Public Narrative Announces Healing Illinois Segregation and Migrant Crisis Reporting Project
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 22, 2024
CONTACT:
Jessica Bee
jessica@ruddresources.net
Public Narrative Announces Healing Illinois Segregation and Migrant Crisis Reporting Project
(CHICAGO) – Public Narrative today announced the publication of a series of hard-hitting stories investigating Chicago’s legacy of segregation, produced under the Segregation and Migrant Crisis Reporting Project made possible by a grant from Healing Illinois.
An initiative led by the Illinois Department of Human Services (IDHS) in partnership with the Field Foundation of Illinois, Healing Illinois was created in 2020 and relaunched in 2023 to address racial disparities impacting residents of Illinois communities.
Public Narrative was among 184 community organizations awarded Healing Illinois grants across the state’s five regions, to pursue activities in four areas, including racial healing sustainability, narrative change education and training, and racial healing readiness.
The stories published today by The Chicago Defender, Chicago News Weekly, and the Investigative Project on Race and Equity were supported by a Healing Illinois pillar seeking to advance racial healing through storytelling and community collaboration.
Managed by Chicago-based nonprofit Public Narrative, the Segregation Reporting Project was inspired by “Shame of Chicago, Shame of a Nation,” a new documentary by filmmaker Bruce Orenstein addressing the untold legacy of Chicago’s systemic segregation.
The Segregation Reporting Project expands on the four-part documentary laying bare how Chicago and its suburbs devised the nation’s most sweeping system of racially segregated communities, and how these policies diminished the lives of generations of Black families, creating the vast racial wealth gap that persists to this day.
“Shame of Chicago, Shame of a Nation” premiered on Chicago’s public station WTTW on April 18, 2024, in combination with national distribution on PBS and local engagement events ensuring robust discourse on this troubling history, its legacy and potential solutions for the future. Remaining episodes will air April 25, May 2 and May 9.
Elevating community voices for more than 30 years, Public Narrative facilitates training, programming, and resource building, focused on cultivating media literacy, uplifting community voices in media and shifting narratives around public health, public safety and public education.
Three local news outlets produced impactful news coverage of segregation in Chicago, exposing its lingering scars and proposing solutions from diverse sectors of Chicagoans.
Please find the segregation stories published today at the following websites:
Chicago Defender: "Black and Unhoused in Chicago: How Housing Segregation Fueled a Homegrown Crisis"
Chicago News Weekly: “When Separate Equals Hungry: A Long Walk to Health”
Investigative Project on Race and Equity: “Black Seniors in Chicago Face 50/50 Odds in Getting Loans to Make Home Improvements”
Under the initiative, two additional local news outlets also participated in the Migrant Crisis Reporting Project in response to the ongoing migrant crisis that has seen over 37,000 migrants bussed or flown to Chicago since August 2022.
Publishing on April 29, 2024, Borderless Magazine and South Side Weekly are producing impactful news coverage of an issue that has exposed disparities and tensions within and among Chicago’s diverse communities.
The two local news outlets delved deep into the crisis, to unveil perspectives of Chicago’s Black and Latine communities, engaging residents to policymakers on potential solutions that move us forward.
Please find the April 29 Migrant Crisis stories at the following websites:
All participating news outlets maintained editorial independence.
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