|
The work of our Solutions Investigative Reporter Steve Volk! In 2021, Steve published 11 in-depth stories for Our Kids, his series on the challenge and opportunity presented by Philly’s child welfare system. He has already brought home two prizes and loads of impact. His article “In the Child Welfare System, Black Families Should Matter,” published by Next City, won the Institute for Non-Profit News’s award for Best Explanatory Journalism and received 2nd place in the 2021 Pennsylvania Bar Association Media Awards. Last week, the investigation he undertook with Resolve’s Data + Impact Editor Julie Christie for the Philadelphia Inquirer exposed how the City of Philadelphia intercepted $5 million of social security funding from young people in foster care. The piece has already led to promises of reform by local officials, and the Resolve co-authors were featured on WHYY’s Radio Times (listen here!). We are so proud of Steve and honored to have him on our team.
|
| |
|
In a follow-up series to his award-winning work, Steve wrote about the uphill battle many families face in navigating the Philadelphia child welfare system. Illustrator Dylan B. Caleho’s work accompanies both series, which first appeared in Next City.
|
 |
|
By The Numbers:
|
 |
|
Community Engagement Team’s Derrick Cain (bottom left) and Jingyao Yu (bottom right) help out at a multilingual community vaccination event organized by our community partners, CAIR-Philadelphia and Muslim Aid Initiative.
-
$1,210,000: the total number of dollars committed to Resolve during Q4 2021! Some of this funding is for work that will last several years, and we feel great about our fundraising successes.
-
10: the number of current and incoming Info Hub Captains. The Info Hub Captains are a group of community members who lead the storytelling and distribution of the Equally Informed Philly print newsletter. In addition to the six core individuals who joined us earlier this year, the program brought on four new Info Hub Captains in recent months, two of whom speak Spanish.
|
 |
-
41: the number of journalists, representing 18 different Philadelphia local media outlets, who attended our training led by a talented duo of social workers on how reporters and newsrooms can carry out their work from a trauma-informed perspective.
|
|
|
ICYMI…
-
With Love has expanded!
In March of 2021, we launched With Love, a space for people who lost loved ones to COVID-19 to say the goodbyes they never had a chance to deliver in person. We quickly saw how deeply meaningful this opportunity was for the folks who shared their goodbyes and for our city as a whole. Reading and hearing those goodbyes helps us all understand the gaps left behind in our families and communities. Since COVID isn’t the only killer that can deprive families of a chance to say goodbye, we decided to expand the project to include those personally impacted by another one of our city’s urgent public health crises: gun violence. We have thus relaunched With Love to feature the messages of those grieving a friend or family member killed by gun violence. We hope you’ll take a moment to read these heartfelt messages.
|
 |
|
|
-
Through the Violence Intervention and Prevention (VIP) Grant Program administered by the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency (PCCD), Resolve was among 40 organizations chosen to receive funding for gun violence prevention, specifically for our Equally Informed Survivors Text Line. We are proud to continue demonstrating the worth and value of investment in news and information systems as a solution to complex social challenges.
|
|
|
Eyes Peeled:
We have big plans for 2022. Here’s a nibble of what’s on the horizon:
-
A multi-year partnership with the Scattergood Foundation to ensure Philadelphia’s top local elected officials — especially the next Mayor — respond to and address the questions, needs, and demands of Philadelphians who have long been excluded from traditional avenues of political power. With the leadership of Julie Christie, Team Resolve will lead an in-depth outreach and engagement operation that will surface under-heard questions, needs, and solutions related to the overall health and wellbeing of our local communities.
-
Starting in January, Germantown Info Hub will become a part of Resolve! Since 2019, the Info Hub has been a hyperlocal newsroom of excellence for service and solutions journalism, storytelling opportunities, and community engagement for Germantown residents. As part of Resolve, this will remain Germantown Info Hub’s core work. But we’re also going to build in new directions! As a pilot for the nation’s first Community Wire Service, we are excited to experiment with how the Info Hub can create authentic and representative content about Germantown for audiences who live in other parts of the city. Once we make this work, we’ll grow the model citywide. We’re thrilled that the Info Hub’s two full-time staff members, Rasheed Ajamu and Maleka Fruean, will become members of Team Resolve. Their roles as Reporter & Radio Host and Community Engagement (respectively) will largely stay the same. Resolve is continually grateful for Independence Public Media Foundation’s visionary funding and support
|
 |
|
|
|
|
