What it means to be a community newspaper

This year, CCWF Paper Trail has been in the lucky position to sponsor and participate in a handful of events. On Oct. 18, we co-sponsored our CCWF Breast Cancer Walkathon. Back in June, we did the same with the LGBTQIA+ walkathon.

Yes, our main goal is to put out a monthly newspaper. But here’s why we’re also supporting additional events: we’re seeking to build a stronger, wider community within our facility.

During our first journalism cohort, when we were forming Paper Trail, we tackled the task of tagline as well as a mission statement.

The mission statement we wrote as a team (always located in the blue box to the right, under the paper’s name) states that the paper “engages with community, promotes hope, creates positive solutions, and amplifies voices rarely heard.”

The LGBTQIA+ community and survivors of cancer are groups small in number who often feel unseen, misunderstood, or undersupported. For those reasons, Paper Trail chose to partner with the LGBTQIA+ incarcerated person-run organization to facilitate their walkathon.

As one organizer shared on the day of the event, the walkathon was not about achievements or accomplishments; it was simply about self-acceptance and to emphasize that love is love.

We want to show that our actions match our words, so we wanted to amplify the voices of a small community at CCWF.

Similarly, for the Breast Cancer Awareness Walkathon, Paper Trail chose to partner with Comfort Care, a very small organization at CCWF that supports hospice care, grief counseling, and assistance when individuals receive life-changing health diagnoses.

In 2024, Comfort Care sponsored its first Breast Cancer Awareness Walkathon, so when the opportunity presented itself this year, Paper Trail was all in to help raise awareness.

Breast cancer impacts countless individuals worldwide, including at CCWF. As one participant shared after the event, she had felt alone following her diagnosis.

However, in seeing all the individuals come together on Oct. 18, she felt like she belonged to a larger community.

For each of these events, incarcerated individuals attended as guests or participants and were invited to celebrate alongside other community members.

They walked, cried, laughed, cheered, danced, and uplifted their peers in a display of unity and harmony.

Our journalism guild training, however, is still our most direct way to meet the goal of community building and support.

In our inaugural editorial, we wrote about our hope to offer regular journalism classes and extend an opportunity for individuals interested in reporting to join us “to continue the legacy we’re in the process of creating.”

On June 16, we celebrated the graduation of our second guild cohort, selected for their desire to give back to the CCWF community as writers and reporters.

Sixteen participants spent 15 weeks learning about journalistic principles and crafting stories. Many of them are now on our team as contributing writers, producing at least two stories per quarter.

We’re excited to start training our third journalism guild cohort. Stay tuned for the upcoming listening sessions scheduled for the second week in November, followed by the training in early 2026.

We have more events in mind and look forward to celebrating more with our community. We want to train more individuals to become reporters for our newspaper.

We want to sponsor and collaborate with organizations that share our goals and ideals. And, most of all, we want to invite CCWF residents to become more involved with our community.