Barbara Grady
reporter
reporter
I am a freelance reporter who often writes about education, at-risk youth and public health. I was the lead reporter on a San Francisco Public Press project (funded by this organization) about Healthy San Francisco, the city's universal health care access plan, looking at its economic sustainabilty and what that portends for federal health reform. I was also worked on the Oakland Local series about incarceration and its damage to youth and families, which was also featured on this site. Before freelancing I was a staff reporter for the Oakland Tribune where I was lucky enough to win a Sigma Delta Chi award from the Society of Professional Journalists, and, earlier, a senior correspondent for Reuters News Agency.
What does it take to keep students from low-income and troubled home lives out of the school to prison pipeline? Caring adults and mentors who believed in them as well as a safe and secure environment are key.
Two out of three kids who drop out of Oakland, CA's, public schools come into contact with the criminal justice system, according to an Oakland Unified School District report. In some of Oakland's poorest neighborhoods, more than half of high school students do not graduate.
<p>What one journalist learned while reporting on San Francisco's program to provide access to health care for all of its residents.</p>