Deadline: 21 November 2024
The Center for Health Journalism is seeking applications for its Child Welfare Symposium and Impact Reporting Fund to support ambitious investigative or explanatory projects on the child welfare and foster care systems, as well as the social and economic policies and conditions that can strengthen or weaken families and communities.
They encourage trauma-informed reporting, with an eye toward systemic inequities. They also welcome stories that explore promising initiatives to support children and families.
The Child Welfare Symposium is free and open to journalists. It will explore policy and journalism on the child welfare system, which investigates and removes children from their homes at alarming rates, disproportionately impacting children of color, and leading to worse outcomes and compounding family trauma.
Themes
- Projects should focus on the child welfare and foster care systems, as well as efforts to prevent kids from entering these systems in the first place. Projects could incorporate one or more of the following themes:
- The impacts of the child welfare and foster care systems on children and families.
- Safety net programs, their effectiveness, and their impact on family stability.
- The effectiveness of government reforms to improve the child welfare system and keep more children out of foster care.
- New approaches to improving outcomes and to keeping families together.
- The intersection of race/ethnicity and/or class in child welfare outcomes.
Funding Information
- Journalists who attend the virtual program, which runs from 8:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. PT, are eligible to apply for our Impact Reporting Fund on Child Welfare, which provides reporting stipends of $2,000 to $10,000 and five months of one-on-one mentoring as reporters work on journalism projects for their outlets in partnership with the Center.
- Grantees receive:
- Reporting grants of $2,000-$10,000.
- Five months of professional mentorship from a veteran journalist.
- Monthly virtual cohort meetings.
- Eligibility to compete for a $1,000-$2,000 engagement grant and five months of one-on-one engagement mentoring.
Eligibility Criteria
- To be eligible for the Impact Fund, journalists must attend the October 24 Child Welfare Symposium.
For more information, visit Center for Health Journalism.
