Community Engagement Grants

The USC Annenberg Center for Health Journalism is offering up to five special community engagement grants to 2018 California Fellows. Each grantee will receive a grant of $1,000 to $2,000 to support his or her 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’ve been piloting these efforts with reporters joining us from all over the country and have seem some exciting results. Past projects include: community collaborative efforts between news outlets and non-profit players in Arizona to get car seats installed correctly among Latino drivers, whose children die disproportionately when accidents occur; a collaboration between a news outlet, a group of black churches, the University of Maryland and young people attending a continuation high school in Baltimore to produce a youth-led community forum and video about the impact of violence on one Baltimore neighborhood; and a childhood obesity prevention series in a West Virginia newspaper that led to the establishment of a non-profit that now gives out $80,000 a year in obesity prevention grants. 

To apply for an engagement grant, please click on the Submit button after you've answered our questions.

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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 is most affected by the issues of your reporting? There may be many, but name the one you will focus on for this engagement project. (100 words)

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* 4. What kind of listening have you done — or do you plan to do — to learn about how people share information in this community, and what kind of information people want? (200 words)

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* 5. Tell us about your proposed engagement project. How will you invite this community to participate in your journalism and how do you anticipate their voices will be included in what emerges? Think about the lifecycle of your project: How will people participate before you begin reporting, during your reporting process, afterward and beyond? (500 words)

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* 6. Who is going to help you do this and what ways might you collaborate? Think about individuals and institutions — schools, neighborhood groups, houses of worship, etc. (300 words)

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* 7. Who are the key decision-makers and stakeholders, outside of community residents, affected or involved in the issues of your reporting? What are your strategies for connecting with and considering their perspectives in your engagement planning? (200 words)

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* 8. How would you plan to spend the $2,000 grant for community engagement? (100 words)

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* 9. What commitment can your newsroom make to provide resources or people to support this effort? (If you’re a freelancer, please summarize any discussions you’ve had with your sponsoring media outlet about what community engagement support it can provide.) (100 words)

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* 10. One key to success is starting engagement efforts early in your reporting – not at the end of the project. Are you and your editor willing to commit to embark on your plan at least three months before your project publishes or airs and to meet the targets you set for progress?

Thank you for applying for a Community Engagement Grant. We will announce the recipients of these grants soon after we announce our 2018  California Fellows.

Please click DONE to complete your application.
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