El Tecolote built a community-centered crisis response toolkit

When an emergency strikes, information gaps become painfully visible.

Whether it’s ICE raids, SNAP cuts, COVID or extreme weather events, immigrant and working-class communities are often disproportionately impacted. Yet they are usually the last to receive verified information, if they receive it at all.

In the absence of timely, accessible information, rumors spread quickly through messaging apps like WhatsApp and social media. Even when accurate information exists, it is often only available in English, buried behind paywalls or written in ways that are not actionable for people making urgent, real-life decisions.

So how can newsrooms, regardless of size, respond in real time to meet the needs of immigrant, multilingual communities?

For us, that question became urgent in October. What began as rumors of immigration raids at Home Depot stores near San Francisco escalated into confirmed reports of federal agents deployed to Alameda, only for the planned “surge” to be called off days after San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie averted enforcement after a controversial call with President Donald Trump.

Related: Trump called off “surge” in the Bay Area. Inside El Tecolote’s immigrant-centered emergency response

For 48 hours, fear and uncertainty spread quickly across communities. Using WhatsApp Communities, El Tecolote was the only newsroom in the Bay Area delivering live updates directly to Spanish-speaking audiences. What began as a small group of a few hundred members grew to nearly 1,000 in that moment alone, largely through community members inviting and adding one another.

While we learned in real time what it means to meet a community in a particular crisis, the more important question came after: what happens when the emergency ends? How can real-time infrastructure endure and adapt across different types of crisis?

In response, we’ve been developing what we are calling our Community-centered Crisis Response Toolkit, an evolving framework designed to deliver verified, real-time information for multilingual Latino communities during moments of uncertainty.

Since then, we’ve tested this approach across a range of scenarios: teacher strikes that shut down public schools, cuts to public benefits, policy changes and major events like the Super Bowl that sparked fears of ICE presence.

We’ve found that the model is both flexible and replicable.

At its core are three principles:
• The people closest to the crisis are best equipped to shape coverage
• Verified information moves fastest through trusted relationships
• Information systems must be adaptive and responsive to community needs

Together, these principles guide how we approach real-time reporting through a dynamic, multi-layered relationship. The newsroom serves as the connective tissue between communities and the critical information they need to navigate moments of crisis.

Live blogs, by and for communities

Live blogs, often deployed in regional and national newsrooms, are a powerful format for delivering real-time information. But they are typically designed for broad audiences and optimized for search, not for the specific needs of immigrant or working-class communities.

Traditional live coverage often begins and ends at the article level. It prioritizes speed and visibility, but not necessarily actionable information that is relevant to people disproportionately impacted by the news.

Our approach adapts the core elements of live blogs — short, time-stamped updates every 10-30 minutes — and embeds them within WhatsApp Communities, where information can be shaped by its members and shared with trusted networks.

During the potential enforcement surge in October, community members shared what they were seeing on the ground, including sightings of vehicles and rumored activity. Through real-time questions and testimony, we were able to clarify what had not been confirmed while communicating that we were actively verifying information. This approach helped slow the spread of rumors, debunk false claims and prioritize the updates that mattered most.

In this model, the community are active participants in how information is gathered, verified and distributed.”

Real-time messaging infrastructure

To make this work, we used WhatsApp Communities because it reflects how the communities we serve already communicate. Unlike SMS, which is one-to-one, costly and not naturally a place where dozens of updates can be shared, WhatsApp allows for layered communication:

Broadcast updates: For major emergencies like ICE raids or natural disasters, broadcast messages allow us to deliver real-time updates across our Community while still enabling community members to respond and engage with individual updates.
Groups: Some crises affect specific populations. By creating targeted pop-up Groups within the WhatsApp Community, we can provide frequent updates and facilitate conversation among those most impacted.
Direct messages: Not everyone feels comfortable asking questions publicly. WhatsApp provides a direct line to our journalists, allowing individuals to ask questions privately in a one-to-one setting.
Ongoing engagement beyond emergencies: While some people leave after a crisis subsides, many remain. This creates an opportunity to further engage with that audience between emergencies, sharing civic information, resources and cultural content that fosters participation, trust and belonging. Our approach insists that crisis infrastructure be adaptive and responsive to real and evolving community needs.

