News Ambassadors enlists college-aged journalists to help local newsrooms fill gaps in coverage of underreported communities with rigorously reported stories that uplift solutions and common ground – and are responsive to the needs of local community members themselves.
SUGGESTION: Berwyn Collaborative: Understanding Community Needs
Following their community survey and a community listening event, Krippner and Posada-Jaramillo put together a shareable Information Ecosystem Assessment report to share their findings, which can help inform reporting by newsroom partners and student reporting fellows in the News Ambassadors/Illinois Latino News cohort.
Berwyn is a Chicago suburb with a strong Latine population but little local news coverage. One of the reasons for this lack of coverage may be that other populations (particularly traditional Latine neighborhoods like Little Village or Pilsen) tend to take the coverage spotlight.
The community engagement findings in Berwyn revealed a desire for enhanced reporting on public safety, health, school, and taxes/government spending.
When Berwyn residents were asked to select their top three primary news interests in a local news survey, 66% included public safety, 33% included health, 30% included schools, and 40% included taxes and government spending.
Asked about their top three preferred methods of receiving news, 85% of respondents mentioned social media, 37% mentioned friends and family, and 35% mentioned television broadcasts.
Around 56.5% of respondents said they were either somewhat dissatisfied or dissatisfied with current local news coverage, while only about 19% said they were somewhat satisfied or satisfied. The remaining 24.5% said they were neutral.
“Quantitative and qualitative data is helping us better understand the needs of the Hispanic, Latino community in Berwyn and shaping the stories we produce – from pitching story ideas to stories being published,” said Hugo Balta, publisher of Illinois Latino News and executive editor of the Fulcrum.
Last November, Krippner and Posada-Jaramillo co-hosted a Berwyn community listening session with newsroom partners at Berwyn’s Liberty Cultural Center. The agenda? To give attendees a chance to speak with journalists and each other about the specific local concerns and stories they want to see covered in local news.
Attendees revealed a desire for more transparency from their local government and for journalists to shine a light on how public policy decisions are made. Their concerns will help to inform reporters’ Solutions Journalism stories this spring. While some concerns were raised, attendees also pointed out that grassroots efforts like the organizing of green spaces, community-based farming practices, and gardening/nutritional education were becoming more prominent and that those efforts deserved news coverage as well.
“Politics isn’t everything for the Berwyn community,” said one survey respondent. “Many are taking action to help their neighbors and to create the neighborhood they wish to have. This isn’t a ‘wait and see what happens’ community.”
This cohort of journalists will pursue engagement stories this spring through the lens of Solutions Journalism. Solutions Journalism often focuses on pointing out specific challenges or injustices within a particular community and covering ongoing efforts to address those challenges or injustices.
This past fall, Krippner and Posada-Jaramillo trained in Solutions Journalism strategies with News Ambassadors. In early 2025, they were joined by Mariana Bermudez, and Britton Struthers in order to enlist in Solutions Journalism strategies in the Berwyn community. The Chicago cohort is also working alongside a cohort in Prairie View, Texas who are engaging in their community with the same solutions-based reporting strategies.
The idea of Solutions Journalism is that how people respond to problems is newsworthy and deserves attention, too. “Too often, news coverage focuses on problems without mentioning how people can respond or be resilient in the face of those challenges,” said director of News Ambassadors, Shia Levitt. Solutions Journalism is rigorous, evidence-based reporting in response to social problems. “When done well, Solutions Journalism can bring local communities tools they can use to address wide-facing local problems.”
Stories from this cohort of journalists will be published later this spring in audio, video, or written form.
To read the Berwyn Information Ecosystem Assessment, click HERE.
Editor’s Notes: News Ambassadors is funded in part by the Bridge Alliance Education Fund (BAEF). BAEF also sponsors the Fulcrum. Hugo Balta is the executive editor of the Fulcrum and a board member of the Bridge Alliance Education Fund. He is the publisher of the Latino News Network and a trainer with the Solutions Journalism Network. The articles produced by the Chicago cohort will selectively be published on Illinois Latino News, Latino News Network, and the Fulcrum.
U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during a“ Steel Across America” event ahead of the 25th anniversary of the Sept. 11th attacks on the Ellipse near the White House on Sept. 8, 2026 in Washington, D.C. President Trump welcomed 9/ 11 first responders to the Tunnel to Towers Foundation’ s“ Steel Across America” event featuring a 16,900- pound, 21- foot steel beam recovered.
For Trump, even 9/11 is an opportunity
There was a reason organizers of the 9/11 ceremony in Manhattan told President Trump he could not speak at this year’s memorial service.
A good one, it turns out.
Because in a speech he gave on Tuesday in Washington, he did exactly what they were presumably worried about — he made it about himself.
According to The New York Times, Trump had wanted a speaking role at the service, but the National Sept. 11 Memorial and Museum, which oversees the site, said no, as they’ve maintained for the past decade-plus that the venue and event should be nonpartisan.
Trump has long used awful tragedies to either puff himself up, trash political opponents, or sell lies to the American people.
He blamed a deadly plane crash at Washington National Airport last year on diversity, equity and inclusion policies. He blamed Puerto Ricans for the devastation they endured after Hurricane Maria in 2017. He reportedly considered withholding disaster relief after the California wildfires based on the way affected regions voted. In an interview on Fox News meant to commemorate the 75th anniversary of D-Day in Normandy, he used the occasion to slam former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi…with graves of the dead behind him.
And now, as we approach the 25th anniversary of what many New Yorkers consider the darkest day in modern history, Trump has done it again.
He told a rambling, nonsensical story — one he’s told before — about going to Ground Zero just after terrorists flew two commercial jets into the twin towers. In the story, which no one has been able to verify, despite multiple attempts, he says firefighters had to carry him out of One Liberty Plaza, also known as the U.S. Steel Building, because they thought it was about to collapse.
As CNN fact checker Daniel Dale notes, there’s no evidence Trump went into this building, especially at a time when NYPD and NYFD had locked down the area. There’s no evidence that building was collapsing — in fact, it was deemed structurally sound and reopened within two months of the attacks. There’s no evidence he was carried out of it by firefighters.
But the lie isn’t even the worst part. Pretend it was all true — why would the leader of our country, and a New Yorker, decide to make that tragic day about himself?
Because that’s who Donald Trump is. He’s a malignant narcissist.
He’s also, incidentally, a terrible and ineffectual president, who’s made ill-fated decisions that he has to keep defending, and there’s nothing he won’t do to make himself look and feel better.
Within the first two minutes of his speech, he was cravenly using 9/11 to justify and promote his dumb war in Iran — two events separated by 25 years and 6,000 miles.
“And I will tell you, we’re right now fighting because we have a certain nation that wanted a nuclear weapon, they were very close to getting it, and now they have no chance at getting it. They will never have a nuclear weapon. Iran will not have a nuclear weapon. And they’ve been punished greatly. As you know, we’ve really taken it to them.”
As a New Yorker who lived through 9/11, still one of the worst days of my life, I’m utterly sickened by Trump’s crass, political, and self-promotional framing of that awful day.
And I’m relieved he won’t be given a platform to do it again on Friday’s anniversary in lower Manhattan.
Because for Trump, everything is his for the taking, and absolutely nothing is sacred.
S.E. Cupp is the host of "S.E. Cupp Unfiltered" on CNN.