Race and Equity

“A lot of people think that these were poor African Americans moving out, but they were actually middle-class people, because the poor people had nowhere to go," one Georgetown researchers says of the city's rising number of displaced residents.

While many policymakers still think of concentrated poverty as an issue afflicting the nation’s big urban centers, smaller cities are increasingly home to those Americans with the greatest needs and the least resources. Take East St. Louis, for example.

Many immigrants are now afraid to leave their homes for work or school for fear of being arrested and deported. This climate of fear has made children in these familes newly vulnerable to what psychologists call "toxic stress."

Kentucky’s juvenile justice system has long been one of the most prolific in locking up youth on minor offenses and a recent reform has lessened — but not eliminated — the problem.

Individuals like Loren Anthony, a fitness instructor from the Navajo Nation, are modeling healthy lifestyles and getting their friends and families involved. Grassroots organizations are starting group exercise sessions, basketball tournaments, traditional cooking classes and workshops.

The USC Center for Health Journalism welcomes 24 journalists from around the nation to its National Fellowships and awards them reporting grants of $2,000 to $10,000.

At each turn, the people responsible for her safety failed her — her birth parents, relatives, foster parents, the Indiana Department of Child Services, school officials, therapists and others.

Arizona tends to try out new approaches and programs, but rarely sticks with such efforts long enough to bring about change.

In Oklahoma, ranked No. 1 for per capita female incarceration, kids were going missing from school because their mothers were locked up in county jail. "This was the most complicated story I’ve ever done," writes 2016 National Fellow Cary Aspinwall.

This article was produced as a project for the USC Center for Health Journalism’s California Fellowship.