Local
Missouri Foundation for Health gives grant for gun violence reporting at The Star
The Missouri Foundation for Health has awarded a $250,000 grant to support statewide reporting on gun violence at The Kansas City Star.
The grant will help fund reporters hired through the national service program Report for America.
Two reporters began with The Star this week and a third will join in July.
“We’re delighted to get this project under way and grateful for the new partnerships we have established,” said Mike Fannin, president and editor of The Star. “Thanks to the Missouri Foundation for Health and Report for America, we can really sink our teeth into this issue and hopefully arrive at a higher level of understanding about gun violence in Missouri.”
The grant falls under the foundation’s gun violence prevention initiative, said senior strategist Jessi LaRose.
“The media can really play an important role in shaping thinking around guns and gun violence,” she said. “This can really be an opportunity to help deepen the public understanding of this issue and the opportunity to potentially shape the discourse.”
The foundation views gun violence — including homicides, suicides and accidental shootings — as a public health issue that affects all Missouri communities.
The state has for years ranked No. 1 in the nation for its rate of black homicide victims. The state’s three biggest cities — Kansas City, St. Louis and Springfield — have been among the top 12 most dangerous cities in the United States.
The reporters will investigate the causes, consequences and possible solutions to the gun violence problem in Missouri, where black people are killed at a per capita rate nine times the overall national homicide rate.
They will also facilitate community discussions to understand different perspectives.
Starting in June, the reporters will be making contact with community members, stakeholders, public officials and experts in Kansas City and across Missouri to gather perspectives on the issue. The reporters will travel to communities around the state to hear from people affected by gun violence and learn what they want to see from the project.
The reporters encourage anyone with ideas or suggestions to contact them directly.
Reporter Jelani Gibson can be reached at jgibson@kcstar.com, Humera Lodhi can be reached at hlodhi@kcstar.com and Kaitlin Washburn can be reached at kwashburn@kcstar.com.
The grant is one of the largest awards Report for America has seen between a local paper and organization.
“To have a relationship between a local newspaper such as The Kansas City Star and an organization such as the Missouri Foundation for Health is pivotal,” said Todd Franko, director of local sustainability and development at Report for America, which assigns reporters to newsrooms for one to two years.
Media companies have struggled for years as advertising revenue has declined, resulting in layoffs, consolidations and the shuttering of some papers. In recent months, the industry has also been hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic.
Donor participation such as the foundation’s grant represents a new business model. Franko said he hopes other organizations and individuals in Missouri and Kansas recognize the role of local journalism and are inspired by the seed that has been planted by the foundation.
“From the best of your community to the worst of your community, if we’re not all enjoined by a single narrative, a factual narrative, a timely narrative, we struggle as a community,” Franko said. “If we don’t tell our story, we don’t advance.”
BEHIND OUR REPORTING
How you can help
As part of this project, The Star will seek the community’s help. A major goal of this grant program is to bring more philanthropy in to support local journalism.
A portion of the reporters’ salaries come from RFA. A portion will come from The Star, and another portion will come from community support.
To contribute to The Star’s Missouri gun violence project, visit Report for America online at reportforamerica.org.
RFA, an initiative of the The GroundTruth Project, receives funding from organizations including Facebook, the Google News Initiative, the Knight Foundation, the Ford Foundation, Heising-Simons Foundation, Dirk and Natasha Ziff, Galloway Family Foundation, Craig Newmark Philanthropies, The Tow Foundation, Select Equity Group Foundation, the Samuel I. Newhouse Foundation, the Lenfest Institute for Journalism, The Arthur M. Blank Family Foundation, The Joyce Foundation, The Steans Family Foundation, Henry M. Kimelman Family Foundation and the Duo Collective.
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