Community improvement advocates must effectively tell their story if they are to marshall the political support and economic investment necessary to transform neglected communities. Considering that need, community stakeholders must improve their communications capacities to help journalists and the public better understand important issues and initiatives. To be sure, effective development leadership is increasingly important to communities that remain outside the economic, political and social mainstream. Community stakeholders need to effectively engage journalists because the news media shapes the lens through which people perceive events and interpret issues.

Considering their clout, journalists have an obligation to improve their understanding of the regions in which they operate - especially challenged communities that have been largely neglected. Indeed, faced with the growing challenge of attracting and retaining readers and viewers, more and more news organizations are now trying to enhance their credibility by building more connections to the communities they cover.

The purpose of Toolbox is two-fold:

1. To provide tools to help build the communications capacity of community-based organizations to effectively integrate media concerns into their on-going policy advocacy activities. In short, we seek to empower community organizations to influence the production of the media images of their neighborhoods.
2. To provide the news media with information on how improved community connections leads to better news coverage and to provide tools that facilitate improvements in such public engagement.