I want to thank everyone who has donated or attended a Platia event in 2025. The idea was a big one: To take service journalism out of the gate-keeping newsrooms and teach the community how to care for itself through events. And the events shouldn't make you feel bad. You should feel positive, energized and ready to take action for your neighborhood, friends and family. I want to bring information to you in ways that encourage actions, like discussion, open questions and chunking, rather than push a bunch of articles at you.

In keeping with transparency, it's important to me to explain where your time and money has gone. I know many of you who participate are going through your own life struggles, and yet you spend time to be part of a community. Thank you so much. Here's what your partnership has done. The impact of The Platia has been tangible. 

Since June we’ve held crafting and discussions on:

• Food redistribution 
• Overdose prevention 
• Crowd deescalation
• Mass Incarceration 

These events have had between 4 and 10 paying participants each, with all of them being 40 and under, living around Center City, Philadelphia, and having an interest in community service and the arts. They have paid from $5 to $20 to attend. A handful have come for free and promised a donation when they can. Several have purchased retail from the venue after the workshop.

We introduce ourselves and why the topic matters to us. We share wine or coffee while sitting on couches. Sometimes we draw or make keychains while we talk. At each event people have received something to take home, like a Narcan kit, or deescalation one-pager to remember in the heat of the moment. 

I have done no paid marketing. For each event I:

• Post to several local FB groups and Discord channels. 
• My venue partner messages her members, who do not pay to attend in-house events. 
• Post fliers at coffee shops around Philly. 
• Reply to people online looking for things to do in Philly. 

In former big media roles I would be taking this time of year to quantify reach: how many millions of page views and social impressions? As the owner of a micro newsroom, I have no page views, but I do have actual impact:

• Everyone who came to overdose prevention has already used and requested more Narcan. 
• One of those people set up their own Narcan distribution center. 
• Four bags of winter clothing have been donated to a mutual aid partner. 
• Together, the Platia community purchased a hot water dispenser and enough coffee for winter outreach for a mutual aid partner. 
• A group commissioned me to provide private training based on a public event. 
• Together, the Platia community collected four boxes of books for incarcerated folks, to be dispensed through a partner organization. 

It has cost me around $1000 to run this program since June. That has included: 

• $150 Donation to the venue that allows me to host monthly for free. 
• $150 Donation to mutual aid groups that have provided me information. 
• $200 Payment to specialized trainers. 
• $300 Event items, like wine and craft supplies, gas to transport items, last-minute needs for community donations. Marketing print-outs, staple gun, etc.
• $350 Website, domain, LLC status that will enable me to secure grants and bigger donations. This cost will go down next year, and I'll be able to pay partners more.

What would I like to see next year? 

• I am choosing fiscal sponsorship over 501c3 to keep events and decisions as open to the community as possible, without a board or extra paperwork.
• I would love venue partners in other neighborhoods, to expand the reach of programs. 
• It would be great to host joint events with more mutual aid groups to have a better understanding of the civic ecosystem and how my skills can help. 
• I would like to pay myself. Right now my writing pays the bills for The Platia. 
• I would like to email list to grow, even with out of town subscribers, just to get the word around about a new form of journalism that teaches and informs without scolding. 

If you can partner, want to hear more about my work, or have an idea that can help. Please reach out. I want to know what I can do to bring civic work to your life.