As we transform Uprise RI into the interactive resource promised in our last update, we want to keep you updated on what’s coming soon, the awesome stuff we have planned for the future, and how you can help us get there. Last week, we gave some brief details on our upcoming features and I’d like to add some more details.

As promised, our unique brand of journalism is not going away. Over the past week, a series of guest writers, many of whom are well-known in the community, have begun their stories on important local issues that until now have been swept under the rug or ignored entirely. You are going to be very interested in what they have to share. If you have a story that needs to be told, reach out and give us the details.

We have a few features coming in July that we are very excited about. The first is The Helping Hand, a well-organized library of free and very affordable resources across the state for those that “need a hand”, with money-saving tips, tricks, and advice for handling many different types of situations. We’re building this up quickly but continue to accept submissions through the remainder of June. If you are a state employee with tips for navigating state services, an expert in a topic that our readers may often encounter, a non-profit, or offer a free or super low-cost service that you feel our readers could benefit from, let us know.

RI-Views will allow Rhode Island residents to share their unique experiences dealing with our many state agencies, some of which are not known for their outstanding service. The goal of RI-Views is to improve the quality of state services in RI by soliciting direct feedback, sharing that feedback with these agencies, and most importantly, letting those in our community know that they are not alone – their issue may have happened to others too. But wait, there’s more. RI-Views won’t only be for state agencies. By overwhelming demand, it will also feature a database of RI landlords, allowing tenants to post detailed reviews of how they are treated, response times for problems, and more. Finally, renters will have a candid resource to research if the property they intend to rent is well-maintained and if issues get resolved in a reasonable amount of time.

RI Rank is being integrated directly into Uprise RI and significantly upgraded. Each legislator will have their own profile page with their historical voting record, RI Rank scores, contact info, election results, and more. Additionally, RI Rank will feature a special mobile-optimized page you can bookmark that will allow you to quickly look up the contact info of any legislator and reach out to them using your avenue of choice.

Oh, there’s one more thing…

In 2022, the Can We Fix It podcast came to an end. But as we head into the 2nd half of 2023, a whole new CWFI-inspired podcast is coming and if the test shows are any indication, you’re in for quite a treat.

We expect both RI-Views and The Helping Hand to launch in July, first to our generous monthly donors during a test period, and then to everyone. Our new podcast is set to drop in early August, with the first episode being made available to monthly donors a week earlier. Our generous supporters are the ones making these features possible and while we intend to keep all of our content free to everyone without any paywalls, we feel it’s fair to give those who helped us build these features an early peek.

Lastly, in preparation for the 2024 legislative session, we’re working on a tool that makes state legislation super-easy for everyone to understand. It’s so powerful and informative, that we expect state legislators might use it themselves. That’s all we can share right now but as we get closer to the next session, we’ll reveal more and demonstrate its abilities.

As always, I want to extend a sincere thank you to everyone that has supported and continues to support Uprise RI.