So what exactly is RVoices?
RVoices is an interactive, neighborhood-based community journalism project created by RNeighbors, Rochester’s Neighborhood Resource Center. The site was funded by a grant from the Southern Minnesota Initiative Foundation (SMIF) [1], and financial support from Think [2]. This site was created to foster civic engagement, creating an online community. RNeighbors believes communication and citizen involvement are vital for great neighborhoods and a great city.
RVoices offers an opportunity for residents to share community information and concerns, discuss and debate upcoming city projects, connect with local government leaders and businesses, and build community connections and relationships. The RVoices website is a communication tool that connects Rochester citizens in an online community which encourages civic discourse.
You can be part of RVoices!
You have the right to listen up. Anything you blog, will be read by the Rochester online community.
You have the right to write about your thoughts and opinions, and even to disagree with other bloggers, but always with courtesy and respectfulness. If you decide to blog, you will be joining an online community and your words will be public.
- Take part in RVoices conversations by responding to posts, share your opinions and thoughts.
- Post your organization’s events on the RVoices community calendar.
- Become a roving Rochester reporter and submit stories about your “beat” - whether it is local sports, arts, gardening, politics or some other passion. We want to hear about what’s going on in your world!
- Start your Neighborhood Association’s own blog. Post meeting dates, meeting minutes, and have interactive conversations on crime watch and neighborhood issues.
Take the time to read our Frequently Asked Questions [3] and our Terms of Use [4] to discover the guidelines for our online community.
And last but not least. A thought to ponder.
“I hope you have found ideas and causes that are profoundly meaningful to you, and that you will not shy away from adding your voice to the public discourse. But we also hope that you have developed the capacity to imagine, even if for only a moment, what must be in the mind of a person with whom you profoundly disagree. If you have learned to do this, you will never be able to hate or defame that person, for you will have looked into, and seen first-hand, the humanity in the other that unites us all.”
-President Tilghman, Princeton University 2006 Commencement Remarks [5]