DEADLINE: Center for Health Journalism Impact Fund

The Center for Health Journalism at the USC Annenberg School of Journalism invites you to apply for a grant from the 2019 Impact Fund, which will support groundbreaking reporting on the health of underserved communities in California.

Through the fund, news organizations can receive critical reporting support at a pivotal moment – as Republicans in Congress and President Trump seek to fundamentally change the historic expansion of U.S. health care under the Affordable Care Act, and California's governor and legislators not only resist, but expand it further.

We welcome applications from journalists who want to tackle ambitious investigative or explanatory projects – as individuals or as part of a newsroom-wide undertaking or a collaboration with other media outlets in the state.

Projects can range from an exploration of 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 are 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.

In our first round of funding last year, we provided reporting grants of $2,000 to $10,000 to five California journalists, newsrooms or media collaborations. You'll find links to the projects they produced here.  We expect to award up to eight grants of $2,000-$10,000 this year. Projects can be proposed by California-based outlets or by national outlets pursuing California stories. Preference will be given to mainstream-ethnic media collaborations. Grantees also receive six months of mentoring – guidance on everything from story development to relevant sources to new modes of storytelling. Unlike our thrice-annual Fellowships, no training is provided.

The deadline for the first round of grants is September 20. If you have a time-sensitive topic to propose, ask us to expedite our consideration.