Elevating Diverse Media Voices to Strengthen Communities

Community media groups are vital to the people and places they serve. Whether it’s a treasured legacy newspaper or a weekly podcast, such outlets use their passion, creativity, and deep community knowledge to provide residents with the information they need to make positive local change. Over time, this collective power puts communities in a better position to prosper.

In 2020, the Trust created the Media Makers Network to support media groups working alongside disinvested communities to create content that reflects their needs and priorities. 

Media Makers benefits from a strategic collaboration between the Trust and the Field Foundation’s Media and Storytelling program. As emerging media groups are funded by Field, they become prospects for larger Media Makers grants from the Trust. It’s a unique partnership that allows the Trust and Field to leverage each other’s strengths while pursuing one of their common goals: a more diverse media ecosystem that lays the foundation for a more equitable Chicago region. 

“Like the Field Foundation, the Trust has the wellbeing of Chicago at its heart. Not just Chicago’s media centers, but Chicago’s overall wellbeing in all its communities.”

MARK MURRAY
CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER
THE FIELD FOUNDATION

Spotlight on Cicero Independiente 

Media Makers grant recipient Cicero Independiente is a bilingual news outlet serving residents of Cicero, a West Cook County suburb whose population is over 80 percent Latinx. Founded in 2019, Cicero Independiente brings people from diverse media backgrounds together to co-create investigative reports and other news content that is useful and necessary to the community. “They are a group of credible journalists providing information in a news desert that has been historically overlooked and marginalized by mainstream outlets,” says Lolly Bowean, who formerly managed the Field Foundation’s Media and Storytelling portfolio. 

Funding from the Field Foundation and the Trust has helped Cicero Independiente grow from being completely volunteer-run to having two full-time staff as well as other paid opportunities. 

“At the core of our work is creating connections between people and making sure they feel they belong here and can get involved to make Cicero better for themselves and their families. Our role is using journalism to be agents of change in our community.“

IRENE ROMULO
CO-FOUNDER
CICERO INDEPENDIENTE