How well does local news serve you and your community? What information sources do you trust, and why? What do you wish people understood about your life and your community? Who in your community needs to be heard? 

We want to know.

The Wichita Beacon wants to learn how people in Wichita get the news and information they need. We’re hiring a Community Engagement Bureau Manager to help us run our Community Engagement Bureau, a new initiative to design a creative way to deliver news to underserved communities. 

The Community Engagement Bureau Manager is a full-time job based in Wichita with hybrid work options. You’ll be expected to meet (in person and virtually) with Beacon staff, program participants and community members across Wichita. If you’re interested, please fill out this form and if you have any questions email Hilary Becker at hilary@thebeacon.media. 

Community engagement qualities and skills

• You believe in the transformative power of local journalism when done in community with others.
• You are excited to build information solutions with and for Wichita’s diverse communities, by surfacing existing assets and offering new resources that help our neighbors thrive.
• You have experience building authentic community engagement: developing relationships, building trust, understanding needs and producing content that serves those needs (especially content that is not a traditional news story).
• You have a demonstrated commitment to serving the community in many of the civic issues The Wichita Beacon covers, such as housing, development, education, the justice system and local government.
• You have a sincere cultural competence for working in diverse communities.

Community Engagement Bureau responsibilities

• Mentor and train about ten part-time paid Community Representatives with an interest in civic information.
• Develop and lead workshops, recruiting, training and other support for Community Representatives.
•  Manage meetings of our Community Advisory Board, a representative group of volunteer members who live and work in the Wichita region and advise The Beacon’s staff on issues of interest to the broader community.
• Work closely with our newsroom staff to research, design and produce editorial content that directly serves Wichita’s diverse communities.
• Visit key neighborhoods to build and maintain relationships, with an emphasis on grassroots organizations and individual experiences that can become sources for Beacon stories.
• “Close the loop” and following up with community members by making sure they see how their ideas have been put to use.
•  Identify service-oriented content opportunities that communities say they want, such as explainers or guides on how to navigate systems.
• Advise The Wichita Beacon team on community trust building.
•  Attend newsroom planning meetings, contributing ideas you’ve found through community engagement.

View the full job description and application. Questions? Email Hilary Becker at hilary@thebeacon.media