The Guardian Foundation
The Guardian Foundation is an independent charity which supports media under threat, promotes diversity in the media and empowers children and young people to engage with the news.
About our organisation/network
Our vision is a world where all people can tell their stories, access the truth and hold power to account. Our aim is to increase access to the media for the people whose voices are underrepresented or unheard. We have a wide range of programmes that work to achieve this aim as fully as possible. We do this because we believe a free press is crucial to a functioning democracy; that everyone should be able to have their voice heard and engage with the media they consume; and in order for the media to hold power to account it must be made up of representative journalists. The work on this project is build on a strong partnership with local organisations across the UK.
The change we want to see
Britain finds itself in a moment of profound social upheaval. Filmmakers and journalists have to respond not just in terms of the kind of stories they tell, but how they tell them, and who tells them. For a long time, the British media has failed to properly represent and give voice to many communities – those outside our big cities, young people, minorities, the working class, those with disabilities. This is because the production processes and routes to participate have become increasingly inaccessible and concentrated. There are several excellent projects and initiatives addressing these issues, but all too often the outcomes are unsustainable in the longer term, and when the project ends, the legacy is lost. We want to make a space to explore how to enable this sustainability and retain local knowledge and skills to tell stories at a national level. We hope to push the boundaries of and inform the thinking and design of newsrooms and future programmes – and in turn affect real change.