USC Annenberg Child Welfare Symposium 2024: Up to $10,000 for Impact Reporting Projects

The Center for Health Journalism’s Child Welfare Symposium and Impact Reporting Fund supports ambitious investigative or explanatory projects on the child welfare and foster care systems, as well as the social and economic policies and conditions that can strengthen or weaken families and communities. They encourage trauma-informed reporting, with an eye toward exploring prevention strategies that can address systemic inequities.

The October 24 Child Welfare Symposium is free and open to journalists. It will explore policy and journalism on the child welfare system, which investigates and removes children from their homes at alarming rates, disproportionately impacting children of color, and leading to worse outcomes and compounding family trauma.

Journalists who attend the virtual program, which runs from 8:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. PT, are eligible to apply for the Impact Reporting Fund on Child Welfare, which provides reporting stipends of $2,000 to $10,000 and five months of one-on-one mentoring as reporters work on journalism projects for their outlets in partnership with the Center.

Reporting Themes

Projects should focus on the child welfare and foster care systems, as well as efforts to prevent kids from entering these systems in the first place. Projects could incorporate one or more of the following themes:

• The impacts of the child welfare and foster care systems on children and families
• Safety net programs, their effectiveness, and their impact on family stability
• The effectiveness of government reforms to improve the child welfare system and keep more children out of foster care
• New approaches to improving outcomes and to keeping families together
• The intersection of race/ethnicity and/or class in child welfare outcomes

Grant of Child Welfare Symposium

Grantees receive:

• Reporting grants of $2,000-$10,000.
• Five months of professional mentorship from a veteran journalist.
• Monthly virtual cohort meetings.
• Eligibility to compete for a $1,000-$2,000 engagement grant and five months of one-on-one engagement mentoring.

Check : AAUW International Project Grants 2024/2025 (up to $10,000)

Eligibility for Child Welfare Symposium

• Open to U.S.-based professional journalists writing for U.S. media outlets. Students are not eligible to apply.
• Freelancers are welcome to apply, but they must have a confirmed assignment with an outlet to be considered for acceptance. This includes a signed editor checklist and letter of recommendation. Freelancers (and editors at outlets) should know that their reporting stipends are not meant to substitute for regular freelance pay. Instead, those funds can be used for reporting expenditures such as travel, database acquisition and translation.

Also Check : Planet Forward Storyfest Awards 2025 (Win a trip to the Galápagos Islands)

Application

The application process varies slightly depending on the Fellowship or Impact Fund to which you are applying. In general, they will always request the following documents:

• A Personal Statement and Project Proposal: This document should include a description of the project applicants are pursuing and demonstrate that the journalist has done at least enough reporting to know that the topic constitutes a substantial project.
• Deliverables Statement: This document must include the number of stories you’ll be reporting, and tentative story themes or focus, including any multimedia elements you plan to incorporate (photos, video, audio, graphics, etc.).
• Proposed Budget: They require Fellows and Grantees to provide them with a grant amount they are requesting and a rough breakdown of how they plan to use the funds.
• Clips: Three samples of your most recent work
• Letter of Reference from an editor
• Signed Editor Checklist
• Resume 

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