Introducing Civil Beat’s Facebook Groups for Hawaii Cost of Living, Education
We’re extending our virtual civic square by building communities on Facebook. Everyone’s invited.
Many Civil Beat readers like to discuss the issues we’re reporting on through the comments section at the end of our stories and columns. But sometimes that’s just not the best way to talk about an issue that might cross into several articles that play out over days or even months.
That’s why we’re building communities on Facebook to keep that conversation going longer. We hope these communities will bring us all together, and provide a forum to share your stories and your thoughts with each other.
Today, we’re launching Facebook Groups on two issues that people love to talk about: education and Hawaii’s high cost of living.
Education has been a pillar of Civil Beat’s coverage since we launched in 2010. Reporter Alia Wong聽has won national awards for her deep digging into Hawaii’s education system, from preschool through college.
And we’re ramping up our coverage of Hawaii’s cost of living issue with Deputy Editor Eric Pape taking the lead. Some of our most-read stories have explored the price we pay to live in the islands, whether it’s the price of milk, or what parents sacrifice just to send their kids to private school.
Civil Beat has always been a civic square where people can feel comfortable discussing important issues facing Hawaii in a constructive and civil manner. But now with so many of you already on Facebook, we want to move our civic square closer to where you are and use tools you’re already familiar with.
Did you read an interesting article on how Hawaii’s taxes are unfair? Share it! Do you have information on an education webinar? Post it, so we can all tune in, too. Is there a research document you want to share? Upload it into the “Files” section of each community.
Everyone is encouraged to share resources and news (from any source you want, locally or nationally), so we can take these conversations beyond the stories we cover. And many times, it’ll inform our coverage. This is your community.
We’ll host聽Q&As with policy makers and leaders; upload聽documents, policy proposals and research into each community’s files; add links to the latest reports, whether it comes from our staff or elsewhere.
For now, each community will be moderated by myself and the staff. But we’ll be looking for members of our community to take over as administrators in the future.
And this is just the beginning. If you have ideas of other communities we can help build, drop me a line or leave a comment below.
Your contributions will likely inform our reporting and coverage. Join us and talk story.
