Kent State University’s public radio station, WKSU, has partnered with The Cleveland Plain Dealer and Spectrum News 1 on two separate collaborative reporting projects. One project will focus on eviction and tenant rights, and the other will address the issue of infant mortality.
The goal of this work is to provide basic needs information to people within the Akron and Cleveland communities. The news organization partners have been working with several community service organizations and with citizens to gather information about the needs of people facing eviction or at-risk for infant mortality.
The collaborative projects are among nine the Akron Community Foundation, The Center for Community Solutions, the Cleveland Foundation, The George Gund Foundation and the Knight Foundation have chosen to support. More than $110,000 in grants is being provided to help encourage collaborative journalism around issues in the Northeast Ohio community.
Stories from this collaboration began being published in January, though the projects were paused in March to cover the emerging health crisis. The projects resumed this month and now include the impacts of the pandemic as well as the racial justice movement on these issues.
Stories from this collaboration will be available on WKSU.org/informedcommunities.