Our new narrative

We are Public Narrative.

This organization was born from Community Media Workshop.

For 25 years, the work has been changing and growing. Yet, our branding, as people say, has stayed the same.

But our brand? Well, that’s evolved too as it had to with our mission.

Our brand was built on our core beliefs of integrity, community voices, quality journalism and covering the full story.

We believe in open dialogue, respectful discourse and the idea that power benefits from inclusion, rather than exclusion.

We believe in not being silent even if the discussion is difficult. If the problem is racism — and it often is — then we must discuss racism and not tiptoe around it but figure out what we can do.

We believe a free and informed press, as well as an educated public, are the cornerstones of Democracy.

We know also that an uninformed civil society not only suffers from being left out, but also falls victim to myths and stereotypes. And a media that does not listen, does not reflect its audience, soon becomes irrelevant.

Just as a media that will not dig to tell a full story, but lingers on problems only without asking the community for solutions, is not doing its job.

Our brand, our work, has always been to give voice to the voiceless in the city’s neighborhoods and to help ensure those in the media and those in power listen.

So, we are changing our branding to reflect our brand, which has evolved over the years.

Long ago, our work outgrew our name. And thanks to Firebelly Designs we were able to see where we needed to go. They found out our work was — and is — unique. Yes, many others train journalists. And still others train nonprofits. But no one else does both and brings the two worlds together to meet one another.

It’s a new name, true. But it’s the same strong brand and a strong signal to Chicago that we are still committed to our beliefs.

We are Public Narrative and so are you. Please support us.