Six Months on the Community Reporting Beat
A youth advisory team profiled by community reporting fellow Amy Moore. Photo: Amy Moore
Last summer, KneeDeep Times launched a pilot Community Reporting Network with a grant from the CO2 Foundation.
“We’ve long reported stories interesting to insiders in the climate adaptation and environmental justice field, but we wanted to connect more with our neighbors and communities challenged by fires, floods, and really bad weather,” says editor Ariel Rubissow Okamoto.
As part of the network, the magazine recruited four community college journalism students as reporting fellows for the fall 2025 semester. The students, Amy Moore from Santa Rosa Junior College, Tristan Moore and Gracebelle Ma’ake from Diablo Valley College, and Rain Hepting from Las Positas College, produced eight stories between September 2025 and January 2026 under the leadership of community editor Rose Garrett. Topics covered ranged from learning how to do a prescribed burn in Sonoma and detailing PFAS contamination in the Tri-Valley area to a profile of a Martinez resident battling bad air and a progress report on creating a pollinator garden in a Concord church yard. Formats ranged from text to photojournalism to comic strip.
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Los trabajadores de los viñedos de Sonoma queman por un futuro mejor
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Residents of the unincorporated community launched their second campaign in two years to get the county to care for dying street trees.
Siempre está soleado en North Fair Oaks
Los residentes de la comunidad no incorporada lanzaron su segunda campaña en dos años para lograr que el condado se ocupe de los árboles de la calle que se están muriendo.
L-R: Tristan Moore, Rain Hepting, Amy Moore, Gracebelle Ma'ake.
“I’ve learned so much more about how to craft an article, especially a climate-related article. You guys have given me so many incredible resources. … I feel like I have a way better understanding of what ‘climate resilience’ is now,” says Tristan Moore.
“I like the local focus because it’s encouraged me to connect with and learn about environmental issues in my immediate area that I otherwise may not have had a reason to look into,” adds Hepting.
In the spring, KneeDeep will work with three new community reporting fellows from high schools in Fairfield and Newark.
This January, a new editorial team also rolled out a pilot version of a newsletter called KneeDeep With Neighbors, which also publishes in Spanish as KneeDeep con vecinos. This will post a few times this spring — between releases, you can also see more content and send us your own questions and ideas through our new Facebook group and WhatsApp channel.
Congrats to our first group of fellows, and thank you for your contributions to the magazine!
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To share your ideas for community reporting or to join our network, email us.
