Child Welfare Symposium*
October 24, 2024
Child Welfare Impact Fund application deadline
November 21, 2024
*To be eligible for the Impact Fund, journalists must have attended the October 24 Child Welfare Symposium.
Description
The Center for Health Journalism’s Child Welfare Symposium and Impact Reporting Fund supports ambitious investigative or explanatory projects on the child welfare and foster care systems, as well as the social and economic policies and conditions that can strengthen or weaken families and communities. We encourage trauma-informed reporting, with an eye toward exploring prevention strategies that can address systemic inequities. We also welcome explorations or profiles of initiatives that help keep families together.
Our October 24 Child Welfare Symposium was free and open to journalists. It explored policy and journalism on the child welfare system, which investigates and removes children from their homes at alarming rates, disproportionately impacting children of color, and leading to worse outcomes and compounding family trauma.
Sessions included:
- The State of Child Welfare in the United States, featuring Bryan Samuels, executive director of Chapin Hall; and Youngmin Yi, assistant professor of sociology at Wellesley College.
- New Approaches for a Broken System, featuring journalist Roxanna Asgarian, author of "We Were Once a Family"; Rob Geen, founder of CWPolicy; Frank Edwards, sociologist at Rutgers University; and Jeremy C. Kohomban, president and CEO of The Children’s Village and president of Harlem Dowling.
- Trauma-Informed Reporting on Child Welfare, featuring ProPublica reporter Duaa Eldeib, and freelance writers Rebecca Nagle, host of the podcast "This Land"; and Emi Nietfeld, author of "Acceptance."
- A Practical Primer for Journalists Investigating Child Welfare Agencies, Organizations and Policies, featuring Morgan Young, investigative reporter and anchor at WFAA-TV Dallas; and Kate Martin, senior data reporter at APM Reports.
Journalists who attended the virtual program are eligible to apply for our Impact Reporting Fund on Child Welfare, which provides reporting stipends of $2,000 to $10,000 and five months of one-on-one mentoring as reporters work on journalism projects for their outlets in partnership with the Center.
Grantees receive:
- Reporting grants of $2,000-$10,000
- Five months of professional mentorship from a veteran journalist
- Monthly virtual cohort meetings
Reporting themes we support
Projects should focus on the child welfare and foster care systems, as well as efforts to prevent kids from entering these systems in the first place. Projects could incorporate one or more of the following themes:
- The impacts of the child welfare and foster care systems on children and families
- Safety net programs, their effectiveness, and their impact on family stability
- The effectiveness of government reforms to improve the child welfare system and keep more children out of foster care
- New approaches to improving outcomes and to keeping families together
- The intersection of race/ethnicity and/or class in child welfare outcomes
Sign-up for our newsletter as well for updates and deadlines for future opportunities to apply.
Don’t see your question answered there? Reach out to us at chj@usc.edu.