Report for America selects The Charlotte Observer for a second reporter position
The Charlotte Observer is one of 164 newsrooms chosen to partner with Report for America in hosting journalists to cover critical local news topics.
This is the second reporting position at the Observer that will be partially funded by an RFA corps member.
Report for America places emerging journalists in newsrooms for at least one year to report on specific neighborhoods and topics. RFA funds a portion of the positions, the host newsroom pays for a portion, and together they seek a community partner to assist with funding.
The initiative will fund a new reporting position at the Observer in 2020-2021 while renewing funding for a reporting position created in 2019, RFA organizers said in an announcement Monday. The new reporter will focus on coverage of minority communications and local immigration issues. The Observer will be seeking a community partner to assist in funding the position.
Reporter Lauren Lindstrom joined the Observer in June in an RFA position focusing on affordable housing and poverty. That position is co-funded by the Foundation for the Carolinas. RFA has renewed its funding for that position for another 12 months.
A report from the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Planning Commission says Charlotte lacks about 34,000 affordable housing units needed to meet demand. That’s about double the number from a decade ago.
Unstable housing has been linked to poor school performance, economic inequality, racial segregation and other social problems. The Charlotte Mecklenburg Opportunity Task Force cited a shortage of affordable housing as a major reason a Harvard and UC-Berkeley study found poor children in Charlotte are less likely to escape poverty than their peers in America’s 50 largest cities.
Report for America is an initiative of The GroundTruth Project, a nonprofit media organization that has received backing from Google News Lab, The Knight Foundation and others.
Report for America will place a record 250 journalists in 164 local newsrooms in 2020.
Report for America will place a record 250 journalists in 164 local newsrooms in 2020-2021. Reporters in the new positions begin in June. RFA announced Monday that it will place journalists in 14 news organizations in the Carolinas, including the Observer’s sister papers in Raleigh, Myrtle Beach, Rock Hill, Columbia and Hilton Head. Locally, it will also place journalists with WFAE and La Noticia.
Last week, RFA announced a nationwide initiative to place 14 journalists with the Associated Press to increase reporting on state legislatures.
Applications for the reporting slots are being accepted until Jan. 31 at reportforamerica.org.
Reporters are chosen in a national competition, with journalists, editors and teachers serving as judges. Journalists and their newsroom pairings will be announced in April, with journalists starting work in their new newsrooms in June.