SAVANNAH, Ga.— Jabari Gibbs will soon join The Current to provide accountability journalism in Glynn County. Gibbs joins Coastal Georgia’s only investigative news organization through the generosity of more than four dozen Glynn County donors and the support of Report for America.
Gibbs is a recent graduate of Georgia Southern University Armstrong Campus and a former summer intern at The Current. As a student, he reported and edited a variety of accountability stories that won statewide journalism prizes.
At The Current, Gibbs wrote stories about efforts to raise literacy rates in Chatham County public schools and forgotten histories of civil rights leaders and broke the news that the state education board quietly agreed to pay for low cost and free meal programs for Georgia public school children, even after Gov. Brian Kemp vetoed legislation that would have allowed this to happen.
“We are thrilled to have Jabari join us as our sixth full-time reporter,” said Editor in Chief Margaret Coker. “Part of our mission is to mentor a new generation of journalists and build a pipeline of talent for Coastal Georgia, and hiring Jabari is proof that our intern program is working.”
Gibbs will revive the culture of watchdog journalism pioneered a century ago by another Glynn County native son — Robert S. Abbott, the publisher of The Chicago Defender — and build on The Current’s own record of shining a light on wrongdoing and empowering civically engaged Georgians with facts needed to improve their qualities of life.
ABOUT THE CURRENT: The Current is a nonprofit news organization that provides original, data-driven watchdog journalism affecting Savannah and Coastal Georgia. It is an independent organization whose professional journalists work to increase awareness and accountability through data-based and solutions-oriented reporting that affects all our diverse communities. It is funded solely by donations from its supporters and readers.
ABOUT REPORT FOR AMERICA: Report for America is a national service program that places talented emerging journalists in local newsrooms to report on under-covered issues and communities. It is an initiative of The GroundTruth Project, an award-winning nonprofit journalism organization dedicated to rebuilding journalism from the ground up.
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