Specialized Reporting Institute on the Recession and Mental Health: 20 Scholarships for Community Journalists to be Awarded

The Associated Press Media Editors and the Local Media Foundation have been awarded a McCormick Foundation grant to conduct a special two-day symposium to educate journalists on how to uncover local stories on the impacts of the current economic crisis on the mental health of North American families and their communities.

All costs will be covered to attend the specialized symposium in Chicago, for journalists selected.

The symposium will feature top speakers from the academic world, as well as journalists who cover highly-specialized aspects of this topic. The goal is to provide scholarship recipients with a host of tools and information to better cover the topic at a local level in their communities. Follow-up webinars with symposium attendees will also be part of this comprehensive learning experience.

Scholarship applications are due by April 20; click here to access the application form and information. The symposium takes place July 16 - 17 in Chicago (air, hotel and meals are included). Special thanks to the Sun-Times Media Group for hosting this event.

Editors and reporters are eligible to apply. Special consideration will be given to those who are in a position to drive the coverage of this topic at their newspaper. Depending on the size of the paper, this may be the editor, an assignment editor or a reporter.

These scholarships are only being awarded to community journalists who work at daily newspapers with a circulation of 100,000 or less or for weekly newspapers. A number of slots have been reserved for weekly newspaper journalists and for smaller dailies under 10,000 circulation. The goal is to have a diverse audience.

The symposium presents a one-of-a-kind learning experience at a very in-depth level. The cost to develop and implement this program is $40,000 (the amount of the McCormick grant). Attendees will be treated to an extremely special experience that will pay off for years to come.

"We are very grateful to the McCormick Foundation," said Nancy Lane, President of Local Media Association and the Local Media Association Foundation. "This provides a wonderful opportunity to educate community journalists on a very important topic during a time when training dollars are tight at most companies. We are also grateful to APME for co-sponsoring this grant with us and providing invaluable assistance with the program."

“We are thrilled the McCormick Foundation saw merit in this program and we are greatly appreciative of their funding,” said APME Vice President Brad Dennison. “It’s also an honor to have an opportunity to partner with a great organization like Local Media Association with a common mission of helping newspapers break new reporting ground on a topic that affects far too many.”