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This month marks a season of change for the Charlotte Journalism Collaborative. Longtime Director Chris Rudisill is wrapping up his time leading the initiative, based at Queens University, and just announced his successor, Shardae Brown along with Charlotte Documenters Program Manager Sana Silvera-Roy.
Chris is a longtime friend and collaborator of NC Local and we’ve been fortunate to work alongside him on numerous projects: from sessions at the annual NC News & Information Summit, to a collaborative WNC Housing Guide during Helene to an upcoming journalism storytelling event, Voces de Charlotte, on 10/1.
This week, we chat with Chris about the evolution of CJC, how partners embraced collaboration and made it part of the local ecosystem’s DNA, and what he’s looking forward to at this next stage of the organization. Our conversation has been edited for length.
You’ve accomplished so much during your time leading the Charlotte Journalism Collaborative. What's been particularly memorable or effective?
Chris Rudisill: There's so much I can point to within the Collaborative of things that we've done, and just how local journalism happens in Charlotte has changed because of the CJC. The really memorable ones that really stick out to me include the graphic novel project that we did during COVID. It showcased how newsrooms and community partners can really work together to address community information needs at a time of crisis. Looking back, I don't know if we still feel like that time was a time of crisis, but I think in the heart of it, people were searching for information and they didn't know where to look. We looked at that problem and decided that as a Collaborative, we could be creative on how we distributed information in new and different ways. It didn't take away from other news that was happening. If anything, it just made it all stronger and made our connection with the community look a bit different.
How did you see partners come together during that time?
Chris Rudisill: I saw reporters working across newsrooms because of the partnerships they'd created in the Collaborative. I saw reporters doing interviews together, so we were able to get information from officials quicker. That also saved the officials time because we were doing one interview for six outlets versus six separate interview requests. I saw this cohesion happen among newsrooms and where our community partners were also playing a part too, and I was really amazed by the creativity and courage that came from everyone, and how to address the needs of our community.
CJC is also known for the annual Local News Impact Summit. How has that evolved?
Chris Rudisill: The first year we were bringing reporters together, bringing community leaders together into a space to talk about solutions to affordable housing, and while it was effective, I think we improved on it the second year where we centered the nonprofit leaders in affordable housing at the beginning of the event. We had them asking questions, and then we turned around and asked questions about how can local news serve you better? What are we doing well? And where can we improve? Those were the questions we started asking during each Summit. And as it's continued to evolve, we've gotten more people in the room.
The Summit really helped define our role as a convener beyond the news, so we're producing the news, but then what's next? How do we then go back to the community and ask what's working? Ask what's not working? How do we turn these stories into larger conversations? How do we bring more people into the same room so that we can workshop solutions in an effective way, that's not one-sided, but that is collaborative in nature as well. By bringing more people to the table.
How do you think CJC has helped shape conversations in Charlotte around a lot of these key issues, whether that's COVID, housing, or the Shifting Ground initiative about the impact of federal policy and funding changes?
Chris Rudisill: It goes back to the power of the number of partners, in a way. When we look at our affordable housing coverage, together we did over 300 stories, and a lot of those stories were shared across partners. So you're reaching more than one audience through the work we're doing as a collaborative. The Charlotte Observer may do a story, but then are we sharing that story with Qnotes audience and Q City Metro's audience and vice versa? Those aren't just happening from the big partners down, they're happening from the small partners up. So, we're increasing capacity of who these stories are reaching, but there's also this power when we coordinate the release of a series, like Solutions City, and we're coordinating this around six newsrooms, and then following it up with a community listening event, or following it up with sessions at the Summit, or a program at the library. We're connecting all of these dots using Queens University student reporters to do additional reporting or support a project. We're broadening the reach, and at the same time, with the connection to our community partners, we're also bridging that divide between the reporter and the resident. Together those things are expanding the focus on any given issue across the community, and also connecting it in a stronger way to the people that we're serving.
I'm sure you have learned so much over the last six years. What are some of the lessons of leading a collaborative like this?
Chris Rudisill: First off, I think as a leader, I've learned to see myself as a facilitator as well. This is about collaboration, and it's about the decisions that the partners are making together. And part of my role is making the space for those things to happen. I'm not the executive director of a corporation where I'm making decisions unilaterally. It is really helping to provide and facilitate a space where these newsrooms can really shine, where reporters can shine, where community partners can work alongside, and then they are finding ways to collaborate and work together. That's really important for any leader of a collaborative. The other thing is the work. It's ebbs and flows. It's understanding the ebbs and flows of a collaborative. Newsrooms are busy. Community partners are busy. Everybody is busy. That doesn't change, and those things don't need to change. There are daily news stories that need to be covered by our newsrooms, and that's not the role of the collaborative. So sometimes when we get to the finish line of a project, there's this ebbing effect that happens where the excitement kind of drops, and it's learning how to bring the collaborative back, re-energizing folks around the next project or how do we take this next step forward.
