In this INN collaboration, member newsrooms reveal how the pandemic affected policies and practices related to a range of issues, and examined what more needs to be done.
Read stories in the collaboration below.
AC: Life After COVID was INN’s most ambitious editorial collaboration to date. The series ran from June 28 through July 9, 2021, and included 21 stories.
As the pandemic raised student stress levels, the percent of Black and Brown students getting F’s increased and may have added more stress.
High school districts in Evanston and Oak Park balanced physical safety and social-emotional well-being when looking to re-open schools.
The pandemic prompted jail administrators to push for changes to limit the number of incarcerated people. The result is a major…
The pandemic caused officials in Marathon County, Wisconsin, to take a serious look at overcrowding in jails.
Black and Latinx communities on the South Side of Chicago face systematic barriers to accessing pandemic resources.
Despite allocation of federal funding, vaccines are still hard to get for many in this Illinois county.
Although vaccination rates have improved, Cicero still lags behind the Cook County averages for fully and partially vaccinated individuals.
When the pandemic hit, it spurred as a long-range plan to find answers to the jail overcrowding problem.
Experts advised people to stay home during the pandemic, but hundreds of families in Kansas City live in unhealthy and dangerous places.
These ideas and legislative plans could help more young people in the Midwest access critical mental health resources.
A shortage of child psychiatrists and inpatient beds mean ER nurses and doctors find themselves doubling as guardians and care coordinators.
Families seeking treatment for a child with mental illness can quickly become overwhelmed in a maze of insurance and government bureaucracy.
Many people without homes in Kansas City go without checkups, medicines and even bandages. The pandemic made things worse.
Organizers, volunteers and programs that tackled food insecurity and helped Detroiters survive the pandemic.
Mutual aid projects large and small have launched online all over the United States to help fill in systemic gaps.
Detroiters joined a national surge in home gardening in 2020 — to soothe anxiety over food supply issues is just one reason.
An innovative Detroit emergency food distribution model empowered recipients through choice.
A Detroit nonprofit is using an Uber-like app to connect businesses and feed neighbors in need.
The Upper Peninsula has no child psychiatrists. This lack is the norm across the Midwest. For these families, the strain can seem unbearable.
A shortage of affordable housing in Kansas City is not a new problem. But the pandemic made it worse, and exposed the region’s failure to act.
Latinos, more than any other racial or ethnic group, remained in the state workforce. But many found themselves on divergent paths.
The collaboration participants are INN members The Beacon/KCUR; Bridge Michigan/Side Effects Public Media; Cicero Independiente/South Side Weekly; Detour Detroit/Planet Detroit/Tostada Magazine; Evanston RoundTable/Growing Community Media; Madison 365/Wausau Pilot & Review and MinnPost/Sahan Journal.
This project was made possible by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation; INN’s Amplify News Project, whose funders include the Robert R. McCormick Foundation and the Joyce Foundation; and the Solutions Journalism Network.
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