Impact Stories

With schools around the world trying to figure out how to bring children back during COVID-19, The Local, an English-language digital news publisher in Europe, reported on a successful strategy in Denmark — keeping children outdoors much of the day. (This story was a part of a series entitled "Confronting Coronavirus.") After reading that piece, teachers in Piedmont, Italy, the region with the second-highest number of coronavirus cases in that nation, tried out many of the same measures. The Local reported on this development in “Can Outdoor Teaching Enable Italy to Safely Reopen Schools?” Piedmont’s results were good, and additional schools in Italy reopened after seeing the results.

After The Philadelphia Citizen highlighted a basketball program in Virginia that helps keep people out of prison, Philadelphia Youth Basketball created a similar program called I Am Because We Are. In 2019, The Citizen wrote about the Virginia program, called RVA League for Safer Streets, and also invited one of its leaders to talk at its Ideas We Should Steal Festival (https://thephiladelphiacitizen.org/ideas-we-should-steal-festival-videos/). Aaron Crump, a coach and mentor for Philadelphia Youth Basketball, said his organization adapted the RVA League approach in collaboration with that program’s founders. Along with basketball, the program includes life skills, mentoring and a positive code of conduct.

The Current, a nonprofit digital publication based in Lafayette, Louisiana, secured financial support in the form of sponsorships from two local health care providers by putting forward a pitch for a solutions journalism series, “Lifeline: COVID,” focused on the provision of health care and other pandemic-related services by telephone. The publication raised $8,500 between the two sponsorships. Christiaan Mader, founder and executive editor, said: “Our biggest sponsor leapt at the idea and asked us to create a [sponsorship] level 50% higher than what we tried to sell. That wouldn’t have happened with a typical investigative project, especially in this [media] market.”

The Current influenced policy in Lafayette, Louisiana, with a solutions journalism article showing how other jurisdictions in the state were allocating part of their CARES Act relief money to housing assistance, which Lafayette Parish refused to do. The story was republished by two other publications in the state, adding scrutiny to the parish’s initial decision and emboldening council members, local housing activists and organizations to pressure decision makers. Ultimately, the parish’s leaders agreed to redirect $200,000 (https://thecurrentla.com/2020/housing-and-unemployment-a-serious-crisis-regardless-as-lafayette-commits-all-hud-coronavirus-relief-to-small-business-grants/) of its housing funds to help vulnerable people pay for rent, mortgages and shelter assistance during the pandemic.

Using solutions journalism principles to “complicate the narratives” (a process taught by the Solutions Journalism Network to counter polarization by adapting techniques used by professional mediators), the Richland Source, in partnership with a local barber, invited residents of Mansfield, Ohio, to an open, honest discussion called “Shop Talk.” Richland Source publisher Jay Allred led the first discussion on May 31. “The conversation was honest, vulnerable and woven through with deep empathy and respect,” Allred said. “It was also astonishing in its healing power.”

Resolve Philly in Philadelphia was one of the initial recipients of the Philadelphia COVID-19 Community Information Fund, created by the Independence Public Media Foundation (IPMF), the Lenfest Institute for Journalism, the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, and the Knight-Lenfest Local News Transformation Fund. Resolve, which leads a collaborative of 24 Philadelphia-area news organizations, received $1 million to serve as “the backbone for a coordinated citywide crisis response plan that provides news and information access, and is powered by its partners and other local organizations and institutions.” Plans called for gathering and disseminating information on COVID-19 in several languages, including Spanish. Solutions journalism will be a significant part of this project.