The story of Highland Park can only be told by Highland Parkers.

Parkers, we cannot rely on outside news sources to tell a fair and balanced story about Highland Park. The corporate media business model goes to the bank on hyping drama. It is up to Highland Parkers to write about our city, to uplift that which we love about our community, to tell our truth through the free and independent press and to set the record straight about who we are as Highland Parkers.

"Those who write the editorials and those who write the columns, they simply are unaccountable. They’re free to impose their cultural politics in the name of freedom of the press." ~Jesse Jackson

The Highland Park People's Voice is a news hub of the people, by the people and for the people of Highland Park, an instrument of independent democratic home-rule. In exercising our first amendment rights, we stand stronger as a community, even as we may have cause to disagree on topics of discourse, as do all free-thinking people engaged in the project of democracy upon this earth.

The People's Voice wants YOU to lend YOUR VOICE to our local online news hub. We are an all volunteer group of neighbors committed to informing each other about news involving our community, creating an inclusive forum for timely civic debate and publishing announcements about events and resources available in Highland Park.

There are literally a dozen ways you can contribute to building the People's Voice to become a vital community resource. Consider volunteering part time with this brand new Highland Park based news organization. You could fill any one of the following roles:

• Beat Reporter: writes articles about important routine functions of our city and community, and takes photos to go with the articles (monthly to weekly).

• General Assignment Reporter: writes features, breaking news, conducts investigative journalism (1 to 4 articles per month).

• Copy Editor: makes sure articles are well written, understandable and grammatically correct (edits weekly).

• Digital Designer: posts completed and edited articles, photos and graphics to the website (designs weekly).

• Photographer: takes photographs for articles, especially for general assignments; this role would be terrific for student reporters (4 to 8 assignments per month).

• Newsletter Editor: compiles a weekly e-blast to subscribers (weekly), would be a great project for engaging youth in the editorial process.

• Columnist: writes regularly opinion and human interest pieces (monthly to weekly).

• Guest Columnist: writes longer opinion columns or human interest pieces on topics of timely importance but is not committed to a regular standing column.

• Political Candidate: Every election cycle the news hub will ask each candidate to write at least one statement for an "election" section of the People's Voice. We will strive to provide a number of opportunities for all candidates to speak and be heard by the people of Highland Park. We consider free and impartial facilitation of information during local elections to be the sacred duty of the press because it is the people and not the press who bear the responsibility of choosing elected officials and it is the people whose lives are shaped by the consequences of those decisions.

• Grant Writer: There are competitive grants in the United States for nonprofit news hubs in locations without local news access. We will need a few more capable grant-writers in the near future because we intend to secure some of those grants.

• Writer of Letters to the Editors: are fairly short and to the point questions or statements in the Opinion section. Letters are considered for publication at any time.

• Student Contribution Coordinator: we are looking for teachers, tutors and mentors of Highland Park youth to encourage Highland Park middle school and high school students to write articles for the news hub. We hope Highland Park students will contribute to the news hub regularly and that some of them, along with their trusted adults, might consider being a part of the team.

• COORDINATOR of Organizational or Classified Announcements: will coordinate the efforts of the contributors to the news hub's classified and organizational announcement sections. This will be one of our most important jobs as we intend to engage every Highland Parker and every Highland Park organization. See the following roles for details.

• Contributor to Organizational Announcements (the hope is to start in March): Highland Park organizations can have a space of their own for curating organization-related announcements on the website. Organizational contributors will be able to update their announcements at any time. We are looking for announcements from co-ops, nonprofits, churches, block clubs, social clubs, arts organizations, etc.

• Contributor to Classified Announcements (the hope is to start in March): Individuals can place one-time ads on the news hub to announce everything from a house on the market to a yard sale to a lost pet. We especially encourage life-event announcements such as births, graduations, engagements, marriages, and obituaries.

It is the hope of the founders of Highland Park People's Voice that we will not always be an all volunteer organization. Flint created a similar nonprofit news hub a few years ago called the "Flint Beat" and they have since been able to hire staff. When we raise the money for paid staff at Highland Park People's Voice our goal is to already have in place a capable team of Highland Parkers who might consider transitioning into those positions. Let's learn how to tell Highland Park's story together and own the media narrative of Highland Park!!

Building the Highland Park People's Voice will take a great deal of work on the part of many people. On behalf of the founding board I say enthusiastically that Highland Park, our home, is worth the effort!

If you would like to volunteer for any aspect of the Highland Park People's Voice, please call Lisa at 313-333-5987 or show up at Nandi's, 71 Oakman, at 6pm any Wednesday evening (unless we have heavy snow). Coming soon we will have an official email address for sending in letters, announcements etc., but if you have something you can't wait to send by email in the meanwhile you can write to Lisa, the editor at: lisa.stolarski@gmail.com . To be sure your email is noticed, please also send a text message to the number above to let Lisa know to look for your email in the box!