The Urban Activist

Founder Susana Fernández Molina of The Urban Activist worked in finance for many years and, passionate about cities, saw a need for a storytelling platform about creative approaches to pressing urban issues. The Urban Activist focuses on visual storytelling and solution-driven reporting to engage the public and spark new ways of thinking. She believes a story out of New York can inspire action in Nairobi. What is effective in Buenos Aires could also work in Berlin.

"The grassroots organisations in our cities don’t always get enough coverage. But these are the people we need to meet, to understand global topics from a local perspective. When local voices are excluded, it limits the discussion and reinforces the mainstream views," Susana says. 

The Urban Activist investigates local initiatives and people on the ground who are working on responses to problems, creating diversity in voices. Susana says, "I think we have too much negative news and people don't think positively. For example, people feel like they can't do anything about climate change. We want to inform them so that they take action."

The Urban Activist operates as a non-profit and keeps the publication free of ads. The platform relies on grants and partnerships with non-profit organisations for its funding.