Growing Community Media was one of 48 Chicago area newsrooms which received a grant last week from a $425,000 COVID-19 Journalism Fund quickly assembled by six Chicago foundations to support reporting on the pandemic in their communities.
“We’re hopeful these grants will keep community advice alive in neighborhoods around Chicagoland during these difficult times,” said Andres Torres, Democracy program officer at the McCormick Foundation, the lead foundation in this effort.
Growing Community Media is a nonprofit which publishes Wednesday Journal of Oak Park and River Forest, the Austin Weekly News, Riverside-Brookfield Landmark and the Forest Park Review.
“We’re grateful for the $10,000 grant we received,” said Dan Haley, GCM publisher. “More than that we are appreciative that these six foundations saw the immediate need so many worthy independent Chicago newsrooms need in this moment.”
In addition to McCormick, funding came from the MacArthur Foundation, the Chicago Community Trust, the Driehaus Foundation, the Polk Bros. Foundation and the Field Foundation.
