Project Optimist

My latest for Project Optimist takes a look at Firewise USA:

📣 We're starting a new series featuring the wonderful news founders that make up the TNC community of members. Our inaugural piece focuses on Nora Hertel at Project Optimist in Greater Minnesota. Learn all about the origin of her site and what drives her to do this work. https://lnkd.in/eMjRaaU2 #localnews #entrepreneurship

I am still alight after joining an amazing panel Thursday on the future of local news with true pioneers in journalism. This is a milestone moment for me as an entrepreneur. I ran into Jonathan Kealing who gave me advice FOUR YEARS AGO when I told him I had an idea for a news startup. Nora of 2020 could never have imagined a night like this with a platform and audience so excited to learn about Project Optimist's solutions journalism and creative news coverage for greater Minnesota. I got to share it with my family and my amazing staff: Jennifer Zettel-Vandenhouten, Alexa Shapiro, and Erica Dischino. I shared the stage with Angela Davis, Georgia Fort, Chelsey Perkins, Steve Grove, and Chao Xiong -- that's representation from Sahan Journal, Star Tribune, KAXE/KBXE - Northern Community Radio, and the Center for Broadcast Journalism. Organizations I admire and support and can't wait to collaborate with. The night started with a line up of women CEO's sending a lifeline to the struggling field of journalism through philanthropy. I am so inspired by Tonya Allen and McKnight Foundation, Maribel Perez Wadsworth and Knight Foundation, Dale Anglin and Press Forward, and Tuleah Palmer and Blandin Foundation. Have I said inspiring enough?! Thank you Morgan Baum and Report for America, The GroundTruth Project, Minnesota Public Radio for putting this together and including Project Optimist. And so good to see old friends and make new ones -- all fighting for sustainable journalism that serves our communities: Lisa Schwarz, Brian Voerding, Dominic P. Papatola, Tanner Curl, Aron Pilhofer, Tim Murphy, MBA, Steve Schewe, Hugh Dellios, Bree Perry, Meg Martin, Mukhtar M. Ibrahim, Dawn M. Flinsch, Duc Luu, and many others. Thanks for being there Emily Toner and for the panel photo! The panels will air on MPR in mid-August, and you betcha I'll pass along the links. I'm so grateful for this mid-year boost to help Project Optimist thrive in 2024 and beyond!

Check this out! Project Optimist's founder will be on the panel about local media partnerships in the heartland ❤️

🚀 TNC member Project Optimist, helmed by Nora Hertel, just launched an important solutions-oriented series on wildfires in Minnesota, which kicked off with an innovative use of comics journalism to help tell the stories. We recommend reading Jana Studelska's inaugural piece and following along with the rest of the series. "Our series will explore the communities that are helping themselves by planning and organizing in neighborhood groups. As one resident told me: 'No one is coming to help us. We’re the landowners. It’s our responsibility.'" https://lnkd.in/eMYhe7cq

This comic by artist Chandler Lannes kicks off months of original, fact-checked journalism on wildfires in our state. Follow the series in our weekly newsletter or at www.ProjectOptimist.us.

Read Project Optimist's latest story about our work in urban forestry! To read the full story, visit https://lnkd.in/gZMWHW3V.

It's time for Project Optimist's Leap Day fundraiser! 🐸 💚 🎉 Help us make the most of a $2,000 match! We need to raise another $1,500 to help us keep up the awesome momentum that carried us into Year 3 -- amazing content, staff, and community support. Thanks to everyone who has made a donation. You are the best! https://lnkd.in/gzY_3t8a

This week Project Optimist features a story from student Fredi Ponce Parra. His research project focused on how climate change impacts Indigenous people, and he conducted interviews at the conference with Indigenous women who are speaking out about climate change: https://lnkd.in/gcU4hJWX