Arts, Culture, and Outreach: Hiring Local Leaders to Connect With Communities

By Jason Gigax December 17, 2025

Building trust with local audiences often starts by working with people who already have deep roots in the community. A recent example from Washington, D.C. highlights how hiring trusted local leaders can strengthen community engagement and reshape how local news organizations connect with residents.

The worker-led newsroom The 51st launched its first live trivia event, Ask A D.C. Native, Live!, during D.C. Native’s Day week. Hosted by Dwayne Lawson-Brown, a longtime D.C. resident and cultural figure, the event created a welcoming space where residents could celebrate local history, music, and shared experiences. Beyond entertainment, the gathering introduced attendees to The 51st in a setting that felt authentic, community-centered, and accessible.

Lawson-Brown’s role exemplifies the value of trusted messengers. As someone with lived experience and established credibility among D.C. natives and Black residents, they helped bridge skepticism toward local media and foster meaningful dialogue. Their involvement later expanded through The 51st’s Community Connector program, which hires local leaders as contractors to build sustained relationships between the newsroom and specific communities.

The Community Connector program began in Ward 7, a predominantly Black area with significant social and economic disparities. George Kevin Jordan, the first Community Connector, engaged residents through community events, surveys, and one-on-one conversations to better understand how local news could reflect residents’ needs and priorities. His findings revealed gaps in coverage, concerns about negative framing, and a desire for more representative storytelling. In response, The 51st prioritized Ward 7 reporting and increased transparency and accountability around coverage.

With additional grant support, the program is expanding to include both in-person and digital outreach, along with tools to assess the local information ecosystem. Lawson-Brown now leads efforts to connect with D.C. natives more broadly, including hosting additional live events and producing social media content that spotlights local voices.

Early lessons from the initiative offer guidance for other newsrooms seeking to deepen community engagement. These include starting with people already within the organization’s network, allowing connectors to lean into their strengths, setting clear goals and metrics, remaining transparent and adaptable, securing dedicated funding, and gradually broadening the search for trusted messengers.

By investing in local leaders and relationship-driven engagement, The 51st demonstrates how news organizations can move beyond coverage alone and become active, trusted participants in the communities they serve.