This post is part of a series on the recipients of Press Forward’s Open Call on Closing Local Coverage Gaps. Read the series here.

After the death of Aracely Zavala was declared an accident by the Monterey County Sheriff’s Office, Voices of Monterey Bay Reporter Royal Calkins suspected foul play.  Caulkins spent months investigating the case – discovering that the woman’s case file had disappeared from the sheriff’s department.

“It was basically swept under the rug,” Voices of Monterey Bay co-founder Claudia Meléndez Salinas said of the case.

Calkins’ investigation also revealed that the woman, whom many people dismissed as a person with an addiction, may have had a relationship with a prominent person with connections to the sheriff’s office. Calkins’ story led to the department reopening the case, and an investigative reporting award from INN, which the judges said was a “shining example of accountability reporting.”

Meléndez Salinas and fellow journalists started the publication in 2017 in the majority immigrant community of Salinas to “amplify voices that were not being covered in the greater Monterey Bay area region.” They also started a youth reporting program to cultivate the next generation of reporters from the community.

With a two-year grant from Press Forward, the Voices team plans to hire a business development lead and programs manager to help the publication become sustainable.

“We are very proud of what we’ve accomplished in the last seven years, but we know we can take this forward,” Meléndez Salinas said. “This area needs more storytelling that is reflective of the community and that unites people in a way that empowers them to make changes.”

Read more stories from the Voices of Monterey Bay.

Image: Teen journalism students and their instructors visiting county government office as part of the Young Voices Media Project with Voices of Monterey Bay co-founder Claudia Meléndez Salinas, center. Photo by Carlos René Castro.