We’re excited to catch you up on the News Ambassadors program and highlight the amazing work done by our partners. If you care about strengthening communities and better supporting democracy, help us by following us on Instagram or Linkedin, donating or forwarding this newsletter to a friend.

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📻 One Big Story 📻

What happens when communities take on the work that institutions often overlook?

This month, we’re highlighting a story about the realities faced by gun violence survivors who are left with disabilities, either seen or unseen. One News Ambassador student looked at how a community is coming together to fill in gaps in care for injured gun violence survivors, long after they leave the hospital. 

Student reporter Morgan Bruner was part of Columbia College of Chicago’s Spring 2025 News Ambassadors cohort. Bruner brings us the voices of several Chicagoans harmed by gun violence as they face another uphill battle: the day-to-day work of healing in a world that often sees disability as an afterthought. For many survivors, medical discharge doesn’t mean the journey is over. Rather, it marks the start of new challenges including finding resources, building community support and navigating a healthcare system that often fails to provide care accessible to people with disabilities.

Why we like it: This reporting pushes back against the widespread assumption that a hospital discharge signals the end of a survivor’s recovery. In reality, it actually marks the beginning of a much longer journey, including physical therapy, mobility support and navigating a healthcare system that doesn’t always account for a long-term disability. Bruner looks at how community advocates are stepping in to address pervasive challenges for survivors, offering everything from wheelchair repairs to emotional care. By focusing on the lived experiences of disabled survivors, her story reveals how medical systems can fall short and how communities are rising to fill in gaps in care.

Broader Context: This kind of work feels especially urgent in a time when healthcare access is shrinking and disability rights advocates are fighting to make sure the needs of survivors aren’t ignored. The Guardian reports that communities of color across the country face disproportionate higher rates of gun violence and are simultaneously least likely to get comprehensive care for trauma and disability. Journalists who lift up these stories remind us that the continued urgency for care doesn’t end outside the hospital door.

Tip: In any story, whether it’s about health, violence, education or civic life, consider: Who is left out of the traditional narrative and what networks or individuals are stepping up to meet unmet needs in your community? Reporting that highlights these gaps doesn’t just surface problems…it also reveals the resilience, care and creativity local communities bring to address them.

Read the full story by Morgan Bruner for Illinois Latino News here.

✨What We’ve Been Up To✨

Thanks to generous support this year from the Scripps Howard Fund, News Ambassadors students from across the country had the chance to connect with our professional mentors on their in-progress reporting and/or their career goals. Students from several collaborating schools in Texas, Illinois and other states participated in virtual one-on-one or small-group mentorship. Our mentor pool — professional working journalists from across the industry — offered personalized career coaching and/or reporting guidance as students integrated Solutions Journalism strategies from our training. By creating space for students to connect with professionals, our mentorship program enhanced experiential learning and bolsters inclusive storytelling for the next generation of aspiring reporters.

We have also been hosting training sessions for aspiring reporters from ideologically or demographically dissimilar communities to level up their game by learning new reporting strategies together. Our cohort from rural Texas linked up with our Illinois reporting fellows for a joint Solutions Journalism training. A couple months later, they connected again to share feedback on story progress and talk about best practices for community-responsive reporting.

We also matched our University of Houston News Ambassadors cohort with our cohort of students studying Solutions Journalism and depolarization strategies at Endicott College in Massachusetts. News Ambassadors mentors Shia Levitt and Dana Amihere facilitated small group breakout rooms where students gave each other feedback on each other's reporting progress, and then mentors offered feedback as well before students made final revisions. In another session, a few journalism students from the midwest and rural Texas brought perspectives from different regions of the country as they joined KALW’s Audio Academy reporters for a depolarization reporting strategies training. We love connecting students to learn from and alongside their peers from dissimilar communities, and believe this enhances curiosity and skills to support quality coverage of a wider range of communities and stories that may be different from their own.

News Ambassadors ✨ Resource Spotlight ✨ 

Looking to deepen your reporting skills and build more trust with your audience? We’ll highlight resources in our newsletter, including this one to help you tackle challenging topics and tell more inclusive stories.

Choosing Sources to “Complicate the Narratives”

A democracy depends on people with varied perspectives being able to work together to address shared problems. When local reporting gets stuck in an oversimplified “pro vs. con” rut, communities lose the nuance and empathy that foster real understanding across difference. That’s why we’re excited to share this guide we made, drawing from Solutions Journalism Network’s “Complicating the Narratives” strategies. This one-pager encourages journalists to seek out sources who defy easy categorization, like those who’ve changed their minds, don’t fit the expected mold, or who see nuances. Showcasing a wider range of voices and letting people define their own perspectives also helps journalists build trust and challenge toxic polarization. >>Check it out here<<

That’s all we have for this month, see you next month!