Colorado News Collaborative - COLab

12/14/2023

Join Amplify Colorado now: bit.ly/amplifycolorado

As the year draws to a close, we invite you to join a transformative movement aimed at diversifying local news coverage in Colorado, with the goal of making 2024 a year marked by increased diversity in our local newsrooms and stories. Historically, Colorado's newsrooms have been predominantly white, grappling with issues of discrimination and systemic racism in staffing and coverage. To address this, the Colorado News Collaborative (COLab), a nonprofit organization serving over 180 news outlets across the state, has created a statewide diverse source database. Amplify Colorado is designed to help local journalists better represent the communities they cover. This publicly accessible directory features members of communities of color with expertise in subjects frequently covered by journalists, facilitating connections between these communities and local newsrooms. Your participation will help create more inclusive, accurate, and nuanced news stories, and you can also nominate others within your network to join. Rest assured, your information will only be shared with your consent or that of your nominees. Join Amplify Colorado now to be part of this transformative initiative!

12/30/2022

It’s resolution time for those who make them. Here is ours Colorado News Collaborative - COLab: To keep doing our damnedest to strengthen, build and support local news in Colorado through the power of collaboration.

Help us launch into 2023 strong, focused, and with purpose. We know you get it. And together we’ve got this. Donate now. This is . https://bit.ly/Support_COLab

12/07/2022

Urging any reporter in Colorado who has a great idea for a project that would benefit from a collaboration with other newsrooms and COLab, The Colorado News Collaborative to send us your proposal by Friday, Dec 9th. Use this form https://bit.ly/COLab-project-ideas . We're all stronger together.

In 2023, we’re taking collaborative journalism to a new level in Colorado. COLab staff and news partners will produce four major collaborative news projects – one each quarter – on topics you and your communities find important. And we’ll help you find ways to engage with your community and ...

12/07/2022

Please consider a Colorado Gives Day donation to support COLab, The Colorado News Collaborative's work helping make local news better and more sustainable. This is .

Will you do your part to support independent local news for a stronger Colorado?

Give now: https://www.coloradogives.org/donate/COLabNews

11/17/2022

Mark your calendar s'cause this is coming up fast. The Colorado Sun's Tatiana Flowers is taking her reporting on gaps in Black homeownership a step deeper with this panel discussion on Dec. 1.

The Colorado Sun presents Closing the Gap: a conversation with Colorado's Black community about homeownership.

10/07/2022

We’re thrilled to announce that we'll be working with 33 newsrooms selected to participate in .mediaproject ‘s matching challenge— a year-end membership campaign that supports homegrown, local newsrooms across Colorado!
Digest Magazine



List Community Cafe
Freedom of Information Coalition

Westword


Park Hill Community, Inc
Community Radio

Community Radio
91.7 FM
Community Radio Telluride

Tribal Radio 91.3 FM
com



Colorado Sun
Crestone Eagle
Mountain-Ear
Pagosa Springs SUN newspaper



Mountain Tribune

https://coloradomediaproject.com/latest-news/newsconeeds2022

These locally owned and nonprofit Colorado newsrooms are set to earn dollar-for-dollar matches from CMP this giving season in the 2022 campaign — aimed at inspiring more Coloradans to support locally created, public-service journalism that informs and engages communities and strengthe...

05/17/2022

Join us now for the On Edge Statewide Conversation live here: youtube.com/watch?v=P0ujleO1F9A

COLab will host a statewide event in mid-May to engage in conversation with people who have authority in the mental healthcare system and answer communities’...

05/17/2022

Curious, confused and/or concerned about Colorado's mental health safety net system and what recent news stories and legislation mean for Coloradans in crisis? You're not alone. Join the Colorado News Collaborative and Colorado Public Radio in person or online this evening for a conversation with Colorado’s new mental healthcare chief, the CEO of Denver’s community mental health center, a Summit County commissioner, the state’s leading mental health advocate, a father of a child with mental illness and a top investigative reporter from CPR.

There are still in-person spots left! Register here: bit.ly/OnEdgeconversation

You can also join us remotely here: youtube.com/watch?v=P0ujleO1F9A

Exploring reforms to Colorado's mental health safety net, what difference they'll make and what else is needed to catch people in crisis.

03/10/2022

Join Asian Avenue Magazine's Annie VanDan, Asian Pacific Development Center's Harry Budisidharta, The Colorado Sun's Thy Vo & Colorado Dragon Boat Festival's Sara Moore on the anniversary of the 2021 Atlanta shootings to discuss the importance of engaging with news media about how it portrays AAPI communities in the news Register here: bit.ly/AAPIvoicesopenhouse

Join AAPI Coloradans and local reporters in a conversation about working together to improve local news coverage.

01/04/2022

Sharon Raggio, CEO of the controversial Mind Springs Health, just resigned. COLab, The Colorado News Collaborative investigated the community mental health center and its failure to provide safety net services in its 10 West Slope counties in this story last month...

Two counties are breaking from their mental health provider. Others are taking notes.

12/31/2021

COLab and our media partners statewide send big kudos to the good folks at the Boulder Daily Camera and everyone else covering the Marshall Fire, especially the photographers and videographers close to the flames. Thank you for keeping your communities informed when it matters most, and for so clearly putting your hearts into this work. You do local news proud.

12/12/2021

Here's the latest installment in our ongoing collaboration called "On Edge," which looks at mental health in Colorado. This story is from Jennifer Brown at The Colorado Sun, one of more than 160 news outlets that participate in COLab.

