The 2017 National Fellowship offered journalists a chance to step away from the newsroom to learn new ways of thinking about what shapes the health and well-being of vulnerable children and benefit from critical resources that can elevate their journalism to a new level. In workshops, field trips and discussions, Fellows learned from nationally renowned health experts, policy analysts and community health leaders, from top journalists in the field and from each other. Participants "graduated" with a multitude of story ideas and sources, plus a thorough understanding of the root causes of ill health, including trauma during childhood, barriers to health care access, the built environment, parental unemployment, lack of education, exposure to community or domestic violence and lack of access to healthy food. The program was practical and inspiring, focusing on content as well as craft. We emphasized solutions journalism, journalism with impact and community engagement approaches that help journalists to make a difference.
We also explored the connections between health and place, or how neighborhood, work and home environments impact health, well-being and life expectancy. Fellows learned about innovative prevention and clinical programs that suggest ways to address chronic ills. They also received advice on engagement strategies that can help to maximize the impact of reporting. We challenged them to engage more deeply with the communities their news outlets serve. And we sent them home with reporting grants of $2,000-$10,000 to undertake substantive reporting on important health issues in their communities.
The 2017 National Fellowship was underwritten by generous grants from The Annie E. Casey Foundation, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, The California Endowment and First 5 LA.
In conjunction with the National Fellowship, we administer two funds that underwrite specialized reporting and a third fund that underwrites community engagement efforts:
- The Dennis A. Hunt Fund for Health Journalism is a competitive grants program that supports substantive reporting on community health issues in underserved communities. Each Hunt grantee participates in the National Fellowship and receives a $2,500 to $10,000 grant, instead of the National Fellowship’s $2,000 stipend, to support reporting on a community health topic. The Hunt Fund supports investigative and explanatory projects that will broaden the public's understanding of community health – examining how poverty, race, ethnicity, pollution, crime, and land-use and urban planning decisions influence the quality of life of residents as well as innovative ways to address these disparities. Past grantees have explored themes including environmental health; chronic disease and its disproportionate toll on certain communities; access to care for diverse communities; health reform innovations and challenges; and transportation challenges that interfere with prospects for good health. The Hunt Fund is supported by donations from The California Endowment and relatives and friends of the late Dennis Hunt, who co-founded the Center for Health Journalism.
- The Fund for Journalism on Child Well-Being, supported by the Annie E. Casey Foundation, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and First 5 LA, underwrites substantive reporting on vulnerable children and families. Each grantee participates in the National Fellowship and receives a $2,500 to $10,000 grant, instead of the National Fellowship stipend, to support investigative or explanatory reporting on the impact of poverty and childhood trauma. Reporters may also choose to examine the performance of the institutions and government and private programs that serve these families. We’re interested in proposals for projects that look at child welfare and child health and well-being, including, but not limited to, the impact of toxic stress; the intersection between partner violence and child abuse; the role of policy in improving prospects for children, including those in juvenile detention; and innovative approaches to the challenges that children in underserved communities face.
- The Community Engagement Fund provides supplemental grants of $2,000 to underwrite innovative community engagement strategies. Click here to read a blog post by Center Director Michelle Levander and watch a video about
Click here for a list of the 2017 National Fellows and links to their profiles and blog posts about their reporting projects.
What Some of our 2017 National Fellows Say about the Fellowship
Bethany Barnes, The Oregonian: The Fellowship is a well-curated experience that provides a pitch perfect balance of inspiration, journalist speakers and experts and peer engagement. The brain development research was fascinating and something I did not know.
Ruben Castaneda, US News & World Report: The program helped me think deeply about my sense of mission and obligation to portray diverse communities fairly and to give people in those communities a voice. It's reinforced for me the tremendous need to bring to light the issues facing distressed communities. I've learned new ways to engage with various communities and new ways to think about how to approach stories.
Lily Dayton, freelance reporter, California Health Report, New America Media: As a freelance writer, I sometimes feel isolated from the larger world of journalism beyond my desk. This Fellowship has given me the invaluable opportunity to network with a talented group of reporters, writers and editors. After a week of sharing ideas, encouragement and experiences, I left feeling inspired, encouraged and motivated—and much more connected to the journalism community at large. It was an amazing experience to be immersed in speaker sessions, field trips and collaborative workshops related to topics of community health and impactful reporting—and then to draw from this experience to delve into an in-depth reporting project of my own. My professional network has greatly expanded from this experience. The material presented at the Fellowship seminars, as well as during the field trips, really deepened my understanding of how social factors such as poverty, racism and complex trauma affect the brain, behavior and, ultimately, health outcomes.
Tessa Duvall, Florida Times-Union: The National Fellowship allowed me to connect with peers from across the country who care deeply about child well-being and welfare. We all grapple with the same struggles and seek to tell the stories that need to be told. This fellowship week has been energizing in a much-needed way. Rethinking how we approach engagement is going to be my big push going forward. We can no longer think of it as separate from the act of doing journalism, but rather an integral part of covering and connecting with our communities.
Dara Lind, Vox: This Fellowship is not just for health journalists. This is for any journalist who wants to think deeply about the connection between telling individual compelling, dramatic stories and illuminating whole systems, scientific phenomena and communities. (And, sure, caring about health helps, too.) It's given me a bunch of tools and access to the brains of a few dozen really smart professionals; awareness of the neurological underpinnings of why trauma threatens mental health, and how giving people access to therapy can help them understand their own stories; and a toolbox for putting ambitious stories together and enlisting community involvement. The editor workshops with senior fellows were terrific. After 15 minutes of discussion, I had a much better understanding of what my project would take and how to maximize its chances of success. I had assumed that the ways in which marginalization hurt health were holistic and unspecific. Seeing some examples of specific neurological pathways, and specific communities with particular problems, helped me understand that it is sometimes possible to answer the question of how disparities happen.
Barrington Salmon, BlackPress USA: This fellowship is extremely valuable. It brings together a talented diverse group of people who get the chance to pause, discuss our business and craft and learn smart ways to become better writers and reporters. I loved the ambience, the people and the process. This opened my eyes to all types of possibilities. I learned about enhancing the writing process and how to incorporate data into my stories. I also was reminded of the importance of having sensitivity to the communities I cover and the need to reflect the authenticity of the people I write about.