Trusted messengers and community networks

We may be the only newsroom delivering real-time updates to Spanish-speaking immigrants in San Francisco, but we are not the only trusted source in the community. Information moves through networks of service providers, faith leaders, promotoras and other key organizers. Our role is to connect, verify and move information through that ecosystem in real time.

Our approach focuses on identifying and mapping the communities we serve, and understanding where and how information already flows within them. For example, domestic workers in San Francisco often rely on networks like the Nuevo Sol Day Laborer Program.

During moments of crisis, both newsrooms and community organizations experience information overload. Our role is to ensure trusted leaders in those spaces have verified information they can share, or can direct their communities to our WhatsApp Channel.

During the October surge, for example, we worked with the city’s rapid response network to confirm that ICE activity had not been verified in San Francisco, helping prevent unnecessary fear and lost wages caused by misinformation, as well as pushing critical family planning preparation, know-your-rights and rapid-response hotline for reporting potential ICE sightings and connecting people to lawyers.

When trust is built, responsibility multiplies

“Community trust” is often discussed, but rarely defined. Trust is not just something you claim. You have to earn it and retain it. Once it exists, it creates expectation. Once you show up for one emergency, people will assume they can return to you for the next. They will message you directly. They will ask questions. They will expect you to be available.

For community-rooted newsrooms, that expectation is the work. We are not the kind of newsroom that says “not our job,” or “we don’t have the bandwidth.” Ethnic media outlets have long stepped in to meet the needs of their communities, often with limited-to-no resources. That is why community ownership of newsrooms matters: when times get tough, communities rely on organizations that are built by them, with them and for them.

Through WhatsApp Communities, the feedback pathways we’ve created with our communities have necessarily forced us to expand how we define emergencies. Not every crisis is a large-scale disaster. Many are local, ongoing or policy-driven: a school closure, a heat wave or a new enforcement rule targeting street vendors.

We are actively refining our approach to meet urgent needs without exhausting the people doing the work. That includes setting clear priorities that stem from real community needs, building partnerships outside of the newsroom and developing networked infrastructure that can be activated quickly when needed.

Entre Comunidad: A community-centered crisis response toolkit

As we’ve tested and refined our approach across different types of crises, we are formalizing this work as Entre Comunidad: a community-centered crisis response toolkit. This framework outlines how newsrooms can prepare for, respond to and sustain engagement during moments of crisis.

Before the crisis: Preparedness infrastructure
• Build direct communication channels (WhatsApp, SMS or print)
• Establish relationships with trusted messengers, community organizations and partner newsrooms
• Train staff and trusted messengers on how to provide real-time updates
• Develop shared systems that can be activated quickly
• Pre-identify high-risk scenarios (immigration enforcement, extreme weather, policy changes)
• Map impacted communities and understand how they access trusted information

During the crisis: Real-time response
• Assess the scope and urgency of the situation
• Activate trusted community networks
• Launch real-time updates through broadcast, groups or SMS
• Invite community questions to shape coverage
• Prioritize verification, rumor control and actionable information

Community feedback loop
• Monitor questions, rumors and concerns in real time
• Use direct messages and group conversations as reporting inputs
• Adjust coverage based on evolving community needs

After the crisis: Retention and transition
• Maintain relationships with the audience built during the crisis
• Transition from emergency updates to ongoing service journalism and cultural connection
• Prepare systems and audiences for future emergencies

Build with us!

In our work at El Tecolote, we’ve seen how critical emergency response and deep cultural connection are to building trust and creating a pathway for marginalized communities to have the information they need to make informed decisions and participate in civic life.

Emergency response is a core strategy, but our ultimate goal is to build lasting, adaptable civic infrastructure for communities too often left out of the information loop.

We’ve received interest from local newsrooms, organizations and leaders interested in being part of a collective information response in the Bay Area. If you’re interested in joining our work, please reach out to erika@eltecolote.org.

This article is a preview of a more hands-on workshop on how newsrooms build emergency response systems with and for their communities. We’ll be hosting these workshops at INN in June in Pittsburgh and at NAHJ in July in New Orleans.

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Our small newsroom blends investigative reporting, cultural connection with real time community news and information. Across all our platforms, we reach half a million people, with tens of thousands of those being monolingual Spanish-speakers. Our impact is outsized for our size, and we need your support to grow our work. Please consider becoming a Founding Member of our newsroom..