Southwest Detroit usually gets two bad choices with the media: be ignored or terribly misrepresented.
Southwest Detroit is a large, tight-knit community. The neighborhood is known for its long-standing and vibrant Hispanic community, but Southwest is home to over 30 different ethnic groups. This international border community has a lot to teach us about where Metro Detroit is heading in the coming years.
We are collaborating with the residents of Southwest Detroit to unearth and highlight the REAL stories of this neighborhood.
In February of 2012, we held two community meetings in Southwest to listen to residents and learn what matters most to them. We also asked them what they wish others would understand about their community.
They told us about:
- the impact of industry on their environment and health
- their concerns about continual school closures
- immigration raids that terrorize their neighborhoods
- their rich culture, community green spaces, large population of artists, and colorful festivals
- their hope for a new international bridge to be developed in their backyard
It's a complicated world. Meaningful, accurate coverage takes time. It also requires listening.
WDET is launching a Spot.us campaign to tell these stories. When we successfully complete this campaign, we’ll hire people from Southwest Detroit as freelancers to work side-by-side with us so we can produce a dynamic multi-media series that gives a prismatic view of this complex and vibrant community.
WDET is using Spot.Us, a new approach to gathering together passionate people who pool their effort and resources to cover their community. All across America, media outlets are cutting staff and reducing the amount of original, enterprise and investigative reporting. WDET is offering people who care about Southwest Detroit a chance to reverse that trend. When you give to this campaign, this simple, inexpensive act will be combined with the gifts from others and will allow WDET to cover Southwest Detroit. These are stories that will resonate across our region and we’ll make sure they are heard by people all around the world
