey, and SCOOP USA, which published their stories.
Fellows Mya Calderon, Charles Curtis III, Tyriq DeSheilds, Sade Osuji, and Jenise Rolle covered a variety of topics including local politics, economic justice efforts, education initiatives promoting inclusivity, environmental justice issues, and the local impact of legislation from the New Jersey Statehouse. You can also read their stories at sjiep.org.
Stories developed by the fellows with the guidance of their editors, supported the offerings of our partner outlets while creating a learning environment for these early career journalists. Each fellow contributed 1–2 articles per month. And we’ve seen how direct placement with partnering newsrooms has provided more support and resources that helped fellows to see their pitches and assignments through to completion.
We also hosted five monthly workshops to help reinforce skills such as news judgment, news writing, interviewing and photography, organized by SJIEP mentor, Velvet McNeil.
This year we wanted to strengthen and formalize the mentoring and career development components of SJIEP. So we paired fellows with our returning SJIEP mentors: noted journalists Celeste Whittaker of the Courier Post, Melanie Burney of The Philadelphia Inquirer and award-winning photographer and multimedia educator Velvet McNeil. The pairs met regularly as part of the program.
SJIEP also presented a series of career development workshops — two of them in partnership with the Philadelphia Association of Black Journalists (PABJ) — to help our fellows and members of the broader SJIEP to better showcase their work and position themselves for new opportunities. These workshops were presented by Emma Carew Grovum, Founder of Kimbap Media and The Marshall Project’s Director of Careers and Culture.
Overall we’re pleased with the new program additions throughout the 2023 fellowships.
With the next iteration of the South Jersey Information Equity Project, several focus areas are:
- Additional support for SJIEP partners
- Enhanced media trainings that build on current workshops
- Increased outreach efforts within SJIEP coverage counties
- Expanded SJIEP cohorts
New funding + gearing up for the next fellowships
We are thrilled to announce that SJIEP has received a grant from the New Jersey Civic Information Consortium, which funds initiatives to benefit civic life information needs statewide.
The grant award of $100,000 in funding makes it possible to expand the South Jersey Information Equity Program, which will now support reporting fellowships in the original counties of Burlington, Camden, and Gloucester, as well as in Salem, Atlantic, and Cumberland counties. With this expanded coverage, SJIEP aims to help bolster community-based outlets, including those led by Black publishers, and increase opportunities for more early-career journalists and storytellers — all with the goal of supporting local news in the region. The expansion builds on SJIEP work previously funded by the Independence Public Media Foundation and The Nicholson Foundation.
The CIC grant also enables us to support the continuation of Stories Invincible, an affiliate project of SJIEP, which focuses on restorative narratives in the city of Camden, with a focus on local storytellers and members of Camden’s arts and culture community. This grant allows for the placement of six SJIEP-funded fellows in Camden.
Last year, project coordinator Reet Starwind worked with Stories Invincible’s inaugural cohort of fellows to craft multimedia projects covering issues such as local gardens and food sustainability, financial literacy, and Camden’s growing cannabis industry.
The fellows also produced projects such as an arts workshop for high school students that included education about Camden’s history; a documentary about hardships faced by local dispensaries helmed by Black entrepreneurs; and a project to restore a historic mural located along Haddon Avenue.
To learn more about this impactful South Jersey reporting project, visit storiesinvicible.org.
Working as part of the SJIEP team, we’ve had the pleasure of meeting community members and local news stakeholders through convenings. We’ve worked with a wonderful group of fellows and learned from their perspectives about news and information in South Jersey, and how they aspire to improve access for people in their communities. And we’ve teamed up with some amazing and dedicated partners, namely:
- Sherri Darden of SCOOP USA, an African American newspaper distributed in Philadelphia, Delaware, and Chester, Camden and Wilmington counties in New Jersey
- Tennyson Donyea of the news and culture site Black in Jersey
- Clyde Hughes of Front Runner New Jersey, a website covering Black and Latino communities in South Jersey
The bottom line is — it’s been another great year for SJIEP!
The project offered a new perspective on local hyperlocal journalism within South Jersey. We’re gaining a better understanding of how to further support local media outlets, as well as information access for community members. And we’re excited to continue those efforts!
As we solidify plans for next year, we continue to focus on our goals to support reporting and information sources by and for communities of color in South Jersey. And we’ll continue to invest in Black journalists and media-makers who seek to gain training, resources, and professional experiences that will help to advance their careers.
And so far, with each cohort, we’ve seen the positive impact of mentoring local journalists of color, immersing them in local newsrooms, and providing training and additional platforms for their work. We hope these program elements will serve more journalists, and help with their career advancement, as well as deepen the coverage of South Jersey communities by reporters who better reflect them.
Cassandra Etienne is the assistant director of membership and programming at the Center for Cooperative Media. Contact her at etiennec@montclair.edu.
Adrienne Bauldock is the project coordinator for the South Jersey Information Equity Project. Contact her at bauldocka@montclair.edu.
About the South Jersey Information Equity Project: The Center for Cooperative Media partnered with the Philadelphia Association of Black Journalists to launch SJIEP in April 2020. Its goal is to address media inequity in South Jersey, specifically by seeking to improve the quality and quantity of news and information produced by and for communities of color.
About the Center for Cooperative Media: The Center is a primarily grant-funded program of the School of Communication and Media at Montclair State University. Its mission is to grow and strengthen local journalism, and in doing so serve New Jersey residents. The Center is supported with operational and project funding from Montclair State University, the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation, Democracy Fund, NJ Civic Information Consortium, Rita Allen Foundation, Inasmuch Foundation and the Independence Public Media Foundation. For more information, visit centerforcooperativemedia.org.
