Beginning on February 16, 2021, the Charlottesville Inclusive Media Project and journalist Samantha Willis will revisit the previous Determined series and embark on a community storytelling project “Still Determined” to contextualize and explore the immediate impacts and long-term effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the Central Virginia community. This multimodal storytelling project employs art by Sahara Clemons, audio-visual content by Lorenzo Dickerson, and journalism to explore the realities of the pandemic, highlight stories of resilience and struggle, and examine the possibilities and difficulties of building a stronger and more inclusive community.
In this project, we have chosen to focus on the following 5 key areas:
- Virus Vaccination
- COVID Effects on Education
- Mental Health Challenges
- Economic Challenges and Opportunities
- Long-Term Implications in a Post-Pandemic World
The stories will be co-produced by all partners of the CIM Project and appear on all outlets’ channels and platforms with the intention of building a larger, more diverse, audience than either outlet currently reaches. The reporting energy will center on how the social determinants of health operate in people’s lives and how people, systems, and processes play a role in creating the current and future conditions. The collective approach is designed to uplift a collective community voice that explores how systems should be equitably reconstructed in a post-COVID world.
