If we are to make necessary changes as we face an uncertain future, it is crucial to share stories about what is and isn’t working now. Exchanging information is important; sharing our experiences is how people are wired to teach and learn. But many barriers exist, and communities aren’t always able to collect and tell their stories as they work to adapt to changing climate circumstances. Therefore, the CO2 Foundation is glad to be supporting KneeDeep Times, a leader in telling local and regional stories of resilience in ways that are relevant in the San Francisco Bay Area and beyond.

Over the next year, CO2 Foundation is supporting KneeDeep Times in two ways: to follow up on the ambitious Extremes-in-3D project that we supported last year and to expand the team to include community-based reporters who can find the stories that need to be told and tell them in formats that are accessible to their own and similar communities.

The followup pieces to the Extremes-in-3D special story series will include a single full length story within each of the five topic areas–Fire, Water, Heat, The Coast, and The Valley–and 6+ shorter followup stories. Two have already been completed: In Uncertain Times, the Port of Oakland Goes Electric and Slow Progress on Shade For California’s Hottest Desert Towns.

The second grant will support development of a more community-centric reporting network. In preparation for this phase of work, KneeDeep Times hosted a series of focus groups with diverse community organizers. They heard and synthesized the following advice for journalists working in their communities:

1. More coverage of community-based solutions and organizing. Coverage skews towards highlighting problems and deficits, without enough attention to what local people are doing about those problems. Covering efforts that are working, not just things that aren’t, will also result in a service journalism impact, in that more people will be made aware of services that they can access.
2. Reporters should be around for normal times too, not just when there’s a problem. Show face at community events and spend time in the community to understand the community more deeply, build trust with locals, and nurture a long-term relationship as opposed to parachuting in for a single story.
3. Contextualize environmental equity issues. Issues such as toxic contamination are always entangled in a bigger picture of other problems that also threaten local people’s lives. Even if a story focuses on a particular issue, it will hit home more if the story acknowledges the bigger picture and intersectionality of issues.
4. Poverty and housing affordability are environmental equity issues. Period.
5. Essential information in a crisis is needed. There are often gaps in the distribution of essential information from local counties during extreme weather events. There’s a need for more prompt, reliable, and accessible distribution of key information like where to shelter and get services during crises like extreme flooding.
6. Publish stories in more languages and use plain, easy-to-understand language. Publish in readers’ first languages when possible. Replace technical terms with straightforward explanations for maximum reach, especially to community members who may speak and read English as a second language.
7. Also use mediums that aren’t text-based, like video. This will increase access for people for whom reading text is less appealing or less accessible, such as people for whom English is a second language and those who may prefer primarily spoken rather than written formats.
8. Cover unincorporated and under-represented communities. Underrepresentation contributes to difficulty in attracting funding for solutions to local problems.
9. Aim for maximum transparency when reaching out to sources in the community. Explain the aim and direction of the article being written, and why the reporter would like to speak with that particular person or organization.
10. Utilize social platforms. Many residents get most of their information from social network platforms like Facebook or WhatsApp, rather than traditional newsrooms.
11. Provide local residents the information they need to get civically engaged. Many local residents want to have more say in decision-making at a local government level on environmental and equity issues, but aren’t sure where to start. Local news outlets can play a role in demystifying such processes and pointing people in the right direction to get involved.

As a result of these listening sessions, and with the help of the new grant, KneeDeep Times will be experimenting with some new formats for news delivery and storytelling. One format is a WhatsApp news story that is straightforward, brief and sent out in English and Spanish, giving the community better access to local news; readers can easily forward the blurb to their own contacts through WhatsApp. Another pilot for short form video and audio content is a a “2 Minute Shout Out” demo video based on a previous collaboration. This is the vanguard of a series of similar videos focusing on hyperlocal community stories which can be shared on YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, or even TikTok.

KneeDeep has an established history of working with young and emerging reporters, and plans to work with journalism students in community college to report and produce some of this new content. Details of the community reporting program will be developed in ongoing conversation with community partners. And the CO2 Foundation is behind this project all the way.