Community College Grant Program
The New Mexico Local News Fund and Journalism + Design at The New School are proud to announce the 2025 recipients of the Community News Transformation Grants.
Meet the 2025 Community News Transformation Grant Recipients
We’re excited to announce the selected colleges for the 2025 Community News Transformation Grants, a collaborative initiative between Journalism + Design and the New Mexico Local News Fund.
These grants support innovative, community-based media projects that will shape the future of local news in New Mexico. Each selected college receives $77,000 in funding and joins a two-year learning cohort designed to build stronger, more inclusive local information ecosystems.
These projects span departments and centers dedicated to journalism, community engagement, cultural outreach, and workforce development. Each college will work alongside local media and community partners to reimagine how local news can serve—and be shaped by—their surrounding communities.
We’re inspired by the colleges’ creativity and commitment and are excited to support their efforts in building more resilient, inclusive local news ecosystems across New Mexico.
The Community News Transformation Grant program is made possible through generous support from the New Mexico Department of Workforce Solutions, the MacArthur Foundation, Press Forward, the Knight Foundation, and the Hewlett Foundation.
Why This Work Matters
DACC’s Community Centered Journalism (CCJ) project will bridge the gap between traditional journalism and community needs by expanding the reach of existing journalism coursework and developing mentorship and internship pathways with local news organizations. CCJ participants will learn how to create news products–like newsletters–that respond to community needs and get hands-on experience in covering community issues through partnerships with outlets like the Organ Mountain News.
SENMC’s "Community Journalism Collective" will build a more resilient local news system in Eddy County, NM by leveraging a collective of local partners, including local newspapers, radio stations, libraries, and the United Way, to develop trainings for community members and sustainable career pathways for people to apply their skills. Key activities include storytelling workshops, a digital news hub hosted by SENMC, journalism bootcamps, paid fellowships, and mentorships with working journalists.
Eastern New Mexico University-Roswell’s “Beaming Up the Future of Community News” will use the 2026 Air Races as a launchpad for a media arts and journalism initiative focused on real-world storytelling and civic engagement. Students will gain hands-on experience in interviewing, video production, and podcasting while collaborating with community members to report on local issues. Coverage of the races will spark broader conversations about economic development, tourism, education, and civic life. By embedding this work into existing courses, students will develop essential technical and storytelling skills while producing content that informs and reflects the Pecos Valley community.
A collaboration with Santa Fe Public Radio (KSFR), SFCC’s project “Exploring New Horizons in Santa Fe” will recruit students from local high schools and rural communities, including Pueblo communities, to learn skills in the mediums of audio and video, including digital and terrestrial production in radio, film, and television. Participants will receive training, get access to hands-on modules for each of the mediums involved, and collaborate with Santa Fe-area media partners to produce and deliver journalism that helps their communities. SFCC aims to integrate the project into its SFCC Mosaica program and create a noncredit community journalism credential or certificate.
What Comes Next?
