About the Project
The Bloomfield Information Project is a community news service dedicated to making Bloomfield more informed, engaged, and resilient. We launched in March of 2020 in response to Bloomfield’s acute need for news and information at the start of the pandemic.
Our goal is to understand your vision for Bloomfield and provide the information, context, and connection you need to make that dream a reality. So we’re part reporter and part community advocate. And we’re entirely dedicated to bringing people together to make our community a better place.
You can read more about the Project in our first post here. And we’d love for you to get involved in shaping our work. You can contact us for ways to get involved here.
The Project is an initiative of the Community Info Coop, a Bloomfield-based nonprofit run by Simon Galperin, the coordinator of the Bloomfield Information Project.
The Community Info Coop’s mission is to equip people with the tools and information they need to strengthen democracy. The Bloomfield Information Project informs the Coop’s national programs.
What we do
We’re a participatory media project. That means our goal is to get as many people involved in the strategic decisions we make, the content and resources we produce, and the events we plan.
So you’ll find us conducting interviews, reporting, hosting listening sessions, and canvassing to understand your needs and figure out what news and information we can provide to help you meet them.
Our team
Simon Galperin, Director
Simon is the founder of the Bloomfield Information Project and our Director. He helps develop and lead programs to meet the community’s news and information needs.
Simon moved to Bloomfield in 2017 and was raised in Bergen County. He has worked in journalism innovation since 2013 and received his B.A. in Journalism and Media Studies from Rutgers University before completing an M.A. in Engaged Journalism in 2016 at the Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at CUNY. In 2022, he was a JSK Journalism Fellow at Stanford University.
Olivia Rizzo, Civic Info Producer
Olivia is our Civic Info Producer. She helps produce our award-winning Daily Bulletin, reports on issues that matter to residents, and supports our other news services. She joined us in 2021 to develop templates and resources we use in our community reporter programs.
Olivia was born and raised in Cedar Grove, just up Bloomfield Ave. She’s a freelance journalist with a B.A. from The College of New Jersey in Journalism/Professional Writing and Women’s and Gender Studies. She’s worked in editorial roles for seven years, most recently at NJ.com as a Local Government Reporter.
Nikki Villafane, Engagement Coordinator
Nikki is our Engagement Coordinator. She helps run our community reporter and ambassador programs and coordinate outreach, events, and marketing. She joined us in 2021 as our first Civic Info Producer.
Nikki moved to Bloomfield in 2006 and is originally from the Midwest. She’s worked for more than 15 years in human resources and staffing and recently received her B.A. in Television and Digital Media from Montclair State University with a minor in Latino and Latin American Studies.
Our commitments
Collaboration
We trust and respect you. We are committed to working with you to provide the news, information, and community connection you need to live your best life.
We don’t know everything. But we do know there are people and communities in Bloomfield with knowledge and lessons to share with us. And we’re committed to sharing our resources and skills in return so we can build power together.
Justice
We are dedicated to making Bloomfield a community free from systems of oppression. In particular, we seek to dismantle the systems that have historically marginalized and exploited people of color, women, immigrants, indigenous communities, the working class, and LGBTQ people, among other groups.
In their place, we’re committed to uplifting people and organizations dedicated to equity and inclusion. We are dedicated to being such an organization ourselves.
Independence
We’re committed to working on our community’s behalf and not on behalf of special interests. So, we subscribe to the standards for editorial independence established by the Institute for Nonprofit News.
The Bloomfield Information Project retains full authority over editorial content to protect the best journalistic and business interests of our organization. We maintain a firewall between news coverage decisions and sources of all revenue. Acceptance of financial support does not constitute implied or actual endorsement of donors or their products, services or opinions.
We accept gifts, grants and sponsorships from individuals and organizations for the general support of our activities, but our news judgments are made independently and not on the basis of donor support.
The Project may consider donations to support the coverage of particular topics, but our organization maintains editorial control of the coverage. We will cede no right of review or influence of editorial content, nor of unauthorized distribution of editorial content.
Transparency
We are committed to transparency in every aspect of funding our organization.
Accepting financial support does not mean we endorse donors or their products, services or opinions.
We accept gifts, grants and sponsorships from individuals, organizations and foundations to help with our general operations, coverage of specific topics, and special projects. Our news judgments are made independently – not based on or influenced by donors. We do not give supporters the rights to assign, review, or edit content.
We will always disclose all donors who give $1,000 or more per year but the list below includes donors who have given in any amount. As a nonprofit, we will avoid accepting donations from anonymous sources, and we will not accept donations from government entities or political parties. We will not accept donations from sources who, deemed by us, present a conflict of interest with our work or compromise our independence.
See our continuously updated list of financial supporters here.