{"id":304498,"date":"2023-02-22T10:36:51","date_gmt":"2023-02-22T15:36:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/truthout.org\/?post_type=to4_article_post&p=304498"},"modified":"2025-12-08T17:41:29","modified_gmt":"2025-12-08T22:41:29","slug":"truthout-center-for-grassroots-journalism","status":"publish","type":"to4_article_post","link":"https:\/\/truthout.org\/articles\/truthout-center-for-grassroots-journalism\/","title":{"rendered":"Truthout Center for Grassroots Journalism"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

If we want to grow movements for social transformation, we must build, tend, and cultivate transformative media. At Truthout, <\/em>we\u2019ve come to understand that this goal shouldn\u2019t just mean fostering the growth of our one publication; we need a broad and thriving ecosystem of varied grassroots journalism organizations full of wisdom and heart, helping to manifest dreams of a better world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As Truthout<\/em> has grown and overcome obstacles over the past two decades, working all the while to adhere to a people-powered, values-driven model, we\u2019ve accumulated some hard-earned lessons. We developed a groundbreaking structure that allowed us to provide free news and analysis while sustaining ourselves primarily on small donations. We were the first digital news organization to form a union. We broke with many of our peers early on to take firm stances on issues like corporate power, migrant rights and borders, the prison-industrial complex, Palestine solidarity, and trans rights. We\u2019ve worked to figure out how to put our values into practice in the workplace, developing a set of policies that reflected our vision for how society should be. We\u2019ve made and continue to make mistakes, and work hard to learn from them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We have drawn from those lessons to launch the Truthout Center for Grassroots Journalism, a program to assist other social justice-driven media organizations, including emerging publications, in building their power and developing structures to sustain themselves for the long haul. Maya Schenwar,<\/a> Truthout<\/em>\u2019s editor-at-large and former editor-in-chief, serves as the Center\u2019s director. This initiative is our commitment to devote a small slice of our staff resources to supporting other important organizations in sustaining and flourishing, to help grow the critical media ecosystem necessary to build grassroots power. Listen to a recent interview about the Center here<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Center includes the following components:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Assistance<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

We\u2019re offering advice, mentorship, and support to grassroots and emerging media organizations who wouldn\u2019t otherwise be able to afford such assistance:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

– Leadership guidance and mentoring<\/p>\n\n\n\n

– Strategic support for distribution and audience\/reach expansion<\/p>\n\n\n\n

– Fundraising strategy guidance<\/p>\n\n\n\n

– Guidance on editorial processes and infrastructure<\/p>\n\n\n\n

– Consultation on whether, why, what and\/or how to grow<\/p>\n\n\n\n

– Other stuff! If you are a radical, transformative media organization looking to build power\u2014and you can\u2019t afford ongoing support\u2014feel free to reach out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We offer ongoing help to 5-7 organizations at a time. We\u2019re currently at capacity, but if you\u2019d like to be considered for assistance in future months, please email us at center@truthout.org<\/a>. Currently, we\u2019re providing or preparing to provide strategic support for projects including Convergence Magazine <\/em>(a magazine of radical insights that uplifts organizing stories), Stateville Speaks <\/em>(a prison newsletter that is produced for and, in part, by people incarcerated in Illinois), Waging Nonviolence <\/em>(a platform dedicated to providing original reporting and expert analysis of social movements around the world), Deceleration<\/em> (a nonprofit online journal responding to our shared ecological, political, and cultural crises in Texas and the Gulf South), The Kansas City Defender <\/em>(a Black nonprofit community media platform serving Kansas City, Missouri), and Briarpatch<\/em> (a Saskatchewan-based magazine of politics and culture). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Center mails a quarterly newsletter uplifting the recent work of partner publications to Truthout <\/em>subscribers. (Subscribe<\/a> to the Truthout <\/em>list here!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Additionally, the Center stewards the archives of YES! Magazine<\/a> <\/em>and publishes a monthly YES! <\/em>newsletter, and is the sponsoring organization for The Appeal<\/a>, <\/em>which publishes a bimonthly newsletter and ongoing investigative reporting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Collaborations<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

As a flexible project aimed at building a more vibrant and robust independent media ecosystem, we foster collaborations among social justice-driven news organizations. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We are a cofounder and fiscal sponsor of the Movement Media Alliance,<\/a> a coalition of 24 grassroots-aligned, social justice-driven journalism organizations committed to accurate, transparent, accountable, principled, and just media, and to working collaboratively to amplify our impact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Within that work, we co-founded a collaboration among movement media organization<\/a>s to uplift accurate coverage of Israel’s genocide against Gaza. We’re facilitating ongoing collaborations between Truthout <\/em>and Zealous, Teen Vogue, Inquest, Deceleration, <\/em>and other partner organizations. Our Truthout\/Zealous\/Teen Vogue <\/em>collaborative series <\/a>won a 2024 Anthem Award. Last year, we collaborated with Prison Neighborhood Arts Project to co-teach a class in prison on writing nonfiction, <\/em>working to nurture independent media behind bars.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you have a suggestion for a collaboration, please email us at center@truthout.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Keeley Schenwar Memorial Essay Prize Program<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The Truthout Center for Grassroots Journalism also houses the Keeley Schenwar Memorial Essay Prize, for work authored by people who are currently or formerly incarcerated. The prize is part of our work to broaden social justice journalism in ways that uplift and highlight the work of incarcerated authors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since 2021, we have awarded two prizes, each for an original essay of 1,500 words or less on the topic of prisons, policing or a related subject. Each of the two winners is awarded $3,000. The essays are published in Truthout <\/em>and widely distributed, functioning as a form of popular education.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This year’s prize is now open for entries.<\/strong> Please see here<\/a> for more information and links to previous winning essays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you\u2019d like to support the Truthout Center for Grassroots Journalism, you can reach out to <\/em>center@truthout.org<\/em><\/a> and\/or make a donation <\/em>here<\/em><\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An initiative to help grow the critical media ecosystem necessary to build grassroots power.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":48,"featured_media":304784,"menu_order":0,"template":"","categories":[],"tags":[781],"section":[],"primary_topic":[20],"series":[],"admin_tag":[],"class_list":["post-304498","to4_article_post","type-to4_article_post","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-journalism","primary_topic-media"],"acf":[],"related_articles":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/truthout.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/to4_article_post\/304498","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/truthout.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/to4_article_post"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/truthout.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/to4_article_post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/truthout.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/48"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/truthout.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/304784"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/truthout.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=304498"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/truthout.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=304498"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/truthout.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=304498"},{"taxonomy":"section","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/truthout.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/section?post=304498"},{"taxonomy":"primary_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/truthout.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/primary_topic?post=304498"},{"taxonomy":"series","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/truthout.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/series?post=304498"},{"taxonomy":"admin_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/truthout.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/admin_tag?post=304498"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}