With CJC, we have biweekly meetings to check in virtually and we make space for collaboration to constantly happen. But we also have two in-person half-day meetings a year where we're getting partners together in a room, separated from the day to day, and asking, "Are we reaching the goals that we set out to reach? Do we need to change what we're doing? Do we need to adapt what we're doing? Do we need to find a new topic? Do we need to focus on something else?” Those things are really important too, just to keep that energy alive and the collaboration continuing,
You just announced your successor, Shardae Brown. Tell us a little bit about why you're excited that she's stepping into this role.
Chris Rudisill: First off, Shardae comes from a really strong background of storytelling and community engagement work not to mention her extensive experience in project management. But what I think most excites me is her commitment to the power of people's stories, and I think that is such an important part of what the CJC is, and of what our news community is. She's thinking strategically about not just what's coming next, but what's after that. And I love the excitement that she has in seeing not only what the CJC has done to date, but what the CJC is capable of doing in the future. Together with our inaugural Charlotte Documenters Program Manager Sana Silvera-Roy, I'm just excited to see what they create that I never thought of. Now they can continue to grow this program and grow the local community support for this work.
You’ve been working for a couple years to get Documenters up and running in Charlotte. What will this initiative bring to the Queen City?
Chris Rudisill: Yes, I've wanted to get Documenters here for a long time. Charles Thomas from Knight Foundation also has been wanting to get this here for a long time. Two and a half years ago, we came together and I presented a proposal of what this might look like and how much it would cost and how we could do this. It's been on our radar for a long time, and we also knew that it needed the ability to hire a full-time program manager to make it happen. So we're so excited that we have the support from Knight and other local foundations, and we're still raising money to support this. That's important. So if people want to see this stay, we need all the support we can get.
Charlotte's community is primed for a program like this. I think our residents want to have a voice. I think our residents want to take part in local government and want to understand and be participatory. And at the heart of Documenters is participatory journalism, participatory local government. We're teaching residents how decisions get made in the city, and in doing so, we're also building capacity for how information from those meetings flows back to their neighbors, and building capacity around newsrooms that may not have the the bandwidth to go out and cover all of the local meetings. Charlotte Documenters is a program that empowers residents to be part of this community news and information ecosystem, and equips them on how to navigate our neighborhoods and the decision making.
So I'm just super excited that it's taking off. We launched officially in May with our first orientation. Nearly 50 people signed up already. Over 22 documenters have been trained through our training program and are ready to take on assignments. We're already doing two to three assignments a week and reporting from those community Documenters, so I'm excited to see where Sana takes this and how it continues to grow through additional partnerships with the Charlotte Mecklenburg Library, where we're hosting a lot of these orientations with our partners at United Way around recruitment and our funding partners that will help this grow, not just in Charlotte, but in the counties surrounding Charlotte, and then from that, hopefully, serve as a model for other areas of North Carolina.
How has your work in Charlotte shaped you and what will you take with you to Ohio, where you’re beginning a new chapter with your husband and your behavioral health company, Natura Behavioral Health?
Chris Rudisill: Well, first off, I'm a North Carolinian from the beginning. I will always be a North Carolinian. I was born here and am a proud North Carolinian from birth. Coming home in 2019 and then doing this work for CJC has given me a new appreciation for my home. What I hope to take with me is the North Carolina spirit of storytelling and how we connect. I think that's been a tie that I've seen in my career thus far, and I see this next step as just another place where I'm going to take those things. I'm a huge behavioral health, mental health advocate, and am really excited to do this work alongside my husband in Ohio, and bring more behavioral health to communities that need it. But in doing so, I hope to continue to do storytelling and continue to do work around that connects mental health with community and connects mental health with stories. How do we make change through those two things? That can be really powerful. And then I'll be back to North Carolina on regular occasions to see family. I’ll always consider this my home.
Thank you Chris for all your contributions to the NC news and information ecosystem! We will miss you but also know you'll stay connected (and be back!). And welcome Shardae & Sana - we are so excited to work with you! |
