It was another year of MEDA telling the latest news from San Francisco’s Mission District, with the nonprofit’s two-person Communications team speaking to a dual audience of stakeholders and community members. There were 50+ blogs penned in 2021 – that’s one every week. Stories ranged from telling how funders’ dollars were being well spent to showcasing the resilience of community members during the pandemic, which disproportionately affected the Latino and immigrant community.
On the stakeholder side, MEDA’s Associate Director of Marketing & Communications Christopher Gil focused on press releases, op-eds and thought leadership pieces disseminated to an audience of the press, elected officials, partner agencies, funders and philanthropists. His favorite blog of the year was about the topping out ceremony at MEDA’s Casa Adelante – 681 Florida 100% affordable housing new construction, as he headed to the rooftop of the fourth such Mission development by MEDA.
“It was another year of ensuring stories were told that put forth MEDA’s five core values and six results, plus made those outside our community aware that San Francisco’s Latino and immigrant community was still in need of emergency relief due to the pandemic,” explains Gil. “By telling our story, and always including an equity lens, I looked to whet the appetite of reporters so that our narrative is distributed to an ever-wider audience. This helps bring resources into the Mission community.”
Brought in midstream of 2021 was Community Communications Officer Juan Mesa, who took on this new role focused on reaching out to Latinos so they could be availed of MEDA’s comprehensive free services in the Mission. Mesa brings a strong background as a reporter for Spanish-language media, coupled with his educating Latino communities on various topics. He wrote a number of bilingual client success stories this year, even making videos – or “vlogs,” if you will – to accompany many of these narratives.
“I was excited to take on the Community Communications Officer role at MEDA,” says Mesa. “It has been an honor to tell stories of our community’s resilience, which has truly shone through during the pandemic. I hope next year I will be able to start to tell more stories of recovery.”
While difficult to choose one favorite, when pressed Mesa stated that he was especially honored to tell the story of Arold Hernández, a Mission Promise Neighborhood (MPN) immigrant father whose determination led to his finding affordable and stable housing in the Mission. He also received wraparound support from MPN partners so that his son, Samuel, could start overcoming a disability.
The MEDA Communications team is already filling in its 2022 editorial calendar, although always at the ready as breaking stories develop in the Mission, and beyond.
You can read any of the 750 stories that have been written by MEDA since 2014, with blogs conveniently broken down by category. We suggest you bookmark our blog webpage and make a resolution to read more in 2022.
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Photo by Sincerely Media on Unsplash.
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