New grant will enhance Eagle’s coverage of labor issues, climate change
The Wichita Eagle on Monday was one of 164 newsrooms nationwide awarded a grant from Report for America, a nonprofit journalism and community service organization.
The grant will help pay for two full-time reporters at The Eagle to cover climate change and workplace issues.
As a host newsroom, The Eagle will interview candidates in March and welcome them onto the staff in June. Report for America assignments last a full year, with the option to renew for a second year.
One reporter will be assigned to write about how climate change affects Kansas and the surrounding region. Most Kansans now believe in climate change, but about half do not believe man-made activities have contributed, according to the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication.
Climate change impacts are real, however, and aren’t limited to America’s coasts. Kansas farmers are now growing cotton where they once grew wheat. Intensifying rainfall in Kansas means people here are more likely to drown while driving through a heavy rainstorm than be killed in a tornado.
And while there has been local backlash against green energy — including recent bans on solar and wind energy — Maize High School in Sedgwick County now has one of the state’s largest privately-owned solar power systems.
A second Report for America reporter will examine issues facing the working class in Wichita, including changes to state worker compensation laws, income inequality, the decline in unions and economic insecurity. Of the 100 largest U.S. metropolitan areas, Wichita ranks No. 1 in manufacturing jobs, which account for more than 17 percent of employment here.
The Community Voice in Wichita and the Associated Press in Topeka also received grants to support local reporting.
“We offer a pretty simple fix for news holes in communities throughout the country — local reporters on the ground, who hold leaders accountable and report on under-covered issues,” said Steven Waldman, president and co-founder of Report for America, in a news release.
Report for America, an initiative of the GroundTruth Project, works with local newsrooms around the country in a Peace Corps-like model to create positions and joint funding.
Most applicants have between one and three years experience and receive training from Report for America, but are edited and managed by the local news organization where they work.
Report for America’s 2020 class is more than four times the size of this year’s, which has been reporting in about 50 local news organizations in 28 states and Puerto Rico.
“Today’s news marks the single biggest hiring announcement of journalists in recent memory — and comes as a direct response to the worsening crisis in local news across the country,” the organization said in the news release.
The application process for the organization’s 2020 reporting corps will open in December and close Jan. 31. Journalists can apply at www.reportforamerica.org/rfa-corps-members/.
