The USC Center for Health Journalism Impact Fund provides reporting support to journalists who think big and want to make a difference in California communities. We sought applications from journalists or newsrooms who wanted to tackle ambitious investigative or explanatory projects – by themselves, as a newsroom-wide undertaking or as a collaboration with other media outlets in their communities.
The Fund invited proposals that illuminate our national and state debates on health care policy and the impact of ongoing or proposed changes to the social safety net. The Fund also supports groundbreaking reporting on the health of underserved communities. It helps journalists bring untold stories to light and to investigate promising approaches to chronic ills. Projects must focus on California health issues and be published or broadcast either by a California media outlet or a national outlet with a substantial California audience.
Explorations can range from a look at environmental conditions where people live and work to the impact of race and ethnicity on health, or how poverty and education can shape wellbeing. We were especially interested in investigative or explanatory reporting projects that advance public understanding and health policy for underserved or vulnerable populations, which could include people living in low-income neighborhoods, rural areas, prisons, foster homes, juvenile detention centers or homeless encampments.
The Fund aims to advance what the Center for Health Journalism calls “impact journalism,” which marries powerful narratives, data and community engagement to serve as a catalyst for change. In both 2018 and 2019, the Fund awarded reporting grants of up to $10,000 each to support health projects put forward by individual reporters, intra-newsroom teams and multiple newsroom collaboratives. Click here to read about the 2018 Impact Fund grantees and find links to their projects.
Depending on the scope of the project, competitively selected grantees receive grant funds of $2,000 to $10,000. We also provide six months of mentoring while grantees work on their projects, providing guidance on everything from story development to mapping out how to tackle reporting, to ways to improve storytelling.