The ACJ is working hard to make Boston’s neighborhoods even more coherent and democratic by giving neighbors more tools for communication. We support locally-owned independent neighborhood newspapers through technological assistance and work towards giving neighborhood groups and residents greater access to media resources through education and interactive citizen journalism on the web.

Workshops and classes developed and supported by the ACJ will help create new generations of responsible journalists from the bottom up. We teach journalism as a craft that can be mastered by people from all walks of life, all income levels, regardless of race, sex, or sexual orientation. We strive to provide an alternative path to reporting that is infinitely more affordable than acquiring a journalism degree.

The Alliance is building web-based media outlets in cooperation with locally owned and operated traditional news outlets that will give entire neighborhoods the ability to report on themselves. Professional editors and fact-checkers will help ensure that credible information is communicated, and crucial facts are not ignored.

Through all of these efforts, the ACJ hopes to create a new media hybrid, that allows citizen journalists and professional journalists to co-exist and even thrive off of each other’s unique abilities and perspectives. Such a creation has the potential to encourage civic involvement and empower communities to direct their own future.