Our initiatives are editorial fellowship programs coordinated by ACoM, designed to foster collaboration and amplify the voices of Community and Ethnic Media outlets. These programs focus on highlighting stories that address the most pressing issues facing each community. Please note that the views expressed on this website and in other materials produced by ACoM do not necessarily reflect the official policies of our funding partners.
ACoM Initiatives
Greening Communities
This project was produced by ACoM in collaboration with the Laboratory for Environmental Narrative Strategies (LENS) at UCLA as part of the Greening American Cities initiative supported by the Bezos Earth Fund.
Stop The Hate
Reporting on incidents of hate targeting AAPI communities and efforts to address growing racial and ethnic divides. ACoM’ Stop The Hate initiative is made possible with funding from the California State Library (CSL) in partnership with the California Commission on Asian and Pacific Islander American Affairs (CAPIAA).
One-in-three California students say they have experience being bullied. Once seen as a rite of passage for youth, there is now growing awareness around the harms that bullying can cause. As part of a special reporting series, ACoM is looking at the issue of bullying and what it tells us about the experience of young people in today’s climate of rising political and racial tension.
Bullying
Love Across Color Lines
Reporters from 20+ Community and Ethnic Media outlets turn the lens on multiracial couples in their communities, offering intimate portraits of how people and families from all over the world are creating a cosmopolitan culture in this state that has never existed before. While racial hate continues to rise, the epic story is one of love across all color lines.
Domestic Violence
This program unfolds through stories that show domestic violence as more than physical abuse, revealing its emotional, financial, and psychological toll. Recent stories highlight the connection to homelessness and the urgent need for safe housing, long-term support, and community-based solutions to help survivors rebuild with dignity and stability.
Older Adults
Covering issues on aging and disability impacting immigrant communities and communities of color.
Scams & Consumer Fraud
Supporting the development of Community and Ethnic Media’s capacity to effectively report on scams and consumer fraud, empowering them to better inform, protect, and engage their communities through accurate, culturally relevant journalism.
Closing the Health Equity Gap
Reporting and analysis on California’s expansion of Medi-Cal, including new services aimed at meeting not just individual but community health care needs, and how this historic expansion is transforming health care.
Home health workers, mainly women and people of color, are vital to California’s healthcare. This series celebrates these CA Caregivers by documenting their lived experiences. This work is part of a collaboration with The California Department of Aging’s CalGrows program, which offers free online training for caregivers to gain valuable skills for career advancement, and if eligible can earn $6000 stipends. Time is running out as the program ends in August 2024.
California Caregivers
Polycrisis
ACoM and it’s ethnic media partners explore the emerging concept of the “polycrisis,” the complex and overlapping set of global challenges, from social and political turmoil to rising economic uncertainty and inequality, all compounded by the reality of climate change and a warming planet.
Ethnic media across the U.S. investigate where we are with diversity in schools and the workplace since the overturning of affirmative action. This reporting initiative is made possible with funding from Asian Americans Advancing Justice (AAJC).
Diversity
Heat Tips From the Home Country
As temperatures rise, this series explores strategies for effectively managing the dangers of extreme heat, with tips from the home country, along with advice from community influencers and elders. This work is part of a collaboration with the Office of Community Partnerships and Strategic Communication for their Heat Ready CA public awareness and outreach campaign.
Healthy Parks
ACoM, in partnership with the East Bay Regional Park District, coordinated with ethnic media outlets statewide to produce multimedia stories on efforts to balance record numbers of visitors with local habitats.
COVID MythBusters I-IV
A groundbreaking series of fellowship program coordinated by ACoM and funded by the California Department of Public Health’s VaccinateAll58 campaign. Each segment reports on the most dangerous myths about COVID 19 and vaccines circulating in ethnic communities in the U.S.
Raising awareness around what the census really means for immigrant and minority communities—because it’s not just a headcount, it’s a fight for visibility, resources, and political voice.