Our Mission

The New York & Michigan Solutions Journalism Collaborative (NYMI SOJO) is a group of news, academic and community organizations pooling time, talent and resources to cover chronic problems in our communities with a solutions lens. It is modeled on other successful news collaboratives supported by the Solutions Journalism Network.

We work to report on and reflect the diverse communities we serve. We launched in 2020 with one initiative: solutions journalism on caregiving. Our inaugural project, Invisible Army: Caregiving on the Front Lines, has produced rigorous reporting on successful responses to challenges experienced by caregivers and older adults. We are expanding our coverage area to include health equity, or the state in which everyone has a fair and just opportunity to attain their highest level of health. We are raising money for resources to help us produce these stories.

Our Members

The New York & Michigan Solutions Journalism Collaborative consists of 19 news organizations and five community partners.

Members of the news collaborative in New York include the Democrat and ChronicleMinority ReporterLa VozWXXI and News10NBC in Rochester, and The Buffalo News. Our community partner is Rochester Institute of Technology’s MAGIC Center.

Members of the news collaborative in Michigan include Bridge MichiganDetroit Free PressDetroit Public TelevisionHometown LifeThe Detroit NewsLivingston DailyTraverse City Record-Eagle, and Urban Aging News. Four news organizations represented by New Michigan Media are also involved: The Arab American NewsLatino PressMichigan Korean Weekly and The Detroit Jewish News. Community partners include Front Edge PublishingJust Ask Talk Show, Michigan State University, and Wayne State University.

Funding

The goal of the collaborative is to provide an essential addition to the media landscape that will grow to include other media organizations and become self-sustaining.  We believe a collaboration between these partner organizations across platforms, audiences and sizes will strengthen the local and regional media’s capacity to cover issues of greatest concern. It will also strengthen the media’s capability to engage meaningfully with the audiences they serve.

The collaborative is a nonpartisan news organization committed to transparency and editorial independence. We do not support or advocate for any particular idea, model, organization, or agenda. We rely on financial support from the public, charitable foundations, and philanthropists. If you believe in our mission, please consider making a donation.

The series on caregivers is made possible through a grant from the Ralph C. Wilson, Jr. Foundation and Solutions Journalism Network. The foundation makes grants in Western New York and Southeast Michigan, honoring Wilson’s connections to both Buffalo and Detroit. Our work also has been funded by the Knight Foundation, the Health Foundation for Western and Central New York and the Greater Rochester Health Foundation.

Would you like to support our work? Donate here. To discuss sponsorship opportunities, please contact Monica Williams at monica.williams@localmedia.org

News About NY&MI SOJO Collaborative

Favorite solutions journalism of 2022

New style guide helps avoid language that reflects negatively on aging

Lessons from a journalism advisory council

NY&MI Solutions Journalism Collaborative caregiving style guide included in the Journalist’s Toolbox

What the New York & Michigan Solutions Journalism Collaborative learned about caregivers led us to create a Resource Guide for them

D&C stories that made a difference in 2022

Want to quantify solutions? Build a data center

PBS Books offered livestream coverage of solutions journalism collaborative summit

New York & Michigan collaborative named among top initiatives in 2021

Favorite solutions journalism of 2021

How community engagement informs coverage about caregivers

Multimedia journalism collaborative explores caregiver issues through solutions reporting

About the Solutions Journalism Network

The Solutions Journalism Network’s mission is to spread the practice of solutions journalism: rigorous reporting on responses to social problems. It seeks to rebalance the news, so that everyday people are exposed to stories that help them understand problems and challenges, and stories that show potential ways to respond. NY&MI SOJO is the Solutions Journalism Network’s first interstate collaborative. For more information, visit solutionsjournalism.org.

Do you have a tip, question or comment?

Follow us on Facebook or Twitter and send us a direct message, or send us an email at monica.williams@localmedia.org

More about solutions journalism