The Center for Sustainable Journalism (CSJ) has been awarded $250,000 by the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation to support building awareness of foster care and substance abuse prevention and intervention, two of the foundation’s funding priorities.
CSJ will use the grant to produce videos and stories about youth in foster care as well as those impacted by substance abuse. The stories will be published on CSJ’s Juvenile Justice Information Exchange (JJIE) and Youth Today, an online and print magazine targeted to the youth services industry.
CSJ Executive Director Leonard Witt said, “We are extremely grateful to the Hilton Foundation for this opportunity.” The center is housed at Kennesaw State University in Kennesaw, Ga.
Witt, who is also a professor at the university and the Robert D. Fowler Distinguished Chair of Communication, added, “The grant will allow us to use our expertise, audience base and partner networks to develop compelling content that will focus attention on prevention and the high individual and societal costs of youth substance use, and the many issues confronted by older youth in the foster care system.”
The one-year project will result in the “production of videos featuring affected youth, in-depth solution-oriented journalistic reports and multimedia packages, and expert commentary.” Coverage will begin with foster issues in New York City and Los Angeles and substance abuse as a national problem.
