Michael Cheuk isn’t interested in getting “likes.” In fact, he rarely uses social media. Instead, Cheuk is focused on a different kind of social networking: connecting local leaders and their communities.
Sharon Harris is also committed to connecting communities by sharing information in rural areas often overlooked by larger, urban outlets.
Both Cheuk and Harris are local leaders with track records of making an impact in their communities. In February, Charlottesville Inclusive Media welcomed them as the first CIM Fellows.
Harris is working to expand news access in Fluvanna through Community Voices, a civic journalism nonprofit, while Cheuk’s Joyful News Initiative will connect local leaders to highlight Charlottesville area residents who are engaged in ongoing, positive community impact work.
Pastor-turned-consultant Cheuk said he wants to celebrate stories about “the good, joyful work engaged citizens are doing every day by offering their gifts for the benefit of the whole community.” He works with other community leaders to shift attention from more sensationalized news to local news coverage that helps the city thrive.
Cheuk believes the Joyful News Initiative is a constructive and future-facing alternative to the area’s customary news cycle.
Drawing on his work building capacity in religious congregations and his leadership in the Charlottesville Clergy Collective, Cheuk currently facilitates a workshop series with participants in CIM’s Informing Our Communities Roundtable. The group’s first step involved analyzing Charlottesville’s information landscape and identifying trusted news sources and areas for improvement. Cheuk is now working with the Roundtable leaders to create a platform for uplifting news about each participant’s community.
Cheuk is also collaborating with Ashley Harper, Charlottesville Tomorrow’s product and technology officer, to create an easy-to-use text messaging, or SMS, system to share news. The idea is to enable community leaders to submit news, which will then be compiled by a coordinator, in this case Cheuk himself. Cheuk will send the compiled news stories back to the group via text.
In his project outline, Cheuk referenced Peter Block’s “Community: The Structure of Belonging,” which offers guidelines to building stronger communities by emphasizing possibility over problems.
“I’m inspired by these ideas,” said Cheuk. “They help us explore questions of ownership among ourselves, such as ‘What gifts am I willing to offer to others? What risks am I willing to take? How invested will I be in the wellbeing of the whole?'”
Cheuk joined the In My Humble Opinion talk show in May and described his work with the Charlottesville Clergy Collective during the 2017 Summer of Hate in similar terms.
“I think it’s really the first time in my life that I experienced solidarity in such an embodied and concrete way,” said Cheuk. “And I’m grateful for that.”
The implications of this work are broader than the Joyful News Initiative. Creating new ways for community members to share high-quality information quickly and securely has many potential impacts, from greater civic participation to creating stronger, more resilient neighborhoods.
“I believe this is a more helpful and hopeful way for us to contribute collectively to a future that we want to see and inhabit,” said Cheuk.
Harris is also working toward a collective future. Her vision: engaging, accessible news coverage that sparks community engagement.
In 2024, Harris founded Community Voices to fill gaps in news coverage in Fluvanna County, especially civic reporting on local government and nonprofit institutions. Community Voices engages the county’s residents through email newsletters and community conversations. Fluvanna County, southeast of Charlottesville, has a population of about 28,000.
“Reporters don’t come to Fluvanna,” she said. “We need to find ways to connect and share information with our neighbors about what’s happening in our local government, so that together we can shape the kind of community we want to live in.”
Harris wants to draw attention to life in Fluvanna County, including areas outside of the Lake Monticello hub, like Fork Union and Columbia. Although her news market is smaller than Charlottesville’s, she said, “we are a vibrant and growing community.”
Harris’ professional background is in community counseling and nonprofit work — and that informed her approach to building Community Voices. She first led a collaborative needs assessment to inform the content and scope of their work. Harris then worked with her advisory board to conduct the assessment with input from residents from each of the county’s five voting districts. Since then, her small team has shared information through email newsletters and community meetings about the comprehensive planning process, how property taxes work in the county, the county budget and school funding.
Harris will use her fellowship to build capacity for Community Voices. This includes pursuing grants, adding advisory board members, and recruiting more residents to help develop and distribute a weekly newsletter. The Community Voices team currently includes local volunteers from churches, nonprofits and businesses. Harris’ goal is to raise funds to hire part-time, community-based contributors.
Both Harris and Cheuk see being the first CIM Fellows as a learning experience, as well as a way to flex their community-building skills.
“I’m learning about access to news,” Harris said. “Through this fellowship, I hope to expand access to information that reflects the community’s voice and promotes civic engagement.”
Cheuk expressed similar thoughts. “I’m so grateful to receive a CIM fellowship because it gives me an opportunity to share information and news that supports mutual understanding, collaboration and collective action,” he said.
The Charlottesville Inclusive Media Fellowship is open to current members of the Informing Communities Roundtable. This first year is supported by a grant from the Solidarity Program of the Charlottesville Area Community Foundation, which allows CIM’s partners, Vinegar Hill Magazine, In My Humble Opinion talk show and Charlottesville Tomorrow, to offer community leaders support and stipends. Fellows receive $1,000 per month over 12 months.
