“Michigan’s most vulnerable rescued by kinship caregivers,” reporting from Detroit News reporters Sarah Rahal and Hayley Harding, earned the first-place award in news enterprise reporting from the Michigan Press Association. The reporting was based on data from a survey sponsored by the NY&MI Solutions Journalism Collaborative.
The award-winning story featured non-traditional, or kinship caregivers, a growing group of extended family members, friends of family and multiple generations of unrelated people. Kinship caregivers are often overlooked and undercounted in Michigan, especially as they are rarely defined or recognized in most state laws.
In the survey of 500 caregivers in metro Detroit, 83% indicated that they were caring for a relative. As a result, the number of kinship caregivers is probably undercounted.
- Read the full story on The Detroit News site: Michigan’s most vulnerable rescued by kinship caregivers
The news enterprise award was among 27 the paper received for its reporting, photography, videography and design.
The newspaper trade organization also named The News Michigan’s Newspaper of the Year.
The U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services announced late last week that Michigan will become the first state in the U.S. to acknowledge kinship caregivers with the same level of financial assistance and licensing requirements as other care providers.
