Community representative, Robert Stone (left) and The Beacon reporter, Josh Merchant (right) at the end of year CJL recap celebration with community manager, Estrella Gonzalez (middle).
Community representative, Robert Stone (left) and The Beacon reporter, Josh Merchant (right) at the end of year CJL recap celebration with community manager, Estrella Gonzalez (middle).

The Beacon started a new strategy in 2024 with the Community Journalism Lab, CJL. We learned what worked, what didn’t and where we plan to go in 2025. That included the possibility of building partnerships with local journalism schools. 

We focused more on hearing more from organizations and community members through various forms of listening sessions. We also heard directly from our community, shedding a light on systemic issues through our story idea tip line. The community voice has helped shape our news coverage and provide information and answers that matter most to you all.

Our community manager, Estrella Gonzalez, hosted 13 community listening sessions, including panel discussions and private sessions with various organizations in our community working to make the KC metro a better place. 

We learned that listening sessions based on topics our reporters wrote with guest panels work best. Two examples were our traffic listening session that followed Josh Merchant’s traffic series and our homeless shelter listening Session that followed  Mili Mansaray’s stories about low-barrier shelters. 

We also learned that meeting with local organizations and their key partners helped us learn more about the work they do and how local news can best serve them and their communities. Some examples are when we met with KC Care and New House. 

Our CJL representatives hosted six listening sessions. Eden Barnes, who was a student at Kansas City Kansas Community College and now attends the University of Missouri-Kansas City, hosted five sessions mostly focused on students and Black communities in partnership with an organization, Fringe Benefits of Education. Danny Soriano held a listening session with a panel made up of a real estate agent, a broker, mortgage loan officer, an owner of Better Builders Co. and an urban development contractor. They spoke about current housing mortgage rates and rent and what’s projected for the future in the metro but more closely in the Historic Northeast neighborhood. When it comes to other underserved communities, Ivan Ramírez met with queer youth to talk about how the local government and health affects them.

Community by the numbers

Community listening sessions including those from our representatives

  • 20 total community sessions
    • Health — 7
    • Local Government — 6
    • MO/KS State Government — 2
    • Education — 2
    • Housing/Labor — 3

We heard from our community members who trusted us with 450 of their story ideas. Some of those helped generate stories from our reporters. Some of those were about loss of local pharmacies, safety-net clinics and urban planning on the Riverfront. 

We hope that next year our CJL will be even more involved with our community and help in making those voices heard through partnerships and collaboration.

Estrella Gonzalez is The Beacon’s community engagement manager who works with the news organization’s community engagement representatives and directs its Community Journalism Lab. She directs The...