As a national civic media lab based in Chicago, City Bureau builds people-powered journalism that equips communities with the information, tools, and resources they need to navigate their lives, shape their futures, and cultivate a more just and participatory democracy. Our core programs—including Public Newsrooms, Civic Reporting Fellowship, and Documenters Network—activate residents to gather, share, and act on information about the issues that affect their lives, from housing and public health to public safety and local governance.
Since launching as an all-volunteer organization in 2016, City Bureau has always been focused on a bold vision for structural change: reimagining journalism as an accessible civic act and a shared practice for building community power. Across Chicago and in communities nationwide, residents are documenting thousands of public meetings, investigating systemic failures, publishing practical guides, and convening neighbors to turn dialogue into action.
The people at the heart of our media movement are the greatest expression of our impact. Locally and nationally, people are making change in their communities and demonstrating the transformative power of civic media. Our reporting has informed policy change at the city and state level, strengthened public accountability, supported new community resources, and earned national recognition. Most importantly, it has equipped thousands of people to participate more fully in civic life.
Here’s a look at some of our inspiring impact stories over the years!
Civic Reporting Fellowship: Shaping the Future of Community Journalism
Before she was named a MacArthur “genius grant" recipient in 2025, Tonika Lewis Johnson was a City Bureau Fall 2017 Photojournalism Fellow with an idea she wanted to test: what would it mean to visually connect residents living at mirrored addresses on the North and South Sides of Chicago? Through the fellowship, she developed what would become her Folded Map Project through photography and engaging with residents across geographies, grounding her work in research about segregation and laying the foundation for a creative practice that treats storytelling as a catalyst for structural change. At City Bureau, Tonika found the mentorship and a people-powered framework she needed to push her individual artistry toward collective action. That experience helped shape the trajectory of a body of work (including Folded Map, Inequity for Sale, and UnBlocked Englewood) that continues to equip communities with a shared language to confront disinvestment and reimagine their neighborhoods.
Policy Impact: Driving Accountability and Systems Change
Our 2024 Pulitzer Prize winning investigation Missing in Chicago–produced in partnership with the Invisible Institute and led by reporters Sarah Conway and Trina Reynolds-Tyler–exposed systemic failures in how the Chicago Police Department handles missing persons cases, disproportionately impacting Black women and girls. Drawing on a two-year analysis of police data and deeply reported stories from affected families, the series revealed patterns of neglect, procedural violations, and flawed record-keeping that obscured the scale of the crisis. The investigation prompted an official review by the City of Chicago’s Office of Inspector General, informed deliberations around a proposed mayoral task force on missing women, and shaped policy conversations at the state level about improving investigative practices and support for families.
Documenters: Equipping People for Civic Action
In November 2022, former Chicago Documenter Sebastián González de León y León founded the San Pedro Gazette in St. Petersburg, Florida–an independent newsroom with a mission to build “an informed, empowered, and critical public by creating impact-oriented journalism.” He was also accepted into the Google News Initiative Pre-Launch Lab 2023 cohort. His time as a Documenter influenced his understanding of the need for high-impact local news and how he shaped the San Pedro Gazette, and he’s interested in launching a local Documenters site in his community.
In Our Neighborhoods: Building Community Power
In 2025, City Bureau partnered with Grist, Inside Climate News, and WBEZ to create a comprehensive guide to Chicago’s lead pipe crisis, equipping residents with practical steps to protect themselves and their families. At a time when the city has more lead service lines than anywhere else in the country, the guide breaks down how to request free water testing kits, access filters, and understand eligibility for replacement programs. We printed and shared more than 400 physical guides connecting Chicagoans directly to tools, hotlines, and health information so they can take action and advocate for safer infrastructure. Our reporting, along with an interactive mapping tool created by WBEZ, has reached over 80,000 readers with the information they need to make more informed decisions about their homes and communities.
Expanding civic participation for hyper-local impact
Our programs equip people with skills and connections rooted in Chicago and beyond. Learn more here!
Our Annual Reports
We’re in a key moment in our movement to democratize the tools of journalism, and in this past year we thought deeply about how City Bureau can continue to evolve its structure to support our work moving forward.
Dive into our 2024 Annual Report and Yearbook for the full picture on where we’ve been and where we’re going. You’ll see so many familiar faces and see more evidence than ever of the widespread change we can foster by staying rooted in the why of our work.
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