Impact Stories

The Community Voice [July 2020]: The Community Voice in Wichita, Kansas, created a solutions-driven reporting project called the “The Criminalization of Poverty” as part of the Solutions Journalism Revenue Project. An introduction to the first article of the series (“They Stopped Suspending Licenses and Fine Collections Went Up”), explained the publication was “looking for solutions that work.” It used the same language in letters sent out to potential sponsors. In the first few months of fundraising, the publication raised $6,000 from private businesses and a foundation.

Mediacités [June 2020]: Mediacités, a French digital and investigative publication that operates in four major cities across France, produces community-driven collaborative reporting projects. As the pandemic reshaped social life in April 2020, the newsroom turned to its audience to glean story ideas for a solutions journalism series titled “Transforming our cities after the coronavirus.” (https://www.mediacites.fr/la-fabrique/national/2020/04/29/dansmaville-aidez-nous-a-reperer-des-solutions-locales-nees-de-la-crise-du-coronavirus/) With a focus on how to preserve social cohesion, it solicited ideas around topics such as local businesses, transport, housing, nature and solidarity. Readers submitted 175 suggestions using the website’s engagement platform called #DansMaVille (#InMyTown), which led Mediacités’ newsroom to identify 28 potential stories (https://medium.com/we-are-the-european-journalism-centre/how-mediacit%C3%A9s-worked-with-its-readers-to-explore-what-life-could-look-like-after-covid-19-1255cca6131f); to date, it has published 14 articles. The digital publication received the 2020 Innovation Award from Médias en Seine for this work.

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel [June 2020]: The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel received $100,000 for a solutions-driven project called "Milwaukee’s Promise," (https://www.jsonline.com/in-depth/news/special-reports/2020/06/25/milwaukee-has-made-little-progress-toward-equity-how-can-change/3181671001/) led by reporter James E. Causey. This project, launched in June 2020, is focused on how to build a place where every life is valued regardless of skin color, which Causey says Milwaukee used to do to a much greater degree. The project also attracted support from the Greater Milwaukee Foundation, which gave an additional grant to support the work of a Journal Sentinel photographer.

The Local [June 2020]: 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 (https://www.thelocal.dk/20200528/how-denmark-got-its-children-back-to-school) — 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.

Are We Europe [June 2020]: This European multimedia magazine published its very first issue called “The Silver Lining,” which was entirely dedicated to stories of solidarity and responses to the COVID 19 crisis across Europe. Editor-in-Chief Kyrill Hartog said all the publication’s measures of success —
social media metrics, readership targets and website traffic — grew substantially in the week it launched the magazine, and on some channels the reach and engagement grew by 550 percent. Hartog said the issue also grew immediately into a 50,000-euro partner project (co-funded by the European Cultural Foundation, Robert Bosch Stiftung, and others) called Summer of Solidarity (summerofsolidarity.eu). This project is a consortium of over 50 media organizations, and Are We Europe was asked to be a part of the core editorial team, in charge of story production, commissions and social media outreach.

The Philadelphia Citizen (June 2020): 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 (https://thephiladelphiacitizen.org/taylor-paul-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.