From Creative Director Floyd Hall

CANOPY ATLANTA’S MISSION IS to equip metro Atlanta residents to tell stories about the issues their communities care about most. We help residents access information about their communities, and tell and share stories that truly reflect their priorities.

In its first two years, Canopy Atlanta has published issues highlighting three communities—West End, Forest Park and Bankhead/Grove Park—and before that, piloted the concept in the Pittsburgh neighborhood of the city of Atlanta. We talked to more than 200 community members about the stories they would like to see and trained 15 community members in journalism as Fellows to learn and report alongside more experienced journalists.

As we look ahead to our next chapter, Canopy Atlanta is pleased to announce the 2022-2023 Community Issues, which will focus on South Dekalb, Norcross, and Lakewood Heights!

The Lakewood Heights neighborhood in City of Atlanta represents the smallest population that we’ve worked with, but provides an opportunity to use this neighborhood as a catalyst for how we might learn and investigate a larger South Atlanta ecosystem; South Dekalb—in particular the neighborhoods of Gresham Park, Candler-McAfee, and Panthersville—is an unincorporated area with a unique identity and will give our readers a first look at Dekalb County; Norcross is a standalone city in Gwinnett County that provides our first experience covering a north metro Atlanta municipality.

We selected these areas through a process that ranked each community on civic engagement, existing news coverage, cultural demographics, and economic indicators, and we are excited about the ways in which covering these three areas will help us further understand the nature of Metro Atlanta’s communities. In our first few issues we have learned that a strong sense of “community” can come in a variety of shapes and footprints, and Lakewood Heights, Norcross, and South Dekalb truly reflect that.

Over the coming weeks we’ll be sharing more about these three upcoming issues, so be on the lookout for more opportunities to get involved in the Canopy Atlanta process and please share the word!

OUR MOST RECENT ISSUE

If you want to suggest topics we should cover or people we should talk to in South DeKalb, or if you would like to be involved in the issue,

email us at hello@canopyatlanta.org.