A home for the voices that are not heard enough
The Journal will publish the work of young people, residents, and communities whose knowledge is too often underestimated and undervalued. It accepts writing, music, and art, and it tells each story in the language of "we."
Rising Voices
For young people from about age 14 to 30. HPAC students, youth leaders, and young adults share what they have learned about the challenges in their communities and what they did about them. Over time, Rising Voices is meant to grow into its own entity.
Community Voices
For people of any age with lived experience, including residents, members of congregations, Neighborhood Leadership Institute participants, Job Corps members, and the people served by organizations such as Strengthening Our Students and Renounce Denounce.
Practitioner Notes
For the people doing the work: outreach workers, teachers, community health workers, program staff, and volunteers. Webinars, podcast series, courses, and service reports on what they do and what they learned.
Many ways to tell what we learned
Written word
Articles, essays, reflections, poems of your own, and reports on community projects.
Music and audio
Original songs, spoken word, and recorded stories.
Installations and art
Community art and installations, captured through photographs, posters, and audio.
Academic standards, many media, and authors who usually cannot publish
Most journals are written for people who already know how to publish. This one is for everyone else, with the same seriousness: an editorial board, review by two readers, a permanent page and a citation for every piece, and issues that come out on a schedule. The difference is the media, the mentoring, and who gets to write.
Review that helps
Two readers for every piece, one from the community it comes from and one from the research team. Readers write to the author, not about the author. Nothing is rejected without a path to yes.
A citation for everything
Every published piece gets a permanent page, an author line, a date, and a citation to copy, whether it is an essay, a podcast, or a webinar recording.
A mentor-editor
Each author is paired with an editor who helps shape the piece with the CIRCLE model, from the first idea to the final version.
What practitioners and communities can publish
Pick the form that fits the work. A piece can combine several.
Article or essay
A written piece, 800 to 4,000 words, with the people and past work it builds on named.
Webinar
A recorded session you give on what you do, with a short written summary and the slides.
Podcast series
Three to six episodes on your practice, with show notes, plus a closing piece on what came out of it: who listened, what changed, what happened in the parks or the block.
Course or learning module
A learning management system module or a lesson you built, shared with its materials and a note on how it went.
Service and volunteering report
What the service was, who it reached, what the volunteers learned, and the lessons you would hand to the next group.
Music, art, photo essay
Original songs, spoken word, installations, and photo stories, each with a written frame.
From an idea to a citation
Propose
Send the idea with the form below, in any form, in a paragraph or a voice memo.
Pair
A mentor-editor meets you and agrees on the format and the timeline.
Draft
You build the piece with the CIRCLE model. We help with recording, editing, and writing.
Review
Two readers respond within a month, with what works and what to add.
Publish
Your piece goes up with its page, author line, date, media, and citation.
Share
We share it with partners and track who reads, listens, and uses it. You keep your rights.
Issues twice a year, with pieces published as they are ready.
How we tell community stories
Like the rings of a tree, each layer of a community's growth is laid down over time, and the rings read together tell its history. The CIRCLE model guides every Journal piece. It is grounded in l'dor v'dor, from generation to generation: we honor the people and systems that came before us and left their legacy as community.
Cultivated
We begin with the people, networks, and systems that came before us and shaped who we are.
Ignite
What sparked our work: a challenge we named, or one we came to understand by joining a group or organization.
Recognize
We recognize the assets already present in our community, many of which are not money.
Contribute
What we did together: talking with people, building teams, starting projects, making connections.
Learn
What we learned, building on what we already knew and reflecting on our own thinking.
Extend
How the work carries forward, from person to person and system to system, today and for those who come next.
Change is read from the outside in. The community changed, which changed the collective, which changed the individual. Every piece names the people and past work it builds on.
Rising Voices, a first look
From written reflections shared with the program. Full pieces will appear here with each author's permission.
Interested in contributing?
The Journal is in development. Share your interest and we will let you know when submissions open. Contributors under 18 will need permission from a parent or guardian.