Over the past ten years, City Bureau has developed, tested, and refined programs that center community members and strengthen civic engagement. The five priorities below reflect an evolution in this work, responding to gaps we see in the current information landscape and reflections shared with us by peers in the field, community members, and civic leaders. These priorities build on our learning while charting a new path toward systems-level change:
1. Equip a broad and diverse network of local leaders to find and share actionable civic information.
Design and test new assignment types that enable Documenters and others to take action in the public interest.
Redesign our journalism training programs to directly address community information needs.
Cultivate in-person events and spaces that foster generative civic relationships.
2. Create new ways for people to directly distribute information their communities need.
Test and replicate new ways for Documenters to share actionable civic information.
Draw on the data created by Documenters to create new human-centered AI tools that add in-depth, timely, people-powered context to civic processes.
Make the case for people-powered journalism by closing information gaps and impacting outcomes around a high information-need issue in Chicago.
3. Develop the infrastructure, research, and policies for people-powered journalism to become a new feature of U.S. democracy.
Grow the Documenters Network to at least 40 counties and invest in the infrastructure to support local sites during our next phase of growth.
Partner with researchers to develop rigorous frameworks for evaluation and learning, and build an evidence base for people-powered journalism.
Partner with advocates and policymakers to shape funding mechanisms and policies that enable the growth of people-powered journalism.
4. Diversify revenue and grow public support to sustain our work into the future.
Raise $10 million in new philanthropic funds to sustain and grow our work.
Diversify our funding by building a major gifts program and piloting one new earned revenue stream.
Strengthen brand awareness to extend the reach of our communications and expand our fundraising.
Adopt a flexible program model for the Documenters Network to increase the accessibility and sustainability of the program.
5. Strengthen our operations and governance structures as a strong foundation for people-powered journalism.
Evolve our board to focus on governance and fundraising and add members from complementary fields.
Implement impact tracking in alignment with our priorities.
Complete and administer our first collective bargaining agreement to support sustainable and effective working conditions for our team.
