Civic Reporting Programs
City Bureau offers paid, intensive training opportunities for journalists who want to grow their reporting, engagement and leadership skills.
The Civic Reporting Fellowship at City Bureau is a hands-on training opportunity where journalists of different experience levels can grow their skills in a supportive environment. At City Bureau, we emphasize racial equity, community engagement and co-learning. All program participants work closely with communities on Chicago’s South and West Sides to center the needs and narratives of people most directly affected by the issues we cover.
Learn more about the fellowship below. Applications are open for our Winter 2026 fellowship cycle.
Fall 2025: Intergenerational relationships
Fellows look into the people, places and organizations bringing different generations together, exploring how they work with varying viewpoints to facilitate collective action, how to live together and more.
Fall 2024: Your election questions, answered
We asked Chicago residents what they wanted to know about the November 2024 election and the electoral process. Check out what we found.
Past Projects
If you’ve read a major investigation or reporting project from City Bureau — from the “Fraternal Order of Propaganda” investigative feature to “The Cord” text-messaging service for Black mothers and birthing people — it was most likely created by participants in our Civic Reporting Programs. Read more of our past projects below.
Led by City Bureau engagement reporter Jerrel Floyd, four emerging reporters looked into youth mental health in Chicago. Their focus was on where teens and young adults can access help — and how the city responds to their needs. Here’s what we learned.
Led by City Bureau senior reporter Sarah Conway, four emerging reporters looked into the recent arrivals of asylum seekers to Chicago. They focused on how migrants were finding work and building new lives for themselves — and how the city was responding to their needs. Here’s what we found.
Led by City Bureau’s engagement reporter Jerrel Floyd, four emerging reporters explored affordable housing in Bronzeville. Community members posed the question of how to find places to live in their long-time neighborhood without breaking the bank. Here’s what we learned.
Led by City Bureau’s senior reporter Sarah Conway, four emerging journalists reported on Chicago’s guaranteed income pilot program and private efforts provide cash directly to individuals who struggle to access the social safety net, such as people who have been incarcerated.
Led by City Bureau’s engagement reporter Jerrel Floyd, four emerging reporters looked into the city’s promises to spend a billion dollars building affordable housing. The reporters focused on Bronzeville, where a developer is promising a mixed-income community built with the help of tax-payer dollars near public transportation.
Experts say an eviction avalanche is coming. But thousands of Chicago renters have already been pushed to the brink of the housing cliff.
Fall 2020: How are Chicago’s immigrants empowered through the electoral process, and in what ways do election outcomes affect their lives?
The city faces a historic deficit. Where will the mayor find money, and where will services be cut?
As the census approaches, stakes are high in Illinois as the state has billions of federal funding dollars—and perhaps even a seat in Congress—at stake.
What does Black wealth look like in Chicago? Our reporting fellows look to tell the expansive story of how generations of Black Chicagoans built, lost and passed along wealth by looking beyond the financial statistics.
Special series: Temp Workers
Are policymakers keeping their promises to reduce racial disparities in staffing agencies? We’ll learn from Black and Latinx workers about how policy decisions have impacted their lives.
Special series: Housing Cooperatives
Can housing cooperatives be a solution to the affordable housing crisis? Fellows will explore the history of co-ops in Chicago, particularly in communities of color, and the role the city has played in supporting them?
Art: David Alvarado for City Bureau
A Growing Alumni Network
Our 100+ past fellows and residents have gone on to do everything from founding their own media startups to working at news outlets as diverse as Block Club Chicago to the New York Times. Their award-winning reporting has inspired protests, policy changes and transformative conversations in communities across Chicago.
PAST RESIDENTS & FELLOWS
Not pictured: Adia Robinson, Evie Lacroix, Latricia Polk, Will Cabaniss