RoA Quarterly Update Q1 2024

We hope you and your loved ones enjoyed the holiday season! Our team at Reporting on Addiction took some much-needed time off around the holidays, and we are back to kick 2024 off with some exciting news!

Journalism Microgrant Application EXTENSION

As we mentioned in the last update, our co-founder and co-director Ashton Marra was selected to be a member of the prestigious Solutions Journalism Network cohort of Complicating the Narrative Fellows!

As part of this work, we are offering our first-ever microgrant, available to three professional journalists ($750 per award) and one student recipient ($500 award). 

And we’re extending the application deadline to Thursday, February 1.

Know journalists who may be interested in applying? Forward this email to them!

NewsMatch

If you’ve checked your inbox in the last couple of months, you may have noticed we were in the midst of a fundraising campaign. And through the generosity of our wonderful community, we raised $22,225 for the Reporting on Addiction project! 

This is HUGE – and we’re so grateful. As we’ve mentioned in the past, the Reporting on Addiction project is not currently grant-funded, and depends solely on donations and occasional speaking fees. This will make a big difference in the scope of our work moving forward, and in the impact we can make to decrease addiction stigma in the media.

Whether you donated, shared our social media posts or even just opened our emails – we are so grateful for your support and this community!

Opioid Settlement Resources for Journalists

As part of our continued effort to help journalists cover the hundreds of millions of dollars in opioid settlement funds entering their communities, we’re hosting our fourth fireside chat on February 13 at 1 p.m. EST with Regina LaBelle, JD, a Distinguished Scholar and Director of the Addiction and Public Policy Initiative at the O’Neill Institute at Georgetown University Law Center.

In this webinar, we’ll discuss how to understand potential conflicts of interest present on the task forces responsible for spending or recommending spending of opioid settlement money.

Conflicts of Interest and Opioid Settlement Money

Reporting on AddictionJonathan JK Stoltman

Since we last talked, we hosted a fireside chat in November 2023 with the Center for Indigenous Health’s Andrea Medley on the Tribal Principles, which offer culturally-relevant, Indigenous-centered guidance for tribal leaders to consider when creating their spending plans for use of the tribal opioid settlements.

Missed it? Watch the recording of this webinar and others here.

Tribal Principles: Indigenous-Centered Perspectives on the Tribal Settlement Funds

Yesterday, we hosted the third in our series of fireside chats aimed at helping journalists cover the billions of dollars into opioid settlement monies coming in our communities right now. Andrea Medley of the Center for Indigenous Health shared with us how to use the Tribal Principles, which offer culturally-relevant,

Reporting on AddictionJonathan JK Stoltman

You can also view all of the resources we’ve created and gathered to help journalists cover this topic here and request a training!

To receive updates about the opioid settlement resources we’re creating directly into your inbox - change your settings here or reply to this email!

Resources In Progress

We are extremely grateful for your continued support of Reporting on Addiction! Alongside celebrating the new resources and progress made the last few months, we also wanted to give you a peek behind the scenes into what we’re currently working on and updates on previously discussed resources.

Toolkits

Thanks to feedback we’ve heard from many of you, we are in the process of creating topic-specific toolkits to provide reporting tips, context and additional resources about current topics. 

As part of our mission, everything we do relies on working with journalists, experts through experience and experts through training to ensure the resources we create will be applicable and impactful. Keep an eye on your inbox for when these vital toolkits launch! Have a topic in mind? Reply to this email to let us know!

Reporting on Addiction is not possible without your guidance, support and engagement. We appreciate all that you do to spread the word and advocate for our resources to be used in your communities. As always, we’d love to hear from you about what we’re doing or could be doing to make an impact. 

And if you have the ability, your financial support can also help us continue this work. Make a tax deductible gift here today.

Talk soon,
The Reporting on Addiction team