Gabe Pressman Fellowship

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CITY LIMITS is Training the next generation of public-interest reporters by diversifying NYC newsrooms. They're a non-profit that publishes in-depth reporting, commentary, and media on New York City's most pressing issues. http://www.Citylimits.org

Earlier this year, City Limits selected legendary NBC newsman Gabe Pressman for its 2017 Urban Journalism Award to honor his lifelong commitment to informing the public a key mechanism to make democracy work. As friends, colleagues, and admirers mourned Gabe's passing in June, they also celebrated his decades of service to the city. Gabe Pressman, a Dean of New York TV Journalism, Dies at 93 https://nyti.ms/2sYFllV

They're honoring Gabe's legacy at the City Limits Gala on September 19th and as a tribute to him will create journalism intern scholarships for aspiring young reporters from disadvantaged communities with a portion of funds raised at the event.

Since 2014, City Limits has operated a Youth Training Program in Public-Service Journalism, offering high school students in the Bronx paid after-school or summer work experience and training in the basics of investigative and metro reporting.

Interns attend public hearings, practice interview skills, crunch numbers from public databases, do sidewalk reporting at Election Day polling places, send FOIL requests to obtain key documents—all culminating in their writing stories that are published on City Limits. Their reports having included investigations on problems with NYC day-care regulations, barriers to fitness and nutrition in the Bronx, slow buses, litter hot-spots, the role of gun stores in gun smuggling operations, hassles faced by Bronxites in reporting crimes, and the 2017 City Council and public advocacy campaigns. One 2016 story on obstacles encountered by inmates seeking public information to challenge their convictions won honors from the National Council on Crime and Delinquency.

The Youth Training in Public Service program runs in the spring and fall for 10 weeks, with a 4-week summer intensive. Interns are paid minimum wage, often their first paid job: The total cost per intern is $1500. We need to raise up to $30,000 to endow the Gabe Pressman Youth Journalism Fellowship

While we don’t expect that all of our interns will enter the journalism field as a career. We do hope that as students, citizens and leaders—they make a difference. Gabe Pressman certainly did, they’re proud to continue that legacy.