BridgeDetroit is a newsroom on a mission! Since 2020, we have been on a journey to hear Detroiters tell us what their top priorities are so that we can tailor our journalism to provide information, solutions, and accountability in accordance with those priorities. We continue to be in iterative conversations with residents about their Detroit experiences to inform the build out of our living Community Priorities Model. We’re happy to release our second progress report that you can access here. Detroit was faced with a series of challenges in 2021, whether it was the great flood or figuring out how to earmark an unprecedented amount of federal aid from the American Rescue Plan Act, this latest progress report is directly reflective of how residents are experiencing all of these changes and challenges in our city.
BridgeDetroit is developing a Community Priorities Model that will continually engage Detroiters to identify and prioritize the issues that challenge their understanding of and connection to vital civic information.
The Community Priorities Model will take in information from a number of sources (e.g., surveys, polling, publicly available data, social media) and refine it into a quarterly report that will guide the responsive work of BridgeDetroit’s journalists and influence the work of other local media organizations.
BridgeDetroit’s ongoing in-person and digital engagement activities with Detroiters will also be determined according to the results of the Community Priorities Model and the journalism it produces.
In the challenging circumstances surrounding Covid-19, BridgeDetroit has launched in advance of completing the work of the Community Priorities Model. To guide our work until the Community Priorities Model can be completed, we have turned to a list of “Community Critical Information Needs” developed by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) for a 2012 report. These eight categories encompass the information necessary for community members “to live safe and healthy lives; have full access to educational, employment, and business opportunities; and to fully participate in the civic and democratic lives of their communities should they choose.” The categories are: