Over the past two years, people from across New Jersey have played more active roles in keeping their communities informed after participating in a series of journalism programs housed at four community colleges in the state.
For example, Tina Williams, who participated in Sussex County Community College’s “Becoming a Community Journalism” program, created a Facebook page to share news and content for seniors in Sussex County after identifying a lack of centralized information.
Jackie Fuccillo, a participant in Mercer County Community College’s J Lab, produces freelance stories for local news outlet MercerMe to get more involved in and connected to her community.
Joanna Hagan and Raul Castillo, participants from Middlesex College’s community journalism program, penned original stories to preserve local history in the county.
These are just a few examples of the impact that has emerged from the noncredit certificate programs that we’ve helped launch at four community colleges in New Jersey: Atlantic Cape Community College, Mercer County Community College, Middlesex College, and Sussex County Community College. In partnership with the New Jersey Council for the Humanities, we’ve supported project teams at each college through more than $240,000 in direct funding, sourced from the New Jersey Civic Information Consortium, and provided hands-on consulting in the design of their programs.
The programs, part of our Community News Networks initiative, seek to bolster local news ecosystems by equipping community members with the skills to produce and share reliable news and information, increase media literacy, and foster greater civic health.
To understand the impact of these programs, both on the participants and their communities, we enlisted the help of Impact Architects, a journalism research and evaluation company.
The results of Impact Architect’s evaluation shows a promising model for community colleges to serve as an active part of local news infrastructure, enabling more people to play a role in their local news ecosystem.
A few key outcomes:
- Number of certificates awarded: 85
- Number of articles published: 40+
- Number of news organizations contributed to: 8+
- The course is giving participants confidence to contribute. 15 of 17 participants surveyed say they either feel “very confident” or “somewhat confident” that they can personally get involved in local news.
- The course is reaching a diverse group of community members. Among 16 participants surveyed, 25% are between the ages of 18-25, 25% are 65+, and the remaining 50% are in between.
The programs are also fostering deeper community connection and benefits to the program participants. Janet Rush, a retiree who took the Mercer County Community College’s J Lab course in January 2024, said that the program “woke up an awareness I didn’t have before. I’m aware of things going on in my neighborhood, township, and community. Everyone should be able to take a class like this. It gives a whole new level of care and appreciation for what you have around you.” Fuccillio,who was born and raised in Brazil, said that her motivation for producing local stories for MercerMe centers on “the power in being part of not just living in community, but also finding solutions.”
We’re eager to continue helping nurture the impact of our New Jersey partners’ work as their programs continue to grow over the coming years. You can read the full report from Impact Architects below.