A few months before the pandemic began, the two of us met for the first time at a Panera Bread cafe in Raleigh, N.C., to discuss how our new nonprofit newsrooms could work together; Lyndsey is the founder of Southerly and Paola the co-founder of Enlace Latino NC.

We did not leave that meeting with a clear agenda, but we kept in touch and co-published a few stories before co-hosting a listening session in rural eastern North Carolina about housing, disaster relief, and other topics, with live English translation for the Spanish speakers in the room. Now, two years later, our organizations have grown immensely, and we’ve worked on a long list of stories, events and community engagement projects together.

A six-month collaboration in 2021 between Southerly and Enlace Latino NC was made possible by Solutions Journalism Network, which supported our reporting on the intersection of economic mobility and environmental issues in rural Latinx and immigrant communities in North Carolina.

Enlace and Southerly are small, relatively new nonprofits, with just a few part-time employees. We both wear multiple hats as leaders: editing, fundraising, audience engagement. We’re each in a handful of different cohorts and training programs. Operational funding, capacity and time are limited.

There are a couple of core reasons this partnership works so well. First, we trust each other. We communicate regularly and transparently, believe in the importance of each other’s work, and are aligned in our vision for radically improving and changing journalism to better serve our communities. Second, we always give Enlace’s audience — Spanish speakers in North Carolina — top priority.

Below are the key lessons we want to share on building a solid foundation for a bilingual partnership.

  • Build trust: Communicate and align on mission.
  • Onboard qualified people to run the project; refine skills and use of tools.
  • Place a community at the center of your work and track engagement.
  • Patience and perseverance help in finding the stories that matter.

Read the full article about building effective bilingual media partnerships by Lyndsey Gilpin and Paola Jaramillo at Medium.