Community Engagement Reporter
Charlottesville is more than shorthand for racist violence. It is a college town facing increasing home prices, education disparities, a large income gap and a reckoning with race both separate and intertwined with the violence of the 2017 rally.
Charlottesville Tomorrow is seeking a community engagement reporter to bring more of our community into our newsroom to strengthen our coverage of these challenges.
This reporter will connect the news with the people we cover by working with grassroots and grasstops leaders and organizations to get to the heart of community needs. The reporter also will engage in bringing diverse people together to build a more robust group of informed citizens through journalism and community organizing.
Charlottesville Tomorrow is a nonprofit newsroom seeking to expand civic engagement to foster a vibrant, inclusive and interdependent community. Our small newsroom of four is half Black and half female, and our experiences span across continents and cultures. We’ve worked at small-town publications and large regional outlets and have chosen Charlottesville Tomorrow as a place where we can do meaningful journalism. Things that binds us are our spirit of collaboration and pursuit of truth, community and equity. (See our newsroom and full staff here: https://www.cvilletomorrow.org/people)
The community engagement reporter will
- be knowledgeable of Charlottesville and/or the South, especially communities of color
- work with our partners in the Charlottesville Inclusive Media project, Vinegar Hill Magazine and In My Humble Opinion talk show, to tell stories across platforms through media such as photo essays, audio recordings and videos
- help bridge the gap in trust between the media and community members, connect with and build a diverse audience
- highlight resources for low-wealth communities, including upcoming actions by legislative bodies or other organizations and ways to be empowered in policy-making
- write with communities in a way that is nuanced and collaborative
- convey complex policy matters to a broad audience without talking down to them
- be comfortable with stories where an antagonist isn’t always clear
- file about three reported stories per month for Charlottesville Tomorrow and the Charlottesville Inclusive Media Project
- be unafraid of saying what you don’t know and dive into learning
- have space to build the infrastructure needed to best serve the community
We recognize that no one person will have experience with every part of this position, which spans community organizing, media development and reporting. You might have some of these skills and bring other strengths and experiences. If this sounds like a job you could be passionate about, please apply.
This is a full-time, salaried position with annual compensation between $50,000 and $60,000. We offer full medical coverage, three weeks vacation, moving expenses and a phone stipend. To apply for this position, please email a cover letter and résumé, along with clips, to dhennicke@cvilletomorrow.org.
Our staff is working remotely due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but we will return to our newsroom when it is safe to fully reopen. We’re nestled near the junction of the Blue Ridge Parkway and Skyline Drive and about an hour from the state capitol, Richmond, and two hours from the ocean and Washington, D.C.
