Awarded Grants

The 2020 Community Voices grant will support a collaboration between 215 People's Alliance, Reclaim Philadelphia, Free Press, and Movement Alliance Project to strengthen and expand information networks that were created in response to the COVID-19 crisis. Using innovative outreach and organizing tactics to meet information needs, the group's project will lift up stories of disconnected and disaffected Philadelphians, and support Black dignity, where systemic barriers to timely, quality information have left city residents in the dark during a public health emergency.

The 2020 Community Voices grant will support continued production of “Places of Power” an immersive Virtual Reality (VR) documentary and web-based app inviting viewers to experience disinvested neighborhoods in Philadelphia anew, as a tapestry of knowledge, healing, and civic leadership. The project will feature and engage community residents in immersive media using virtual reality. It will explore themes related to the unseen power held by longtime residents and spaces in a neighborhood.

The 2020 Community Voices grant will support ongoing production of COVID Stories – A Digital Memoir From The Pandemic, a community storytelling project that documents this critical time in our history.

The 2020 Community Voices grant will support the creation of a social justice theatre piece about educators' and students' visions for educational transformation in Philadelphia. Stories will be collected via story circles that document the beliefs and experiences of students and educators about the dehumanization of the education system. Using storytelling and theater as a cultural strategy, Teacher Action Group and Philadelphia Student Union will propel the movement to rid schools of policing, cultivate intergenerational solidarity, and amplify the need for systemic change in education.

The 2020 Community Voices grant will support the restructuring and expansion of the Kensington Voice staff to better serve underrepresented and vulnerable people, improve news and information accessibility, increase audience and community engagement, highlight and encourage neighborhood resilience, and develop a team of BIPOC journalists.

The 2020 Community Voices grant will support the disParities Media Project, a pilot media-making project that exposes the structural inequities affecting families with children in Norristown and Pottstown, where over 50% of the residents are Black and Brown. In partnership with ACLAMO and The Urban League, Children First will amplify the stories and lived experiences of these communities in search of justice and change.

The 2020 Community Voices grant will support a collaboration between 215 People's Alliance, Reclaim Philadelphia, Free Press, and Movement Alliance Project to strengthen and expand information networks that were created in response to the COVID-19 crisis. Using innovative outreach and organizing tactics to meet information needs, the group's project will lift up stories of disconnected and disaffected Philadelphians, and support Black dignity, where systemic barriers to timely, quality information have left city residents in the dark during a public health emergency.

The 2020 Community Voices grant will support the creation of a social justice theatre piece about educators' and students' visions for educational transformation in Philadelphia. Stories will be collected via story circles that document the beliefs and experiences of students and educators about the dehumanization of the education system. Using storytelling and theater as a cultural strategy, Teacher Action Group and Philadelphia Student Union will propel the movement to rid schools of policing, cultivate intergenerational solidarity, and amplify the need for systemic change in education.

The 2020 Community Voices grant will support the production of "Audio Olney," a monthly podcast featuring diverse Olney community leaders, residents and artists and designed to address arts & culture and local issues. The podcast will reflect Olney Culture Lab's mission of showcasing the diverse cultural expressions in Olney, strengthening community networks, and building social capital.

Via the 2020 Community Voice grant, PhillyCAM will offer a virtual Latinx Multimedia Reporting Fellowship in Fall 2020 to train 12 Latinx producers in multimedia reporting skills and build stronger bridges for content distribution and collaborative production among the expanding network of new initiatives supporting and amplifying local Latinx stories and information. During the Fellowship participants will work in teams to produce stories for distribution on PhillyCAM television, radio, online and on other local Spanish language platforms. The opportunity will be available to emerging journalists and community media producers looking to sharpen their skills or explore a new medium.