• Section One: Participant’s Information (Reporter & Editor)

    Thank you for your interest in Poynter’s Covering Child Welfare: A Journalist’s Guide to Impactful Reporting program. Your information will not be saved until you submit this application. Please be ready with: your professional experience, areas of interest and basic demographic information for both of your applicants. An incomplete application will be reviewed as is. | The deadline to apply is 11:59 p.m. EST on Friday, Feb. 14, 2025. | Questions? Email us at info@poynter.org.
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  • Please paste a brief bio (100 words or less) written in third person; be sure to include your current role and organization. (e.g., Dylan Smyth is a city editor at the Anytown Daily, in Springfield, Illinois. Smyth was previously a metro reporter at the Daily and is a graduate of Springfield University.)

Covering Child Welfare: A Journalist’s Guide to Impactful Reporting

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Covering Child Welfare: A Journalist’s Guide to Impactful Reporting

This course is designed for journalists who want to deepen their connection with their communities and expand their audience by covering the critical issues surrounding child protection and the foster care system.

March 21, 2025– August 22, 2025

Overview

  • The application date is February 14, 2025, and newsrooms will be selected on February 19, 2025.
  • Teams of two will apply to participate in the program. One person should apply per newsroom and will represent the duo.
  • Open to U.S.-based newsrooms.
  • All participants will meet together virtually six times for up to two hours.
  • This transformational program and the custom coaching would normally cost $10,000.
  • Thanks to a generous grant from the Annie E. Casey Foundation, this course is offered for free to selected applicants.

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SKU: POGS04-25 Tags: , ,

Learning Outcomes

In this course you will:

  • Help your newsroom add a dedicated child welfare and foster care beat, focusing on impactful, community-driven journalism.
  • Participants will create consistent, ethical coverage of child welfare to highlight challenges and their impact on families.
  • Build trust and readership by covering child welfare issues that impact families, fostering connection and community engagement.
  • Understand best practices for reporting on vulnerable groups, including children and families.
  • Educate the public about the long-term effects of foster care on families, including mental health, education, employment, and societal costs.

$0.00

Apply Now

Overview

  • The application date is February 14, 2025, and newsrooms will be selected on February 19, 2025.
  • Teams of two will apply to participate in the program. One person should apply per newsroom and will represent the duo.
  • Open to U.S.-based newsrooms.
  • All participants will meet together virtually six times for up to two hours.
  • This transformational program and the custom coaching would normally cost $10,000.
  • Thanks to a generous grant from the Annie E. Casey Foundation, this course is offered for free to selected applicants.

Training five or more people?
Check out our custom training.

This course is designed for journalists who want to deepen their connection with their communities and expand their audience by covering the critical issues surrounding child protection and the foster care system. Participants have the opportunity to create a new beat in order to accurately report on the systemic challenges impacting families, such as workforce shortages, judicial failures, and the overuse of foster care in cases that could be resolved through family support. Reporter and editor teams will learn how to tell compelling, community-focused stories that resonate with readers and address the issues that matter most. Through this series of 6 online group seminars, attendees will gain the knowledge and tools to build trust, engagement, and increase readership while driving meaningful public discourse.

Funded by the Annie E. Casey Foundation and delivered by the Poynter Institute and Resolve Philly, we will train 50 people (25 newsrooms) on how to responsibly cover child welfare issues over the course of six virtual webinars. 

Poynter, along with non-profit newsroom Resolve Philly, will lead a six-workshop series that encourages and empowers journalists to cover the child welfare system on a regular basis, with the well-being of children and families as its primary focus. Poynter’s Fernanda Camarena and Resolve Philly’s Steve Volk will co-lead this program.

Session 1, Friday, March 21, 2025: In this first session, we’ll do introductions, set expectations for homework and participation, share goals and give an overview of the program. Presenters will also introduce the child welfare system, its complexities and what it takes to begin covering this system as a (sub)beat.

Session 2, Friday, April 25, 2025: We’ll introduce the contentious language issue at the heart of this subject, the reality that the child welfare system often produces harm, and look at why the system warrants far more coverage than it has traditionally received.

Session 3, Friday, May 30, 2025: This session will focus on racial bias, the system’s checkered history and the role of family and extended family in the life of children in foster care. 

Session 4, Friday, June 27, 2025: We’ll introduce and define one of the great harms of the foster care system, the so-called “foster care panic,” the media’s role in it, how these events have come to harm the relationship between media, the community, and system professionals—and we’ll explore some solutions.

Session 5, Friday, July 25, 2025: Will look at the courts: the informal nature of the courts, its impact on kids and families and the role judges play. We’ll also look at potential solutions, from better defense to community support.

Session 6, Friday, August 22, 2025: We’ll talk about community groups and neighborhoods, how to engage them on this topic and hear them out, and how to obtain and incorporate data into your work. 



Who should apply

Teams of two will apply to participate in the program. One person should apply per newsroom and will represent the duo.

Open to U.S.-based newsrooms. All participants will meet together virtually six times for up to two hours.

Application process

The process to apply is straightforward and simple. No letter of recommendation or reference is required. Please be prepared to answer questions about your professional experience, areas of interest and basic demographic information.

The application date is February 14, 2025, and newsrooms will be selected on February 19, 2025.

Cost

This transformational program and the custom coaching would normally cost $10,000. Thanks to a generous grant from the Annie E. Casey Foundation, this course is offered for free to selected applicants.

Instructors

  • Fernanda Camarena
    Faculty
    Fernanda Camarena is an award-winning TV and radio reporter and editor who was most recently a manager on NBC News' Standards and Practices team, where...
    Read More
  • Steve Volk
    Investigative Solutions Reporter, Resolve Philly
    Steve Volk is investigative solutions editor at Resolve Philly, where he received a Stoneleigh Fellowship to report on the foster care system and promote greater...
    Read More

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