Oakland Tribune and Maynard Institute for Journalism Education Awarded Major California Endowment Grant

January  23, 2012 (Oakland, CA) – The Oakland Tribune and Maynard Institute for Journalism Education were awarded a $340,000 grant by The California Endowment (TCE) in December 2011 to expand a reporting fellowship and develop novel community journalism programs.

The California Endowment, a non-partisan foundation, selects a limited number of communities each year for comprehensive investments in prevention-oriented partnerships. As part of their mission to link the leaders and residents of these communities, TCE funded a violence reporting fellowship in 2010 for Scott C. Johnson, former Newsweek foreign correspondent, and underwrote the launch of Oakland Voices, a community news project co-founded by Bay Area News Group (BANG) senior editor for community engagement Martin G. Reynolds and the Maynard Institute for Journalism Education.

Last month, TCE renewed and greatly expanded the grant to incorporate a wider range of reporting topics, digital and community engagement programs, and vital funding for Oakland Voices.

“So often we filter community voices through journalism,” said Dori J. Maynard, president of the Maynard Institute for Journalism Education. “Instead of sending reporters out to cover the community, Oakland Voices has allowed people to come in and tell their stories about the issues that impact their lives and communities.” This year’s much larger grant expands on this vision and endows an 18-month fellowship for reporter Scott C. Johnson, who plans in-depth reportage on issues such as:

• • The impacts of violence and trauma on Oakland and parts of Alameda and Contra Costa Counties
• • Juvenile Justice and Gunshot Violence
• • Health, Wealth and Geographic Inequities
• • School-based inequities and dropout rates
• • The Traumatized Brain and the Deeper Implications

As part of this fellowship project, funds have been made available to pay for attending and presenting at journalism conferences. “This area of reporting has not gained traction at many mainstream news organizations and I believe that these health, wealth and generational disparities have serious consequences to society if they go unchecked,” says Scott Johnson. “By sharing this reporting with journalism colleagues across the nation as well as developing partnerships with non-profits in other parts of the world, we can urge them to explore these issues in their own communities.”

Additionally, the Tribune and Maynard Institute are developing a website which will serve as a resource for reporters and news organizations and include a moderated comment and forum section, a “clearing house” where therapists, counselors, activists, concerned citizens and elders could gather to meet, discuss, talk and offer or receive services and much more.

Four large-scale community forums will take place in various locations throughout the city of Oakland. The first, scheduled for April 2012, will focus on the impacts of gun violence in Oakland. These forums will be covered by the paper and provide local residents with direct access to policymakers and journalists. The new Oakland Voices correspondents will also help to cover these community forums, sharing the information they hear in a voice unlike that of traditional journalists. 

“Many newspapers around the world are considering ways to transition from a print-centric business to a locally focused provider of news and information across multiple platforms,” said Mac Tully, president of Bay Area News Group. “This grant will enable us to lead the way in developing a new, community-oriented strategy for the future on an international level.”

"This fellowship means a lot to this news organization and this community. Through this project we will be able expand on the work we have done by telling even more compelling stories about people here who live with the effects of trauma every day," says Reynolds. "The expanded reporting scope of the fellowship, new website and how it all connects to Oakland Voices and our new community engagement strategy, really gives us the opportunity to reshape the narrative around these issues, humanize the people most affected and empower them to join in the conversation."

The public is invited to share their feedback by emailing feedback@bayareanewsgroup.com and inquiries about blogging and other opportunities can be sent to mymedialab@bayareanewsgroup.com.