Community Behavioral Health Journalist

Kensington Voice is a community hub and newsroom serving North Philly’s Fairhill, Kensington, Harrowgate, and Norris Square neighborhoods. We pair direct, on-site service with journalism to effect system-wide change at the individual, relational, community, and societal levels. Through this model, we aim to decrease emotional pain and social isolation and increase community cohesion and social power in communities suffering from a complex history of and current disinvestment.

With this Policy Meets Practice Grant, the Kensington Voice staff will work under the supervision of a community behavioral health journalist to increase awareness of mental health resources and decrease the stigma associated with utilizing them. We will do this through community engagement, peer-led workshops, and solutions journalism. Our work will focus on mental health conditions related to chronic stress and trauma, such as anxiety, depression, and PTSD. This work will include centering – but not limiting ourselves to – health outcomes associated with adverse childhood experiences (ACES).

Over 12 months, our CBH journalist will lead our staff through publishing 18 articles and personal essays grounded in an ecological understanding of behavioral and physical health and other health promotion frameworks. All our published work will be available in print and online, in English and Spanish. We will also facilitate six in-person storytelling events tailored to specific at-risk populations.