Impact Stories

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel received $100,000 for a solutions-driven project called "Milwaukee’s Promise," led by reporter James E. Causey. This project, launched in June 2020, is focused on how to build a place where every life is valued regardless of skin color, which Causey says Milwaukee used to do to a much greater degree. The project also attracted support from the Greater Milwaukee Foundation, which gave an additional grant to support the work of a Journal Sentinel photographer.

With schools around the world trying to figure out how to bring children back during COVID-19, The Local, an English-language digital news publisher in Europe, reported on a successful strategy in Denmark — keeping children outdoors much of the day. (This story was a part of a series entitled "Confronting Coronavirus.") After reading that piece, teachers in Piedmont, Italy, the region with the second-highest number of coronavirus cases in that nation, tried out many of the same measures. The Local reported on this development in “Can Outdoor Teaching Enable Italy to Safely Reopen Schools?” Piedmont’s results were good, and additional schools in Italy reopened after seeing the results.

This European multimedia magazine published its very first issue called “The Silver Lining,” which was entirely dedicated to stories of solidarity and responses to the COVID 19 crisis across Europe. Editor-in-Chief Kyrill Hartog said all the publication’s measures of success —
social media metrics, readership targets and website traffic — grew substantially in the week it launched the magazine, and on some channels the reach and engagement grew by 550 percent. Hartog said the issue also grew immediately into a 50,000-euro partner project (co-funded by the European Cultural Foundation, Robert Bosch Stiftung, and others) called Summer of Solidarity (summerofsolidarity.eu). This project is a consortium of over 50 media organizations, and Are We Europe was asked to be a part of the core editorial team, in charge of story production, commissions and social media outreach.

After The Philadelphia Citizen highlighted a basketball program in Virginia that helps keep people out of prison, Philadelphia Youth Basketball created a similar program called I Am Because We Are. In 2019, The Citizen wrote about the Virginia program, called RVA League for Safer Streets, and also invited one of its leaders to talk at its Ideas We Should Steal Festival (https://thephiladelphiacitizen.org/ideas-we-should-steal-festival-videos/). Aaron Crump, a coach and mentor for Philadelphia Youth Basketball, said his organization adapted the RVA League approach in collaboration with that program’s founders. Along with basketball, the program includes life skills, mentoring and a positive code of conduct.

The Current, a nonprofit digital publication based in Lafayette, Louisiana, secured financial support in the form of sponsorships from two local health care providers by putting forward a pitch for a solutions journalism series, “Lifeline: COVID,” focused on the provision of health care and other pandemic-related services by telephone. The publication raised $8,500 between the two sponsorships. Christiaan Mader, founder and executive editor, said: “Our biggest sponsor leapt at the idea and asked us to create a [sponsorship] level 50% higher than what we tried to sell. That wouldn’t have happened with a typical investigative project, especially in this [media] market.”

The Current influenced policy in Lafayette, Louisiana, with a solutions journalism article showing how other jurisdictions in the state were allocating part of their CARES Act relief money to housing assistance, which Lafayette Parish refused to do. The story was republished by two other publications in the state, adding scrutiny to the parish’s initial decision and emboldening council members, local housing activists and organizations to pressure decision makers. Ultimately, the parish’s leaders agreed to redirect $200,000 (https://thecurrentla.com/2020/housing-and-unemployment-a-serious-crisis-regardless-as-lafayette-commits-all-hud-coronavirus-relief-to-small-business-grants/) of its housing funds to help vulnerable people pay for rent, mortgages and shelter assistance during the pandemic.