2022 National Fellowship Summaries - as of January 27, 2023
Lynn Arditi, The Public’s Radio (Providence)
Arditi’s three-part series, Chasing the Fix, explored how holes in the social safety net, including the lack of affordable housing and access to mental health services, as well as stigma, have impacted people who use illicit drugs, particularly people of color and other marginalized populations.
Part One: Chasing the Fix: Addiction treatment on wheels
Part Two: When Sobriety is not enough
Part Three: Peer support for people living on the street
Jeremy Blackman, Houston Chronicle
Texas has made it all but impossible to get an abortion. That makes it more important than ever that access to effective contraception be easy. But Texas has struggled for years to meet demand for the most effective forms of family planning, known as long-acting reversible contraceptive devices, or LARCs. In his Fellowship project, Blackman is shedding light on some of the underlying reasonsand the ways in which lawmakers and local officials can ensure greater access to reproductive health care and equity for all Texans.
Stalled Maternal Mortality Report Shows Texas Has Not Improved
Dave Boucher and Lily Altavena, Detroit Free Press
Educators for years have employed the use of controversial tactics when they believe a student is a danger to themselves or others. With added stress and tension in the classroom because of the COVID pandemic, there is anecdotal evidence that the use of restraint and seclusion is on the rise in Michigan. Boucher and Altavena analyzed records documenting that many school districts in Michigan are ignoring a Michigan law banning seclusion and restraint of school children in all but emergency situations.
Michigan tried to limit 'barbaric' practice in 2016. Educators used it 94,000 times since.
Sidebar: Small school district in Michigan's Montcalm County isolated kids 4,000 times in 5 years
Podcast: Listen to the 'On The Line' podcast: Isolated, traumatized in Michigan schools
Michigan schools charge hefty fees for restraint, seclusion records
Six districts in Ottawa County among those asking thousands to fulfill public records requests
Family fled Michigan schools to get help for their son. They found it in Pennsylvania.
Crisis intervention training puts Muskegon educators to step ahead
Early Impact:
Gov. Whitmer: 'Clear' Michigan lawmakers can improve seclusion and restraint laws
Opinion: Legislature must curb inhumane seclusion of special needs students, Op ed by Coleen Allen, Detroit Free Press
Why are schools submitting kids to this barbaric treatment? Op ed by Brian Calley, Washington Post
Elizabeth Chuck, NBC News Digital
With one out of every six children in the United States living in a family that faces food insecurity, addressing childhood hunger should be an urgent national priority. And for the past two years, it was. In March 2020, shortly after the coronavirus was declared a pandemic, Congress gave the U.S. Department of Agriculture the authority to issue a series of child nutrition waivers with the express purpose of eliminating red tape that might prevent a hungry child from accessing free meals. Chuck is reporting the hunger crisis that many families are facing following the termination of temporary food assistance during the pandemic in combination with soaring food prices. Her investigation has found that Missouri was the only state to not allow grab-and-go meals last summer, resulting in up to 97% fewer kids meals being distributed than last summer in some areas.
One state declined a simple tweak to its summer meals program. Thousands of kids paid the price.
Missouri governor responds to criticism of state's handling of summer meals program
School lunch is too costly for a growing number of families. Will a White House pledge help?
Thieves are stealing SNAP funds electronically. In most states, victims never get reimbursed. [Spanish version for Telemundo]
SNAP Skimming victims may get benefits reimbursed
Omnibus bill includes two major provisions that would help keep children fed over the summer
Natalie Fertig, Politico
Can't afford the medical marijuana you need? POLITICO wants to hear from you.
