About The NH Solutions Journalism Lab
The Nackey S. Loeb School of Communications has joined New Hampshire media organizations in an ambitious New Hampshire Solutions Journalism Lab Project to tackle major problems facing our state. The goal is not to merely recite the challenges, but to offer solutions by comparing and contrasting local approaches with outcomes being achieved elsewhere in the state and nation. Generous donations that support each project allow the news outlet to hire a reporter exclusively to cover each issue. The participating news outlets share their stories, at no charge, with other New Hampshire news organizations.
Solutions journalism means rigorous reporting on responses to community challenges. We are proud to be the New Hampshire partner to the Solutions Journalism Network helping Granite Staters have access to news stories that help them understand problems and challenges, and show potential ways to respond.
Current Solutions Journalism Projects
The Concord Monitor’s Education Initiative
Education is at a critical moment in New Hampshire. Schools and educators suddenly find themselves at the heart of a political battle. As issues of funding, curriculum development, and emerging trends including charter schools and other education alternatives play out in communities across the state, they are often felt most deeply in our rural towns, where the schools are the hubs of the community. Now is a critical time, not only for education, but for rural reporting in America. In the age of information, these small towns are often news deserts, which leads to less accountability, unchecked decisions, a drop in voting rates and a general disconnect with their community, their public leaders and their institutions. In these small towns, important voices often go unheard and critical stories are left untold. The Concord Monitor, with funding from The Barr Foundation, will add a rural reporting and education focused reporter to their staff for one year.
The Monadnock Region Health Reporting Lab at the Keene Sentinel
This is an innovative approach to news coverage of healthcare in Cheshire County and beyond its borders. Early research of this subject indicates that the county ranks last or near the bottom in New Hampshire in the number of doctors, primary care physicians, nurse practitioners, mental healthcare providers and other important medical services. All these challenges have been worsened by the impact of the pandemic on the region, disrupting a healthcare system already burdened by access issues. Disadvantaged populations are experiencing more difficulties, and this is particularly acute in the mental health arena.
The Keene Sentinel, is committing a full-time reporter, dedicated editing resources, training, travel and technology to exploring the challenges of healthcare access in the Monadnock Region. Its reporter and editors will use Solutions Journalism techniques and methods to find examples of communities, institutions and individuals that or who are improving healthcare access and services in rural areas. This reporting will help readers, practitioners and administrators understand other and perhaps better options. Data will be extensively used to in this reporting. Solutions Journalism training, although already in place in The Keene Sentinel’s newsroom, will be enhanced.
Youth Voices at the Laconia Daily Sun
Under a grant from the Herr Family Foundation, The Laconia Daily Sun’s VOICES project, explores issues of health and well-being facing local youth, by investigating youth mental health, the enmeshment of social media and technology into children’s lives, the importance of having stable, trusting relationships with adults, and the value for kids of having places where they can be themselves.
Nashua Digital, a new news outlet
Nashua Digital has pledged to play a vital role in the revival of local news amid a news scarcity in Nashua. Reporting on the second-largest city in New Hampshire, their coverage will center on critical subjects, including homelessness, the drug epidemic, civic engagement, underrepresented communities, local businesses, at-risk youth, mental health challenges, sports, finance, education, and feature stories. Because these topics affect communities whose stories are underreported, Nashua Digital is committed to providing insightful, unbiased, and accurate reporting to foster a well-informed and diverse citizenry. Employing a Solutions Journalism approach, they aim to amplify effective responses to these challenges.
Making the Grade: Exploring Solutions to NH’s Education in the Union Leader
Making the grade is a reporting effort at the Union Leader/NH Sunday News dedicated to covering education in New Hampshire, with a special emphasis on Manchester and the challenges students face in the state’s largest school district.
Past SOLUTIONS JOURNALISM Projects
Workforce Development: What’s Working
New Hampshire Union Leader and Sunday News’ nearly three-year project, beginning in the summer of 2019, offered coverage on New Hampshire’s workforce development issues, and continued beyond its anticipated conclusion by pivoting to news about the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on NH businesses. The goal was to raise public awareness about promising approaches to filling the need for skilled workers in the Granite State, and continued its focus on unique pandemic challenges. The project was funded by the New Hampshire Coalition for Business and Education, Eversource Energy, Dartmouth-Hitchcock, Northeast Delta Dental, and the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation.
To read stories in this series, click here.
Community Health and Civic Engagement: The Sunshine Project
The mission for The Sunshine Project at the Laconia Sun was to report on issues of civic discourse and social determinants of community health – and not just health in a medical sense. The project examines medical issues as well as broad indicators of health, looking at data that may shed light on which communities and subgroups are doing well, and which are facing unique challenges, why, and what can be done. Support for this project was provided by the Endowment for Health and the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation.
To read stories in this series, click here. Learn more about this program, from the Laconia Sun.
Beyond the Stigma
New Hampshire Union Leader and Sunday News. This one-year project explored solutions to the state’s addiction and mental health challenges. The project was funded by the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation, Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, NAMI New Hampshire and private individuals.
To read stories in this series, click here
Silver Linings
New Hampshire Union Leader and Sunday News. This one-year project offered in-depth coverage of aging, using the practice of solutions journalism to raise public awareness of and community engagement about promising approaches that create age-friendly communities in New Hampshire. The project was funded by the Endowment for Health.
To read stories in this series, click here
2020-2024 Solutions Journalism Funders and Partners
The Keene Sentinel
The Laconia Sun
The Union Leader/NH Sunday News
The Barr Foundation
Cheshire Medical Center
Clark-Mortenson
Dartmouth-Hitchcock/Dartmouth Health
Endowment for Health
Eric Herr
Eversource
Fenton Family Dealerships
Fidelity Investments
The Keene Sentinel
NH Charitable Foundation
NH Coalition for Business and Education
NH College and University Council
Northeast Delta Dental
James and Judy Putnam
The Putnam Foundation
The Richards Group
Woodrow Wilson Scholars
and partners Granite State News Collaborative, Nackey S. Loeb School of Communications and the Solutions Journalism Network.