Local newsrooms long have known that they need to improve their coverage of communities of color and other groups who have been historically left out of stories or who have been depicted in stereotypes, without complexity and nuance.

Coverage is improving, but much work remains ahead. To help newsrooms and communities better reach one another, COLab, with generous funding from Colorado Media Project and in partnership with Spotlight PA, is developing a statewide, online diverse source directory.

Amplify Colorado is a publicly accessible directory of experts from communities of color and other diverse communities that newsrooms need to better serve, including, but not limited to, women, youth, elders, LGTBQ+, Coloradans with disabilities, rural residents, veterans, immigrants and refugees. Amplify also includes reporters’ and editors’ contact information so community members can more easily find them.

This guide of experts from diverse backgrounds comes is response to calls from Black, Latinx, Asian, South Asian, Native Hawaiian, Pacific Islander and Indigenous community members and journalists who gathered in 2021 and 2022 as part of the COLab-led Voices Initiative.

Voices members sought a tool to help reporters amplify the experiences and expertise of all Coloradans. Amplify is one step toward that goal.