Ariel Hart, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Hart’s original reporting plan was to document health care deserts around Georgia following the closure of rural hospitals,, but soon after she returned to work from the Fellowship week, one of two safety net hospitals in Atlanta dropped a bombshell: it was closing. So her project took on new urgency and broadened to include the new health care deserts in the state’s biggest city. “Patients used to Atlanta Medical Center’s services, from regular medical ailments to its links with midwife clinics, scrambled to ask each other for options,” she wrote. “Doctors who serve emergency trauma patients spoke in fear about the closure of the only other designated ‘Level 1 trauma center’ besides Grady, capable of treating severe injuries from car wrecks, gunshots or head injuries from falls. Even worse than the loss of the neighboring trauma center will be the loss of its emergency room, which has functioned as a relief valve for Grady’s constantly overcrowded ER.” Support from the Center for Health Journalism’s grant and mentors enabled Hart to chronicle the full impact of the AMC closure in Atlanta, as well as the closure of other hospitals in the state
Atlanta council member accuses Wellstar of never wanting to provide urban health care
Shocking news of downtown hospital closure turns to dread
Atlanta Mayor: Wellstar had AMC property valued before closure announcement
Atlanta council member accuses Wellstar of never wanting to provide urban health care
Thousands of patients losing Atlanta doctors’ offices after AMS closes
Nick Judin, Mississippi Free Press
Mississippi has one of the highest housing insecure rates in the nation. In repeated Census Household Pulse Surveys, the state is near the peak of measurements of housing insecurity, missed rent payments and likelihood of foreclosure. Jackson, its capital, has one of the highest eviction rates of any city in the United States. But the scope of evictions in Mississippi is poorly understood, to say nothing of their consequences. Expert observers of housing law in Mississippi warn that record keeping on evictions is wildly inconsistent. Judin is reporting on how the threat of eviction – and actual evictions – affect the health and wellbeing of Mississippi residents
Judge Issues Temporary Restraining Order Against Sunset Village Management, Preventing Relocations
Judge Orders Independent Inspection of Cleveland Apartments After Deaths, Warnings
Ginny Monk, The CTMirror
Monk received a grant from the Center’s Kristy Hammam Fund for Health Journalism to report on the traumatic effects on children whose families experience eviction. The project focuses on the mental health effects of eviction in Connecticut, where segregation is high and two of the state’s cities are on the Eviction Lab’s list of the top evicting cities in the country.
Part I: Evictions are surging, and children often pay the price
Part II: How one ninth-grader navigated new obstacles
Part III: For evicted people, homelessness often follows
Part IV: An Eviction Is Forever: How the legal, emotional and financial costs can persist for years
Housing advocacy group announces priorities for legislative session
Translated stories
Notificación de Desalojo, Parte II: Cómo un estudiante de noveno grado superó nuevos obstáculos
Mohana Ravindranath, Stat News
Ravindranath, health tech correspondent for Stat News, is reporting on how enterprising startups, Medicaid leaders and safety net health systems are finding ways to use technology to reach low-income and underserved patients where they are, whether by loaning out tablets for telehealth, spinning up sophisticated analytics systems to predict social needs, or blending automation with in-person outreach to build trust among populations who have been excluded by traditional health care.
Chief health equity officers are growing more common. But experts say companies need to empower them
Technology could improve pregnancy care for low-income patients — if health systems can pay for it
Annabel Rocha, Illinois Latino News and Chicago Reporter
Menstrual poverty, or period poverty, is defined as a lack of access to menstrual products. It is an issue that heavily impacts the homeless as well as low income and Black and Brown women. Rocha is reporting on the systemic barriers, like sales taxes on tampons and WIC’s non-coverage of female hygiene products, that contribute to period poverty.
Period Poverty In Illinois: Community-Driven Solutions
What is the State of Menstrual Equity in Illinois?
Laura Santhanam, PBS NewsHour
Few life events reveal so much strength and vulnerability as being pregnant, giving birth and nurturing a brand new human while rebuilding one’s self. And yet the United States often fails to support people and families during those times when they most need help. Providing consistent health care coverage for an unborn child, but not for the parent, ultimately suggests a lack of concern about the health outcomes for both. Santhanam is looking into how well the U.S.health care system takes care of pregnant people, with a focus on South Dakota, where women lose their Medicaid coverage soon after birth and voters are considering expanding Medicaid to cover 42,000 more residents.
Medicaid expansion is on the ballot in South Dakota. Here’s what voters think
Hourslong drives and huge bills. Here’s what the pregnant and uninsured face in South Dakota
South Dakota passed Medicaid expansion. What’s next?
