COMMUNITY VOICES: The innovative initiative will train and pay high school students to document the city’s sweeping changes. Community Voices members Marielys Solano and Mikala Graham, seated above, chat Saturday with members of the new Riviera Beach Youth Council, subject of an upcoming Community Voices’ report for which member Kelvin Verhovlyak captured the photos at the Riviera Beach Marina. Reporting from a Riviera Beach City Council meeting last week, below from left, were Community Voices’ Abigail Guillaume, Graham and Etienne. During a recent training session in their school newsroom, their classroom, Community Voices’ Myles Whigham, below right, with special guest Samantha Ragland and Stet News co-founder Liz Capozzi, as Guillaume checks her camera. More photos Page 6B.

Riviera Beach – Stet News has announced a groundbreaking program that connects high school students and residents with civic life in Palm Beach County.

Inspired by a national model, Stet News’ Community Voices has partnered with Inlet Grove Middle and High School to train and pay students to report news about Riviera Beach government.

Members of the school’s Multimedia Club, led by respected journalist and teacher C.B. Hanif, spend their lunchtime working with Stet News cofounders Liz Capozzi and Carolyn DiPaolo for months of training before covering their first Riviera Beach meeting this month.

They studied journalism ethics, the workings of municipal government and how to detect misinformation in the media.

Local government leaders make decisions in hundreds of meetings each month, often without public scrutiny. Community Voices invites students into the rooms where their future is being shaped.

“By engaging high school students, we encourage civic-minded community members who understand how local government works and how to hold power accountable,” Capozzi said.

The pilot program for the 2025-26 school year complements the A-rated Inlet Grove’s emphasis on career development and community service.

“Inlet Grove and Stet News share the same vision: developing college- and career-ready students who think critically, solve problems creatively, and engage fully with their community,” Principal Francisco Lopez said.

“This program is shaping the next generation of journalists — young people who will help safeguard transparency and strengthen one of the key pillars of our democracy. We are honored to provide our students with this powerful opportunity.”

Booming Riviera Beach 

Community Voices is coming at a pivotal moment as redevelopment remakes the city. Tens of millions of dollars are pouring in from private residential developers along Broadway. The city is building a $400 million water plant and a $35 million police headquarters. It is pursuing a public private partnership to build a new City Hall and recreation center.

On Nov. 15, Community Voices members covered their first assignment: a four-hour Riviera Beach City Council meeting where public land was awarded to a local developer planning a 425-unit housing project.

Changes happening now in Riviera Beach will directly affect future Inlet Grove students.

The Palm Beach County School Board has committed to building a Riviera Beach high school on the property where Inlet Grove stands. The charter school will move to the current location of Lincoln Elementary School in Riviera Beach.

Myles Whigham, a junior who lives in Riviera Beach, said the Community Voices program is helping him make sense of the changes happening around him.

“You see all these different projects, but you don’t really know what they are for,” he said. “This is helping me get more involved, and it exposes me to a possible career.”

Paying the students for their work is a key part of Community Voices.

“This initiative is about more than mentoring students,” she said. “We’re asking them to show up professionally and to produce professional work. And we’re setting a standard for civic journalism that tells the community we’re changing how local news operates in Palm Beach County.”

Two community-serving organizations

Inlet Grove Middle and High School, a district charter school, has a mission to graduate students with the skills and knowledge to be lifelong learners and responsible citizens.

The nearly 3-year-old Stet News is one of hundreds of independent news operations pursuing a nonprofit model for reporting and financing local journalism. Stet News is committed to making reliable reporting available to all.

“It’s no longer about just serving the news,” Capozzi said. “We have to serve the community as well. And part of that is inviting community members into the process.”

The Community Voices program is already getting attention.

“These teens aren’t just learning journalism,” Samantha Ragland, interim director of the American Press Institute, wrote after meeting the Inlet Grove students last week. “They’re claiming their right to shape how their community’s story gets told.”

Stet News, an IRS-certified nonprofit, underwrites Community Voices. We invite you to join us with a contribution as we build and grow the program.