Mshale is pleased to announce that it’s one of 13 local news organizations that will share $520,000 in grants from Press Forward Minnesota to help boost coverage of their communities.
“We are incredibly excited to support these outstanding organizations that are vital to the health and well-being of their communities,” said May Yang, senior manager of policy and partnerships at the Minnesota Council on Foundations, who serves as the staff lead for Press Forward Minnesota. “These grants will help them expand their reach, innovate their reporting, and better serve their audiences.”
Press Forward Minnesota is a collaborative initiative by foundations dedicated to supporting local news and information across the state. The purpose of the grants is to support smaller news organizations that provide hyperlocal, original reporting to communities across the state, with a focus on meeting the needs of communities of color, linguistically diverse communities, low-wealth rural communities, and others not adequately served, reached, or represented, according to the organization.
Tim Murphy, program officer at the McKnight Foundation, said his organization was thrilled to see 13 innovative newsrooms from across the state included in the first round of Press Forward Minnesota funding.
“These organizations are providing a vital service, helping to inform and connect diverse communities that have been affected by the local news crisis,” Murphy said. “At the same time, we know local journalism needs more support from more funders, businesses, and readers alike, to match the scale of the challenge.
The generous grant comes at a time when efforts to expand opportunities to historically underserved communities have increasingly come under siege in the United States. On Tuesday President Donald J. Trump signed an executive order placing all federal employees working on diversity, equity, and inclusion on paid leave pending termination. Many minority-owned small businesses and organizations, including newsrooms, will surely miss out on federal dollars geared towards leveling the playing field, and initiatives like Press Forward Minnesota will be extremely critical to underprivileged communities.
For its share of $40,000 of the Press Forward Minnesota grant, Mshale will work in collaboration with Minnesota Compass, a project of Wilder Research, that uses data-driven community indicators to measures wellbeing in Minnesota and its communities, to produce data-based stories to increase understanding of how various policies affect the African immigrants. African immigrants are the fastest growing demographic in the state. From 2010 to 2021, the population of people born in Africa increased by around 47,000 — a whopping 76.5% — to about 108,000, according to Minnesota Employment and Economic Development.
“Minnesota Compass recognizes that telling the stories behind the date we share is essential to seeing the whole picture,” said Project Director Allison Liuzzi. “Minnesota itself is a case study in the importance of digging below the surface on quality-of-life measurements. At the state level, we commonly perform quite well on quality-of-life measures but remain home on some of the largest disparities by race and ethnicity in the nation.
Tom Gitaa, Mshale publisher and founder, said he was happy that the Press Forward grant is one of the few of its kind open to for-profit newsrooms like his.
“Since our founding we have endeavored to cover stories in our African communities that mainstream media get wrong or choose to ignore entirely,” he said, “This grant will definitely help us narrow that coverage gap.”
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About Edwin Okong'o - Mshale Contributing Editor
Edwin Okong'o is a Mshale Contributing Editor. Formerly he was the newspaper's editor.
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