Are you passionate about Henrico County? Do you care about the community – good and bad? Are you concerned that issues of importance to you aren’t being covered adequately – or at all – in the local media?
The Henrico Citizen is establishing a community advisory board to provide insight, discuss possible coverage topics and supply feedback about previous coverage, input about planned future coverage and thoughts about issues facing Henrico County in general.
Interested? We invite your application to join the inaugural version of the board below.
We seek a board whose members collectively reflect the diverse nature and many spheres of Henrico County as possible – demographically, geographically and in numerous other ways. Applicants from all walks of life should be open-minded and demonstrate mutual respect for diverse opinions. Board members will be expected to collaborate well together but also be willing to challenge individual opinions or beliefs respectfully and provide our staff and team of freelance writers with meaningful ideas and input.
Applicants may be long-time Henrico citizens or relative newcomers, business owners or entry-level workers, homeowners or renters, parents, grandparents, volunteers, coaches, teachers or anyone in between. We aim to select board members who can provide perspective about their experiences and lives in Henrico County.
We seek to establish a board that reflects equity and diversity – with members of various races, education levels, political views and occupations, to name a few. Our board may include as many as 15 members and will contain an equal number of members from each of Henrico’s five magisterial districts.
In 2021, the Citizen will hire its first-ever full-time reporter, thanks in part to our acceptance into the Report for America program. This reporter will be tasked with taking a deeper look at education in Henrico through the lenses of equity, race, geography, economy and a number of others. We’ll seek detailed insight into what education in Henrico looks like for all Henrico students – and how a strong education (or lack thereof) impacts those students as they grow. And we’ll seek meaningful input from our advisory board leading up to, and during, our reporter’s two-year tenure with us.
What will we expect of our board members?
• Participation in our quarterly virtual meetings;
• Participation in online/email surveys between meetings;
• Participation in other meetings that may be called as necessary to analyze or discuss major topics of interest that may arise suddenly.
Board members may have the opportunity to write guest columns from time to time, as well.
Applications will be accepted through Feb. 21, 2024.