Journalism tells people what’s happening. This tool helps them take action.

The Civic Action Toolbox connects local reporting to public meetings, comment periods and the officials who make decisions

If you’re a journalist, you’ve undoubtedly gotten this email. A story publishes about a utility rate increase, a rezoning, an industrial permit, and a reader writes back with the question: What can I do about this?

At Planet Detroit, our environmental and health newsroom focusing on Southeast Michigan, we decided to start answering that question with civic action boxes. For the first year, it was a manual process. Nina, managing editor Dustin Blitchok and our reporters spent 45 to 60 minutes per article figuring out which government body had jurisdiction, when it met next, whether a comment period was open and which community organizations were already working on the issue. We formatted all of it into an action box at the bottom of the story.