Michigan Radio Joins Solutions Journalism Partnership to Cover Local Caregivers

Caregivers are in short supply due to a rapidly growing older population that is living longer and requiring more assistance. The caregivers who step up – both family members and those who are paid to do the job — face many physical, emotional and financial challenges that have been exacerbated by the pandemic.

Michigan Radio is part of a new media initiative that aims to shed light on caregivers for older adults and investigate potential solutions to their challenges. Sixteen media outlets in Southeast Michigan are tackling the issue as part of a journalism collaborative supported by the Solutions Journalism Network.

The collaborative will publish news content with the goal of raising awareness about caregiving issues and introducing the community to replicable ideas that have been vetted by a team of journalists. You can find the first of these stories here.

Besides Michigan Radio, members of the news collaborative include Bridge Michigan, Detroit Free Press, Detroit Public Television, Detour Detroit, Hometown Weeklies, The Detroit News, The Livingston Daily, The Macomb Daily, The Oakland Press, