Impact Stories

A story about how student achievement went up after a San Francisco school opened a homeless shelter in its gymnasium led to extended hours, with help from volunteers, and plans are underway to create a second shelter in another San Francisco school. The reporter, Gail Cornwall, also heard from a parent determined to start a similar program in Albuquerque, New Mexico. The article won first place in the Features/Small Newsroom category of the Education Writers’ Association 2022 Awards and a 2022 John Swett Award for Media Excellence from the California Teachers Association.

Throughout 2022, Mongabay, a nonprofit environmental news platform, published a range of solutions stories on the issue of conservation that, on average, garnered 91% more page views than its problem-focused stories. Readers spent 11% more time reading the solutions stories, and their internal “engagement score” was higher by 23%.

The Thomson Reuters Foundation now regularly includes solutions journalism modules in its courses designed for reporters and for NGO chief sustainability officers interested in improving their media skills. Corinne Podger, a trainer for the foundation, said, “We have found that a solutions journalism module helps NGOs improve their understanding of the rigor that journalists need, and helps journalists use NGOs more effectively to inform reporting.”

The solutions journalism-focused Fort Wayne Media Collaborative in Indiana published a solutions story by Dave Gong about the Fort Wayne-based Just Neighbors program, which places advocates in courtrooms before judges who hear eviction cases. The advocates help tenants who are close to eviction navigate the complex legal system that governs tenant-landlord relations. The story was shared just days later by both the court executive for the Allen County Courts and the executive director of the Fort Wayne Housing Authority.

The Great Salt Lake Collaborative, a coalition of 23 news and education partners covering challenges facing the Great Salt Lake, took home the top prize of $20,000 in the national “Local that Works” contest. The award is a project of Current, a nonprofit news organization that covers public media for industry professionals. Finalists were chosen from a pool of 96 public broadcasters, nonprofit newsrooms and other media groups. The collaborative has produced over 150 stories covering issues like the Great Salt Lake’s dwindling water levels and solutions for abating the crisis, such as the project “At Water's Edge,” (https://www.deseret.com/interactive/2022/10/14/what-happens-if-great-salt-lake-dries-up-solutions) published by Deseret News. Heather May, project manager of the collaborative, said, “I think the focus on solutions is what has brought hope to the community, which I think everyone is yearning for.”

After the Kansas Leadership Center Journal, a civic issues magazine, published a solutions story about how a small group in Emporia, Kansas, is working to bridge ethnic and linguistic differences (https://klcjournal.com/emporia-spanish-speakers/), the Journal organized an event that drew 45 people, about half of whom identified as Hispanic. Some attendees — who also included a state legislator, the Emporia city manager and two city commissioners — expressed hope that the group would remain connected.