Change Agents Journalism Lab | listen to S4 now

Change Agents is an audio series revealing the power of community-driven activism told by those in the fight. 

In our program, truthful and authentic stories on community change agents are reported by emerging journalists working within BIPOC and underserved communities throughout Chicago and the Midwest that challenge societal and media biases.

Change Agents is an independent journalism lab and empowerment engine, operating as a program of Reparations Media. The program maintains a focused goal: training emergent journalists from BIPOC and marginalized communities, collaborating in a mentored and authentic newsroom environment, to create first-hand narrative content shared with the public through its online media channels.

Our team reports on authentic stories of community activists and organizations working toward social justice to a broad and diverse audience, cultivating a class of innovative journalists skilled in finding and reporting on grassroot solution models.

The impact is three-fold

  • Equipping emerging journalists with new tools, leaving them primed to help reshape conventional journalism into a more equitable model.
  • Providing community leaders the opportunity to learn media and storytelling skills, be heard and their stories authentically heard and extend their organizing capabilities to community organizers and collaborators.
  • Distributing community-driven narratives across multiple media platforms and through community engagement events, inspiring civic engagement and empowerment while disrupting biases and negative stereotypes to audiences beyond the directly impacted community.

Executive Producers

Judith McCray
Judith McCray

is an award winning documentary filmmaker, broadcast journalist and producer. Twenty three years ago she founded Juneteenth Productions to find and tell stories from the perspective and experiences of people who matter, whom we hear too little about or from. She passionately believes that media is an effective tool for positive social change and reaching people and communities that are underrepresented. She loves sailing and horseback riding - but rarely gets to do either.

Maurice Bisaillon
Maurice Bisaillon

is a media producer with more than 20 years of broadcast production experience, working with A&E, History Channel, Discovery Channel, PBS and more. His A&E Biography on Barack Obama is the most widely viewed episode in the history of the franchise. He’s a recent transplant to Chicago and has thoroughly lost his mind trying to furnish his apartment through Facebook Marketplace.

Funding provided by the Chicago Community Trust, Chicago Racial Justice Pooled Fund, Field Foundation, John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, Press Forward Chicago, and the Wayfarer Foundation. 

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Contact

If you have a story idea or know of activists organizations working to bring solutions to the needs of a Chicago-land community of color, please send us a message.

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