Get involved in community-powered journalism.
About the
Journalism Fellowship
The Canopy Atlanta Community Journalism Fellowship is open to all community members within our coverage areas (including former residents) with an interest in community journalism or journalism-adjacent storytelling (either through personal projects, previous training/coursework, community work, volunteering, internships, etc.). Previous journalistic work is not required. All we ask is that applicants are curious, committed, and collaborative; are research-oriented; and have an interest in telling their community’s story collectively.
Expectations
For up to 10 weeks, fellows are expected to contribute up to 10 hours of their time weekly under a hybrid remote/in-person scheduling arrangement. You will be paid for this work. Twice a week, you’ll be expected to meet virtually for two hours for training. The rest will be remote, just as most reporters do, covering an assignment. Along with engagement within the Canopy Atlanta reporting ecosystem, fellows should expect pre-work, homework, on-the-ground reporting, supplementary readings, and workshops.
Outcomes
The fellowship is a unique opportunity to develop reporting, writing, and research skills for print and digital platforms. Fellows will train alongside journalists and receive guidance from a Community Editorial Board. Fellows will complete the fellowship with tools to navigate community work, improved research and reporting skills, publishable text or other types of media and a deep understanding of the coverage areas as a foundation for sustained engagement.
engage, learn and develop journalism skills.
Hear From a Fellow
For Fellow Destinee Marbley, Canopy Atlanta was an open door to journalism. She first joined as a Fellow, producing stories on the booming holistic health trend in Lakewood Heights and the late Yolanda Owens, who inspired Marbley’s own journey in wellness. She later contributed reporting to the Canopy Atlanta documentary Grounds For Change.
Today Marbley participates in the Documenters Program, a paid journalism program that trains new journalists to cover neighborhood and municipal government meetings.
About the Reporting Residency
The Canopy Atlanta Reporting Residency is a 12-month paid program for Canopy Atlanta Fellows and experienced Atlanta Documenters to further develop their investigative and storytelling skills. Residents will advise on Canopy’s Community Journalism Fellowship program and receive weekly training sessions to complete a reporting project that deepens Canopy’s Metro Atlanta coverage.
Eligibility
The Reporting Residency is open to those who’ve completed the Canopy Atlanta Community Journalism Fellowship and/or participated in the Atlanta Documenters program. To learn more about the Residency, Fellowship, and other ways to get involved in CA’s coverage, email Training Director Kamille Whittaker at kamille@canopyatlanta.org.
2022-23 Reporting Residency
Bankhead Senior Fellow Ann Hill Bond is Canopy Atlanta’s inaugural Resident.
Over the next year, Hill Bond proposed to spend 10 weeks each in West End, Forest Park, Bankhead, South DeKalb, and Lakewood Heights. Her reporting will not only follow up on previous community listening from these areas, but show the connectivity between these communities through five focus areas: religion, food access, international affairs, history, and social justice.
Meet the Fellows
Meet the Faculty
Frequently Asked Questions
We evaluate Fellowship candidates based on a strong demonstrated connection to the neighborhood Canopy Atlanta is working in. This means you’re either already plugged in to the rhythms and essence of a community, or you’re committed to deepening your existing connection even well beyond the Fellowship. If you missed the Fellowship for your area, we have paid opportunities for training through our Documenters program.
No! The Journalism Fellowship is designed for community members of all backgrounds and experience who want to sharpen their storytelling skills, be more civically engaged, and are deeply committed to telling the stories of their communities alongside their neighbors. All we ask is that you be curious and trust the process.
We customize the Fellowship to meet your storytelling affinities. Do you want to start a podcast? Or maybe try your hand at photojournalism? We’ll make sure you get the support and mentorship you need to use journalism as a tool for building community.
Canopy Atlanta’s Fellowships are paid—you are compensated for every bit of your time and effort. The compensation for each cohort depends on the length of the Fellowship and the complexity of the reporting process, but most of our Fellowships start at $25 an hour.
Once a Fellow, you can expect to commit to roughly 10 weeks at 10 hours a week learning through weekly workshops, reporting out your stories and working closely with journalism mentors, editors, and factcheckers. Some weeks will be more intense than others.