At the end of September we are planning to launch the community reporters and associated community websites that house the content and, more importantly, showcase people’s work.

Once you have taken part in our workshops, you may find that you still need support in creating stories and news.

Don’t worry - we will still be able to provide you with one-to-one support, providing we don’t have other commitments.

If you need support don’t hesitate to contact Graeme or Jane on 0161 203 4422 or by email at info@mcin.net

Exciting news - we have managed to arrange behind the scenes visits for our new community reporters on 27 and 28 June.

And we hope to arrange a second round of visits towards the end of September.

If you are an individual who doesn’t belong to a specific group, then you can still become a community reporter. You will have to be able to fit in around our schedule of group workshops. And it is possible that we may ask you to come along to one of the group sessions, rather than have a 1 to 1 session.

All you have to do is contact Graeme (graeme@mcin.net) or Jane (info@mcin.net) for more information. Alternatively you can ring us on 0161 203 4422

We were extremely busy through out May and the beginning of June signing people up as potential Community Reporters and delivering introduction sessions and workshop sessions.

The people we signed up at Cheetham Jobs Fair have completed their introductory sessions and are now ready to start creating their content. There will be links to their blogs on this site.

The meeting with the Monsall Women’s Group went very well and they are due to start their workshops this Thursday. We are also due to start working with a group from Cheetham Sure Start at the end of the month.

We have also been meeting with Chatterbox - a community outreach project in North Manchester. Of the initial 20 people who express an interest in becoming Community Reporters, 12 people have signed up for the workshops.

As you can see not only are we playing around with the look of the site (and watch this space for a radical new look coming soon!), but we have also been playing around with new names for the site and we have come up with Web Connect Community Reporters.

Web Connect is a partnership of local community portal sites which is co-ordinated by MCIN.

The aim of the network is to empower local communities in Greater Manchester by improving access to appropriate, accessible public, private and community and voluntary services through community portal sites. These sites are virtual communities that provide a sense of community and belonging, a wide range of local jobs as well as a chance to showcase the vibrancy and sense of place of the community.

And as you know the Community Reporters will be feeding news and information into these virtual communities and contributing to that vibrancy and sense of place - in short connecting people through the web.

Post a comment and let us know what you think of the new name.