In early 2021, Coloradans from across backgrounds, generations, regions and professions began meeting to tackle a series of questions: What would it take to ensure that local news coverage reflects, respects and reaches out to the state’s communities of color? What actions must newsrooms, community members and funders take to create a future in which communities of color share and shape the power of local news media?
Led by the Colorado News Collaborative (COLab) and community liaisons with support from CMP and The Colorado Health Foundation, The Voices Initiative convened four separate working groups of community members and journalists of color to find answers to those questions and push for action.
This work has given birth to four reports centering the voices of Black, Latinx, Indigenous and Asian, South Asian, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander Coloradans — and catalyzed dozens of projects supported by CMP’s Advancing Equity in Local News grant program. These efforts continue to engage journalists and non-journalists and spark more questions, ideas and plans of action that will take us into a future where the media’s power is shared and expanded by communities of color.
We invite you to read the recommendations and join upcoming events that can lead local newsrooms to center the stories, experiences and information needs of all Coloradans.
