Mother and daughter community journalist team, Amina and Hafsa Rahman, have been soliciting input regarding what stories need to be told from the Muslim community. People listening to this J-Corps Audio Journal have asked the Rahmans for more about the project. Editor Priyanka Deo reflects on their progress.
Amina Rahman: I've been excited to get feedback from people. They've heard us on the radio. They're asking questions about the J-Corps program and what it's about. What is our report going to be about?
Hafsa Rahman: Someone at my school had asked if it was me on the radio, then I explained what we're doing and like how it came about.
I was talking about the grant and one of my teachers asked me, "Oh, is the grant going to be affected by the decrease in funding for diversity and equity?" I assumed it was already done, transferred. I wasn't sure about that and that was just an interesting idea that I didn't really think about with the current things going on.
I've also heard a lot of good things from friends of mine saying they are excited to see what we make and do with everything.
Amina Rahman: Priyanka and I got to chat. it was nice to get an idea of where we can get feedback, what kind of expertise she brings to the table, so that we can expect to get that kind of feedback and that kind of training to do this work.
It's still a little bit intimidating for us, we're still learning the ropes. To go back to what Hafsa said, when she brought up DEI. It was interesting because, in my head, I remember when we met with the folks (Healing Illinois and the other project participants) in Chicago and they had mentioned that the funding was fully done. It's already in the bank. I didn't understand why that was such an issue. Then I realized for a lot of people, they have to plan ahead for these things and organizing it. This change in what's happening at the federal government level impacts a lot of things lately in our community as well.
It's come up, people have been talking about it. You have a lot of state employees and maybe some of them overlap with federal employees as well. They talked about those emails that they got. It's something that even comes up within the community relating to the federal government, how do we represent different groups within the community?
Among Muslims, I think there's 80 different ethnicities or nationalities represented. There's got to be at least 20 to 30 different community groups, ethnicity wise. Then we also have incoming new members who are not from traditional Muslim cultures. It's interesting to explore that aspect of the community too, and make sure that their voice is reflected in our reporting as well.
Priyanka Deo: Both ladies are doing a fantastic job. I got training in journalism school and I'm so happy that people are listening. We see the impact of citizen journalism. We see the impact of local journalism. You get people to listen and then you build on it. We did get to chat and I can't wait to meet in person.
It's a matter of telling these stories in a very effective way that will resonate, not just with the Muslim community, not just with minority communities, but with everyone. I'm overjoyed about that. Three weeks in, we're already getting some impact. I have no doubt these two ladies are going to be famous by the end of this project.
We're on our way. My job really comes in with the editing and the expertise. I'm happy to help these ladies because their message is important. What they're trying to do, this grant, the initiative and the impact that it has is very important. Step by step, slowly but surely, we're getting there; and I'm excited.
You can provide feedback and suggestions for their series by emailing engage@nprillinois.org.
In our LISTEN sessions last year, we asked for volunteers to continue to report on their communities. A grant gives us the opportunity to provide two of aspiring community journalists with training and professional editing. It also helps us better understand our neighbors.
Follow along each Friday through May with this J-Corps Audio Journal.
Press Forward Springfield is awarding its first project grants. NPR Illinois along with the Illinois Times and Capitol News Illinois are each receiving funding to report on different untold stories in our community. The three reporting projects will be posted in May.
Community Foundation for the Land of Lincoln in collaboration with the Field Foundation and the Illinois Department of Human Services are leading this project as part of their Healing Illinois program.
NPR Illinois is using the grant to test its vision for community reporting and journalism training — the Journalism Corps or "J-Corps."
