The Center for Health Journalism at the USC Annenberg School of Journalism has awarded $45,500 in reporting grants from its Impact Fund to help local and national journalists undertake ambitious explanatory or investigative reporting about domestic violence as a public health issue.
The Fund has awarded reporting grants to 10 journalists from mainstream news organizations, ethnic presses and collaborations of the two. Grantees will receive five months of mentoring from veteran journalists. Select grant recipients will receive additional funding and assistance to lead community-based organizations and their clients in first-person storytelling.
California Grantees
Genoa Barrow of the Sacramento Observer will look into the relationship between domestic violence and community violence.
Francisco Castro will work with Excelsior, a Spanish-language outlet in Southern California, to report on the challenges faced by undocumented domestic violence victims resulting from lack of English, lack of know-how about resources, and the fear of authorities – all of which were exacerbated by pandemic.
Gabrielle Horton will produce a five-part radio/podcast series for NATAL that explores the common misconceptions about domestic violence in Los Angeles through the lens of intervention and prevention experts, client families, and policy advocates.
Elena Kuznetsova, working with Slavic Sacramento, an online media outlet that serves Russian-speaking immigrants in Northern California, will report on domestic violence in Slavic immigrant families, long considered a taboo subject.
Meera Kymal and Anjana Nagarajan-Butaney are receiving reporting and community storytelling support on an endeavor for India Currents called “The Desi Project,” a culturally sensitive investigation of the dynamics of domestic abuse in South Asian families. Their goal is to create awareness and empower survivors while offering safety net resources and expert advice pertinent to South Asian families.
Viji Sundaram will report for the San Francisco Public Press on implementation of a new California law that defines “coercive control” as a form of domestic abuse and allows victims to seek redress in family court.
National Grantees
Ann Marie Cunningham will write three stories about murder/suicide cases for the Mississippi Center for Investigative Reporting, documenting the effects on survivors: parents, children, siblings, and grandchildren. Her stories will complement an expanded database that MCIR is compiling of cases of domestic violence that culminated in murder/suicide.
Pooja Garg, working with Khabar Magazine based in Georgia, seeks to explore domestic violence and intergenerational trauma in the Indian-American community with a focus on children, healing, and intervention initiatives to break the cycle. With a supplementary storytelling grant and mentoring, she will conduct an essay-writing workshop with survivors to help them share their stories as an empowerment exercise.
Cristina del Mar Quiles, working with the Puerto Rico-based publication she founded, Todas, as well as the Center for Investigative Journalism of Puerto Rico, will report on children as victims of domestic violence in a context of recurrent trauma in Puerto Rico. Her investigation will explore the phenomenon of grandmothers raising children of mothers killed by their partners and the resources available to them.
Anne Saker will produce a series on intergenerational domestic violence and the effects on children for the Cincinnati Enquirer, tracking down grown children of domestic violence offenders and examining the results of a new policing approach to responding to 911 calls.
