IMG launches second round of community storytelling in Middletown, OH

Issue Media Group has launched the second phase of a community storytelling series for Middletown, Ohio as a “partner city” on the Soapbox Cincinnati site.

The city, which sits amid Butler and Warren counties and claims more than 50,000 residents, has a longstanding legacy as a factory town with Armco Steel, now Cleveland Cliffs, and numerous paper mills providing steady employment for generations. However, as manufacturing moved offshore and Middletown’s factory jobs diminished in the 1980s and 90s, the city’s economy and quality of life suffered.

Middletown’s local government, nonprofit leaders and private-sector businesses are developing resourceful, collaborative ideas. Earlier, the series highlighted economic, education, and healthcare advances that improved quality of life. Find all the Partner City Middletown series here.

To launch this second phase, we’re focusing on civic engagement and its impact on the Middletown community. In a centuries-old democracy, it’s all too easy for citizens to take their rights for granted. Amid lives increasingly lived in isolation behind screens, our mutual interest in vibrant communities is at risk of being forgotten. As Alexis de Tocqueville said, “[For a society to] prosper, it is necessary that … citizens be brought together … by some principal ideas.”