Impact Stories

Ethan Brown, founder and host of the award-winning climate comedy podcast “The Sweaty Penguin,” has been hired as the journalism program consultant at the University of Rhode Island’s Metcalf Institute. Ethan says: “My motivation to join Metcalf came in part from my experience co-facilitating the Train-the-Trainers sessions through SJN’s Climate Cohort in April 2024, and subsequently training The Deerfield Scroll on SoJo. I really enjoyed being able to have a larger impact than just my own work, helping other journalists cover climate solutions.” At Metcalf, he is leading the new Climate and Environmental Science Fellowship for Local Journalism, which includes a training in science-supported solutions journalism, drawing on insights he learned as a solutions journalism writer and SJN trainer.

Twenty journalists in Peru came together to form the Peruvian Solutions Journalism Network for Integrity (Red de Periodismo de Soluciones para la Integridad), with an initial focus on promoting investigations and debate on public contracts, which are regularly subject to corruption and other inefficiencies. The network’s first contribution was the publication of articles by its founding members, covering subjects such as citizen-led monitoring of progress of public works. The impulse for the creation of this new group came from Wilber Huacasi, a journalist at La República (a major legacy paper in Lima), who initially organized a countrywide online training that for approximately 60 Peruvian journalists, with the financial support of USAID, Peruvian foundation Gustavo Mohme Llona and the Jesuit university in Lima.

As part of her work as a 2024 HEAL Fellow, Morgan Watkins helped prompt critical discussions about deploying solutions journalism within her newsroom, Louisville Public Media (LPM). These discussions led to a new editorial plan launched in summer 2024, which has begun to be implemented. Watkins says: “Our newsroom has made a decision to focus the vast majority of our stories on three principles: solutions, accountability and community-generated story ideas. We’ve heard from our community that they want to know what others are doing — and what they can do — to address the challenges we face. We decided to be more intentional about solutions journalism, because we want to better serve our community. Our aim is to continue our work toward becoming a trusted source of local news for more people in our community by diversifying our offerings and by serving more residents of our community who have been traditionally sidelined in the media.” LPM has produced more than 10 solutions-centered stories since launching its new strategy.

As a result of a solutions journalism story about a program that teaches new parents and family members to handle issues such as domestic violence, neglect and drug use, the program received support from community leaders and saw an increase in attendance by people who had read the piece. The Rev. Kennedy Jacobs, who leads the African American Family Institute and runs sessions in three local churches, praised the benefits of the article, titled “Parent Cafe program gives residents guidance, chance to connect.” The piece was written by Jasmine Hall, a student in mass communications at Bethune-Cookman University, which participated in the Solutions Journalism HBCU Educator/Black Press Academy program, coordinated by SJN.

A solutions story about a health care clinic that serves individuals with substance abuse disorders in Mombasa, Kenya, received almost five times the usual number of views on the site of the news outlet, Media for Nature. The story’s link was shared by the reporter, Ruth Keah, on her social media, which has a broad following. Moreover, the Mombasa County Health Department’s WhatsApp group engaged with the story, led by the director of the Reachout Center Trust, who responded positively to the solutions focus, which showed how people accessed care services without discrimination. Daniel Otunge of Science Africa, who is a media contact on the project, said incorporating visuals and multimedia helped propel the audience engagement. He added, “The solutions journalism approach helped highlight and foster appreciation for the critical work of nonprofit philanthropies in promoting inclusivity in access to critical health care services, particularly for key population groups, such as people suffering from drug abuse.”

A solutions story on community health volunteers in Nairobi received more than double the number of usual views on Talk Africa’s website and over 20,000 impressions on X. This high audience engagement included a retweet by the Ministry of Health, Kenya and the CEO of Amref. Talk Africa published the story when the Kenyan government institutionalized community health volunteers nationwide and launched the Electronic Community Health Information System (eCHIS-Kenya), and the story’s headline and content reflected its timeliness and relevance to the Kenyan people. Daniel Otunge of Science Africa says: “Overall, it was the timing and packaging of the story using a SoJo approach. As demanded by the SoJo style, the story was compiled using data collected directly from the beneficiaries and the community health volunteers as its primary sources. This made the story authentic and appealing to the readers. Stakeholders, including the Ministry of Health and Amref, were keen on the story as it provided a means for them to receive feedback directly from the community. Community health volunteers and health facilities were eager to disseminate the message and showcase their success in service delivery.”