Reading Time: two minutes

Investigative reporting by Center for Public Integrity journalists about student homelessness and the legacy of pollution in communities of colour was recognized amongst the most effective information journalism in the planet on Friday at the 2023 Sigma Awards.

Senior reporter Yvette Cabrera’s function on the toxic legacy of lead contamination in American cities when a journalist at Grist was recognized with a Sigma Award as one particular of the 11 most effective information journalism investigations in the planet, one particular of only 4 from the U.S. to make the list. The final installment of that project, searching at options, will be published by Public Integrity and Grist this month.

“Unhoused and Undercounted,” an investigation by Public Integrity information journalist Amy DiPierro and senior reporter Corey Mitchell in partnership with The Seattle Occasions, Street Sense Media and WAMU/DCist, produced the Sigma Awards’ shortlist, amongst the 60 most effective information journalism investigations in the planet out of 638 entries. They employed a ground-breaking comparison of federal education information to show that neighborhood college districts undercounted much more than 300,000 homeless students across the nation and failed to deliver solutions as essential by federal law.

Unhoused and Undercounted

Federal law demands that public schools help homeless students to assistance break what could come to be an inescapable cycle of hardship. But several of the students who require that help fall via the cracks.

“We’re excited for the recognition in an inspiring year for information journalism,” mentioned Public Integrity editor Jamie Smith Hopkins, the lead editor on the Unhoused and Undercounted project. “A highly effective information evaluation can assistance men and women repair difficulties, fight discrimination and reside far better lives.”

Cabrera’s series, in collaboration with Grist senior information reporter Clayton Aldern, constructed on her years of meticulous testing for lead in the soils of Santa Ana, California.

“Soil lead contamination is a pervasive, risky difficulty in urban centers all through the United States, however for the reason that lead particles are invisible, this threat is hard to pinpoint, especially the hot spots that endanger the overall health of so several youngsters in low-earnings neighborhoods and communities of colour,” Cabrera mentioned. “What’s most rewarding is how the neighborhood of Santa Ana has galvanized about this challenge and pressed the city for action, resulting in a 2022 common strategy update that pledges to address this toxic threat.”

Public Integrity, a Pulitzer Prize-winning nonprofit news organization that confronts inequality via investigative reporting, partners with hundreds of neighborhood news organizations across the nation. That incorporates collaborative investigations, editing, education, mentorship and access to information sets and analyses that assistance neighborhood journalists expose inequity and hold highly effective interests accountable.

In no way miss an investigation

Subscribe to our free of charge, weekly Watchdog newsletter to get the most up-to-date inequality news from Public Integrity.

Use the unsubscribe hyperlink in the emails to opt out at any time.

Months just before publishing Unhoused and Undercounted, Public Integrity shared its information evaluation with neighborhood journalists across the nation and offered a reporting toolkit and workplace hours to assistance them apply the investigation to concerns facing homeless students in their regions.

Public Integrity journalists often share information about information journalism, investigative reporting and confronting inequality with business peers. Cabrera is president of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists and has helped construct applications to raise the quantity of reporters of colour covering environmental concerns. 

Earlier this month, Public Integrity announced that it had acquired and will develop The Accountability Project, an revolutionary platform that makes it possible for journalists to search 1.eight billion public records and counting, as effectively as organize resulting information for evaluation in reporting. It has been employed in award-winning and impactful accountability journalism across the nation.

Founded in 1989, the Center for Public Integrity is one particular of the oldest nonprofit news organizations in the nation and is committed to investigating systems and situations that contribute to inequality in the United States.

Connected

Aid help this function

Public Integrity does not have paywalls and does not accept marketing so that our investigative reporting can have the widest feasible influence on addressing inequality in the U.S. Our function is feasible thanks to help from men and women like you.