Medill Midwest Solutions Journalism Hub Announces Micro Awards to Four Chicago Newsrooms

Block Club Chicago, Borderless, Cicero Independiente and City Bureau are inaugural awardees

EVANSTON, ILL. -- The Medill Midwest Solutions Journalism Hub at Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism, Media, Integrated Marketing Communications has announced its first round of micro awards designed to empower Chicago-area newsrooms to transform news reporting and engagement through solutions journalism.

Awardees of the pilot project funded by the Robert R. McCormick Foundation are Block Club Chicago, Borderless Magazine, City Bureau and Cicero Independiente. Each organization submitted a project plan that will enable them to build on existing coverage of responses to systemic social problems and highlight interventions that work or might work.

The awards range from $7,000 to $13,000. Recipients will receive specialized training, expertise and resources from the Medill Midwest Solutions Journalism Hub.

“These awards represent our commitment to nurturing solutions journalism at the grassroots level," said Deborah Douglas, director of the Medill Midwest Solutions Journalism Hub and Medill senior lecturer. "By providing targeted resources to these innovative Chicago newsrooms, we're not just funding stories - we're investing in a fundamental shift in how journalism serves communities.”

In an example of the solutions journalism framework in action, selected organizations will be testing ways to tap new audiences, a pressing issue vexing news and information providers as news consumers have splintered across a multitude of platforms. In this way, these outlets are responding to the challenge of building and growing audiences in today’s news environment. The Hub looks forward to the evidence, insights and limitations we will interrogate over the next six months of research, reporting and engagement. While specifics of each organization's coverage plan will be revealed in coming months, coverage will include education, child welfare, immigrant communities and more.

For example, the field canvasser program pioneered by Borderless Magazine helps the publication better understand and serve multilingual immigrant communities and "hard-to-reach" audiences. The journalism and engagement they will be able to invest in will contribute to helping community members meet readers where they're at, according to Sarah Luyengi, development and impact manager.

“Our field canvasser strategy has allowed us to fill news gaps in Chicago and reach communities that deeply distrust the media,” Luyengi says. “By reaching people where they are – outside of train stations, at food pantries, or at community fairs – we have successfully connected with disconnected communities and made inroads to fight disinformation in our city.”

This Medill media support initiative is part of an effort to effect a paradigm shift in news media: Instead of asking “What’s wrong?” solutions journalism leads journalists and storytellers to ask “What works?” Research shows that investigative efforts are enhanced by this framework that produces community-focused, audience-centric storytelling.

Solutions Journalism & Engagement Champions
The following individuals are project leads in this six-month initiative to catalyze solutions journalism:

• Jen Sabella, Executive Editor + Co-founder, Block Club Chicago
• Sarah Luyengi, Development and Impact Manager, Borderless Magazine
• Irene Romulo, Development and Community Engagement Director, Cicero Independiente
• Ariel Cheung, Editorial Director, City Bureau

About the Medill Local News Initiative
The Solutions Journalism Hub is part of the Medill Local News Initiative, a seven-year-old research and development program designed to bolster the sustainability of local news in the Chicago area and beyond. The initiative is funded with support from major foundations, corporations and individual donors committed to strengthening local news in communities.

About the Medill School of Journalism, Media, Integrated Marketing Communications
Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism, Media, Integrated Marketing Communications has been educating students since 1921. Medill offers programs in journalism and integrated marketing communications across its undergraduate and graduate programs, with locations in Evanston and Chicago, Illinois and Washington, D.C.