Who South Dakota’s Medicaid expansion will affect the most
Jeremy Siegel, GBH (Boston)
The public health effects of a decision more than half a century to destroy Wood Island Park to expand Boston’s airport and a continuing lack of access to public green space — are seen among children in the neighborhood today. Siegel’s narrative links the destruction of Wood Island Park to the contemporary health disparities in East Boston, revealing the decision-making behind the razing of the park and investigating the links between public policy and health disparities.
The Price of Flight: How Logan Airport Almost Destroyed East Boston, and How East Boston is Fighting Back
East Boston mothers continue decades-long fight against airport pollution
Amy Silverman, KJZZ and Arizona Daily Star
Silverman explored how Arizona residents with intellectual disabilities who live in community settings are at risk of injury or neglect because of a lack of oversight, poor pay and training for service providers and biases against people with disabilities. She collected reports documenting 10,000 incident reports and analyzed them for patterns of abuse and neglect. As a community engagement grantee, she established a 10-person advisory council to help guide her reporting priorities. To better capture the experiences of people with intellectual disabilities, she provided disposable cameras to three dozen residents of group homes and asking them to take photos that capture their daily lives.
Newspaper Stories [Note: Access the following stories using this sign-in information: Email: starcompt@yahoo.com, Password: password.]
Unsafe, Part One: Toddler born after rape of disabled mom now living with grandma
Unsafe, Part Two: For Arizona's disabled, abuse can happen anywhere, by anyone
Unsafe, Part Three: Prosecutions rare in Arizona when the victim is disabled
Unsafe, Part Four: Unsafe: Pilot program teaches sex ed to Arizonans with disabilities
Unsafe, Part Five: What Arizona is doing – and not doing — to stop abuse of disabled
Radio Stories
Unsafe: Abuse and neglect of Arizona’s most vulnerable can happen anywhere
Extended interview with the mother of the woman who gave birth at Hacienda HealthCare
Kristen Taketa, San Diego Union-Tribune
During her beat reporting as an education reporter, Taketa learned that millions of government dollars meant to pay for preschool or child care were going unused and have being returned to the government. San Diego County alone returned more than $11 million of unused child care funds to the state in 2017, according to a University of San Diego report. She wondered: how can that be, considering that waitlists for a child care subsidy have traditionally been thousands-of-families long because the state has not funded the subsidy system enough to pay for everyone who is eligible. Her Fellowship project, published in English and Spanish, provided the answers.
Part One: The real cost of child care: How California's support system falls short [El verdadero costo del cuidado infantil: Cómo el sistema de subvenciones de California se queda corto para las familias y los proveedores]
Part Two: California's child care aid misses hundreds of thousands of families who need it [La ayuda para el cuidado de niños en California no llega a cientos de miles de familias que la necesitan]
Part Four: How to find child care and get help paying for it: A parents' guide [Guía de guarderías de California: Cómo conseguir ayuda para el cuidado de niños]
Yanqi Xu, Flatwater Free Press
Nebraska’s children are being sickened and killed by the state’s signature industry – agriculture – and the state’s unwillingness to regulate it. Excessive use of commercial fertilizers and manure generated from the cattle industry have led Nebraska to have among the highest levels of groundwater nitrates in the country. The state also has the seventh highest pediatric cancer rates nationwide, and experts increasingly believe the two are linked. Xu explored the impact of agriculture and its byproduct, nitrate pollution, on the state’s residents, particularly children.
Part One: Our Dirty Water
Part Two: Quick Hit: Nebraska’s water is laced with nitrate. It’s likely harming our kids
Part Three: No nitrate police: State and local regulators can’t, or won’t, stop our drinking water from getting worse
Part Five: Nebraska’s nitrate problem is serious. Two dozen experts say how they'd solve it.
Epilogue: Nebraska's nitrate problem is serious, experts say. Can we solve it?
Early Impacts: The project reached a statewide audience, with co-publication by a variety of media outlets, including the Omaha World Herald Lincoln Journal Star, Midwest Center for Investigative Reporting, and local papers including the York News-Times), the Hastings Tribune, Grand Island Independent, KBIE, KMLF, KLNE, Norfolk Daily News, and many more. The reporter received more than 100 comments. One legislator published it in its entirely on his website, as did several Natural Resources Districts across the state (governmental agencies tasked with protecting water quality in the state.)