Communities of Opportunity: Highlights from the All-Partner Convening Media Workshop
Partners and community media leaders gather before the event beside the Communities of Opportunity mission statement. (Photo: Omari Salisbury)
Communities of Opportunity's (COO) recent all-partner convening at Highline College featured an exciting community media workshop on Thursday, October 9, that successfully forged connections between community partners and media organizations, including Converge Media. The event provided a valuable one-on-one, low-pressure space for community groups to connect with journalists and discuss their story ideas, potential collaborations, and the general intention behind their work.
What is Communities of Opportunity?
The COO initiative is a community-based partnership housed within Public Health - Seattle & King County. The organization is a movement of partners dedicated to transforming systems and policies to create greater racial, economic, and health equity in King County.
Catherine Hinrichsen, the event’s key organizer and host, serves as the Communications, Recommendations, and Engagement Manager for Communities of Opportunity. With Hinrichsen's drive, COO works toward an equitable King County where everyone thrives regardless of race or place. The organization’s fundamental strategy is to support work that builds community power to drive structural changes towards equity and justice.
Founder of Converge Media Omari Salisbury talks with community partners. (Photo: Besa Gordon)
Creating a Low-Pressure Space for Engagement
The core goal of the workshop was to bring COO's community partners together with community media organizations. The design was deliberately a relaxing gathering where partners could talk about how to approach media with their story ideas and get input on how to get their voices heard.
The networking portion of the afternoon workshop was set up in a speed networking style, which encouraged conversation and relationship building. This approach was taken to remove the barrier often associated with asserting oneself into conversation with a panelist and to create a natural bridge for everyone.
The event also included a panel and speakers portion, which impressed Hinrichsen with the atmosphere among the journalists. "I was really taken by how much respect and camaraderie I saw from the speakers,” she said, stating that whether the speakers had worked together before or were meeting for the first time, “they felt like colleagues.”
Omari Salisbury speaks to the partners and community journalists to close out the event, including Catherine Hinrichsen (left). (Photo: Besa Gordon)
The Stellar Group of Community Media Participants
The workshop attracted a stellar group of 9 journalists participating” Among the key organizations present was Converge Media, represented by Omari Salisbury, Besa Gordon, and Mead Gill.
Other community journalists participating in the panel included Vee Hua of the International Examiner, Sabra Boyd of Real Chance News, Jaime Méndez and Cesar Canizales of Se Habla Media, and Renee Raketty and Calvin Emerson of Seattle Gay News.
Omari Salisbury holds the list of panelists and their headshots. (Photo: Omari Salisbury)
Stories Shared and Connections Made
The event was a clear success in generating meaningful action and new relationships. "I’ve already heard from several media organizations who wanted to follow up on some of the stories that they heard about from our partners,” Hinrichsen said.
Emphasizing the importance of community journalism, Hinrichsen compared the attending outlets with their larger counterparts. "Some of the larger media outlets can feel more like they're digging for something and it can be kind of scary,” she said. “Community media want the best outcomes for the organizations they're reporting on.”
Learn more about COO and other upcoming events at coopartnerships.org.
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