On September 13, the Journalism + Design lab co-hosted a luncheon with our partners at the New Jersey Council for the Humanities (NJCH) to celebrate the work that community colleges in our New Jersey cohort started one year ago.
Gathering at Middlesex College, one of the four community colleges that received funding from J+D and NJCH as part of our statewide initiative, faculty and staff in our cohort each shared outcomes from the community journalism programs they launched this year. While their programs shared the same basic foundation (a free, noncredit certificate program), each college incorporated creative and unique elements that enabled people in their communities to participate in their local news ecosystem.
Our partners at Impact Architects just drafted this initial “impact brief” of the programs to date. A few overall highlights:
- The four programs have trained about 60 community members so far;
- Participants published nearly two dozen original stories, primarily throughstudent publications and with local media partners;
- One participant in Sussex County Community College’s program went on to create a new Facebook page to share information about senior life and activities in the county.
We’ll publish a full report in January 2025, which will include additional case studies of how participants are applying the skills they learned in their communities. You can read the full impact brief below.