Welcome to The Trace’s local reporting initiative. We are starting in Philadelphia and Chicago, two cities that bear a disproportionate burden of the country’s gun violence epidemic.
Our goal is not only to fill information gaps, but also to make our reporting democratic by including residents most affected by gun violence in every step of the process. We are people-powered and accountability focused, which means we use what we learn through our engagement journalism to fuel our investigations. We are thinking creatively about ensuring those who can most benefit from our journalism can access it. We aim to enhance coverage, not to compete with the existing media landscape. In many cases, we’ll share our stories, free of charge, with publications that want to run them.
We hope you’ll get involved by meeting with our staff or filling out one of our surveys. Beyond our two bureaus, we are actively working with newsrooms across the country to share stories, ideas, and expertise.
— Joy Resmovits, senior editor for local impact
