Nancy Flores, editor and publisher, Austin Vida

Impact snapshot from a Press Forward grantee newsroom

By Mark Glaser

Who: Nancy Flores, editor and publisher, Austin Vida

What: Flores relaunched an online magazine that had been shuttered for five years, reimagining it for a new generation of bi-cultural Austinites with a solutions journalism lens. Austin Vida is a digital Latino news and culture outlet. 

Austin Vida has curated monthly Cultura Guides with the best arts and culture events (here’s the latest one for June); it has provided immigrant resources in the wake of ICE raids; and has collaborated with public media to create the Austin Cultura radio show and reported with Austin PBS on heat islands and food deserts.

Where: Austin, Texas, with a strong focus on the Latino community, which make up 33% of the population of the city. 

Why: Its mission is to amplify, inform and celebrate the Latinidad of the local community with culturally competent news and cultural coverage that centers the voices of the community. The goal is for the underserved community to be represented in the larger story of Austin. Austin Vida empowers the community by featuring its stories, events and culture. “Through our stories, we strive to create a sense of belonging,” Flores said.

Austin Vida recently hosted Historias of Resilience, a personal essay reading event. Photo by Mari G. Hernandez for Austin Vida.

How: Austin Vida has engaged its audience with a community essay series, “My Austin Vida,” which has:

• Included personal essays through the lens of resilience. These included “When I Felt Like I Belonged Here” and “How Finding Community, Courage Helped Me Survive College.” The series fits in one of Austin Vida’s core values of being community-centric.
• Had an enthusiastic response from the audience, Flores said. “Because the essays ranged in viewpoints, there was something about each essay that stood out for everyone.”
• Inspired the first “My Austin Vida Community Reading” event which brought the stories to life. 
• The goal with the series and event is to create a proof of concept so it can become self-sustaining and spark financial support to become a regular essay series. “Our biggest hope with the event is that attendees realize their stories are worthy of being told and that they are encouraged to share them with others,” Flores said.

Quotable: “Press Forward has allowed us to expand our team by bringing on a gente engagement specialist to elevate Austin Vida’s audience strategy, renewed a contract for our associate editor who is spearheading the community essay series and event, and hired a spring intern who wrote articles on everything from ICE activities in Austin to mental health news.”