The USC Annenberg Center for Health Journalism is offering up to five special community engagement grants to 2019 California Fellows. Each grantee will receive $1,000 to $2,000 to support their community engagement efforts, as well as mentoring on engagement strategies over six months. Interested reporters can learn more about the grant program by reading this blog post.

We have piloted these efforts with reporters from all over the country with exciting results. Past projects include: a collaborative effort between newsrooms and nonprofits in Arizona to prevent infant deaths and injuries in poorly installed car seats; a series of listening strategies to engage teens in a series on sex education; a youth-led community forum and video about the impact of violence on one Baltimore neighborhood; and a crowdsourcing campaign to incorporate community perspectives about a physician shortage.

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* 1. What is your name?

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* 2. What is your media outlet?

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* 3. What community (affected by the issues of your reporting) will you focus on for your engagement project? Be very specific.

How will this community shape your reporting? Here are some common approaches. 
  • Crowdsourcing stories and information to help you find sources or fill info gaps. Examples: KVPR’s on-air call-out and the Louisville Courier Journal's online form. 
  • Asking and answering questions from the community that guide your reporting. Example: Hearken.
  • Partnering with a community member(s) to co-report a story. Example: This Boise State Public Radio story.
  • Inviting a community member(s) to tell their own stories to deepen and contextualize your reporting. Example: ProPublica's Lost Mothers conversations, Capital Public Radio's Storybooth. 
  • Forming an advisory group made of up of community members to shape your journalism. Example: The Peoria Journal Star reader advisory group.
  • Partnering with an artist to help you meet community members. Example: WDET’s Framed.
  • Facilitating a conversation with community members to learn more about your topic and inform the reporting. Example: Capital Public Radio's stakeholder gathering. 

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* 4. This is your chance to tell us about your engaged journalism idea. Your approach will need to answer two questions: How will the impacted community meaningfully shaping the journalism, and how will the journalism have meaning out in community? Be sure to note how engagement influences the lifecycle of your project: How will people participate before you begin reporting, during your reporting process, after publication and beyond?

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* 5. We can offer engagement grants of $1,000 to $2,000. Specify how much you are seeking and tell us how you would spend it. Write a sample budget, if you can.

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* 6. How might engagement contribute to the impact of your journalism? Read how reporters Kate Long, Bob Ortega and Mackenzie Mays paired community collaborations with reporting to create impact.

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* 7. What commitment can your newsroom and editors make in support of this project? If you’re a freelancer, please summarize any discussions you’ve had with your sponsoring media outlet about what support it can provide.

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* 8. If your newsroom already has an engagement team, how will this grant help you go above and beyond existing programs? 

Thank you. We will announce the recipients of these grants soon after we announce our Data Fellows.

Please click SUMBIT to complete your application.
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