This investigation is part of the ongoing “On Edge” series about Colorado’s mental health by the Colorado News Collaborative, the nonprofit that unites more than 160 communities and news outlets ensure quality news for all Coloradans. The series title reflects a state that has the nation’s h...

12/08/2021

Dear friends of COLab, We are sooooo close to reaching our goal of raising $20,000 this Colorado Gives Day! We are just $1,456.85 away with less than three hours to go. Will you help us reach our goal and be ready to do more work in 2022? Thank you for considering!

An investment in COLab is an act of civic participation. Your donation ensures Coloradans will be informed about the issues that impact their daily lives, engaged in local government and inspired to affect positive change in their community.

12/08/2021

Upon news today that Robert Werthwein is resigning as head of Colorado's Office of Behavioral Health, we repost this story about him from last year, when we started our On Edge project on mental health in the state. This took some guts and we are grateful to Werthwein for his candor.

Some words fail us, and for Robert Werthwein, “depression” is one of them. The 41-year-old director of Colorado’s Behavioral Health Office prefers to say “everything turned to complete sh*t” when his identical twin, Ryan, died of a brain tumor a week before their 15th birthdays, and that h...

12/08/2021

Please consider COLab for a Colorado Gives Day gift today. When you support COLab, you truly are supporting an unprecedented partnership of newsrooms across the state to provide local news that matters. And anything you give up until midnight Dec. 31 will be matched dollar-for-dollar by other generous supporters. If you were moved by the reporting COLab and partners did this week (see the post below), then please give today!

An investment in COLab is an act of civic participation. Your donation ensures Coloradans will be informed about the issues that impact their daily lives, engaged in local government and inspired to affect positive change in their community.

12/07/2021

Our latest collaborative journalism project is already igniting conversations and calls for change throughout Colorado. Reporter Susan Greene dug deep into our mental health safety net to find that our state, the state with the nation’s highest rate of adult mental illness and lowest access to care, has for decades protected its 17 regional behavioral centers from competition and public scrutiny. Vulnerable Coloradans, their families and taxpayers are paying the price.

Will planned reforms fix or further the problems?

12/07/2021

Breaking: Colorado's Office of Behavioral Health is about to announce that its director, Robert Werthwein, will be resigning.

11/04/2021

Please join us next week for this in-person event, co-sponsored by COLab, The Colorado News Collaborative, The Denver Press Club, 9NEWS (KUSA), The Denver Post, LaVozColorado & El Comercio de Colorado
https://colabnews.co/opportunities/latinx-voices-colorado-cocktails-conversation-and-a-call-to-action/

Join Latinx Coloradans and local reporters in a conversation about working together to improve local news coverage.

10/28/2021

Good morning, all. COLab's own Laura Frank and John Ferrugia, our editorial advisory committee member Brittany Freeman and their colleagues from Rocky Mountain PBS and PBS NewsHour picked up a well-earned National Edward R. Murrow Award last night for their documentary "Breakdown." The report exposed the ways Colorado's mental health system has failed to respond to emergencies. We're enormously proud of them and their work! Long live public-interest news!

10/27/2021

COLab sends our proud and hardy congratulations to our boss Laura Frank, our COLab colleague John Ferrugia, COLab editorial advisory committee member and Rocky Mountain PBS Producer Brittany Freeman, PBS Newshour Producer Phil Maravilla and others for winning a prestigious National Edward R. Murrow Award!

Their investigation, “Breakdown,” detailed how Colorado’s state mental health system has abdicated its responsibility for emergent mental health care and forced law enforcement and the criminal justice system to deal with mental health crises throughout the state, sometimes ending in harm to both law officers and the mentally ill. It has been cited as the best documentary of the year by the Radio Television Digital News Association

Bravo each of you for your tremendous work and dedication to public-interest journalism! We are honored to work with you and wish you a magical night celebrating in NYC.

(Ya'll look fabulous, btw)

10/13/2021

STARTING SOON: Join COLab's Tina Griego moderating a conversation with Tony Shawcross, Lori Lizarraga, Candi CdeBaca & Sherkiya Wedgeworth-Hollowell for a conversation on representation in Colorado journalism. Hosted by for PEN America with the help of . Live at the Buell Public Media Center or watch the livestream here: https://bit.ly/COlocalnews. Note: The in-person event starts at 5:00, but the panel runs from 6-7 MDT. Tune in to the livestream at 5:50 for the hellos and general intros.

Open Media will host a Town Hall event on behalf of PEN America with the help of Colorado News Collaborative (COLab) on the evening of Wednesday, October 13 from 5:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. MT. This event will be held in person at Rocky Mountain Public Media's Buell Public Media Center in Downtown Denver

09/22/2021

On recommendation 5 – how to leverage power in the Black community – the group urged finding ways to reconsolidate our power in neighborhoods like Five Points, Park Hill, and Montbello. We need to find ways to get our messages out.

09/22/2021

On recommendation 4 – build power in Black communities to hold news media accountable – the group suggested dedicating more resources to covering Black communities. Each outlet has to take responsibility and act on that. Solve the problem, devote the resources. And sustain it.

09/22/2021

On recommendation 4 – build power in Black communities to hold news media accountable – the group suggested dedicating more resources to covering Black communities. Each news organization has to take responsibility and act on that. Solve the problem, devote the resources. And it has to be sustained, genuine and more than just recruiting.