CommunityEngagement

At Grist, we believe we have a responsibility to ensure communities have access to vital information and equip them with tools to participate in the journalism process. That is why we are building out processes for community engagement, from in-person workshops and conversations to media literacy training and partnerships with local organizations.

Our approach varies by topic, place, and the needs of the people who live there. We have held in-person workshops, led a community-reporter training program, and printed thousands of informational flyers and pamphlets in multiple languages. 

Incorporating this approach into news and investigations means stories reach those who need our reporting the most, particularly those who disproportionately face environmental injustices and the dangers of a changing climate, and/or face barriers to accessing consistent, accurate information. We want to create strong, lasting relationships with the communities we serve, improve information systems, and contribute to keeping people and places safe and healthy.

If you’re interested in learning more or partnering with Grist, reach out to community@grist.org.

Featured Projects

Demystifying the Georgia PSC

Grist led a yearlong community engagement initiative to help Georgia residents understand the impact of the state’s utility regulator, the Public Service Commission, on everything from clean energy deployment to electricity bills. We held listening sessions, ran a community reporting fellowship that trained and paid residents to do journalism in their neighborhoods, used residents’ questions to guide our stories, and distributed 1,500 informational pamphlets.

Guides for Florida’s immigrant farmworkers

We created guides for farmworkers and immigrant community members across Florida about food access, disaster preparedness, and immigrants’ rights. These were translated into Haitian Creole and Spanish and distributed via local organizations. The work corresponded with Grist’s reporting on climate change’s impact on farmworkers. 

Urgent disaster information

In order to help people prepare for, respond to, and recover from wildfires, hurricanes, floods, and other disasters, we are continually creating and updating resource guides. This information is sourced from trusted organizations, newsrooms, and government agencies, and available for widespread, free distribution. After Hurricane Helene, for instance, we created flyers on housing assistance in collaboration with Legal Aid of Tennessee.

Investigating ethylene oxide emissions

As part of an investigation into an unregulated cancer-causing chemical leaking from warehouses across the country, we created a digital and print guide — with input from community organizers and residents — to inform people about this largely unknown pollutant. We also held a workshop for local journalists and residents on how to access public data and investigate this issue in their own areas.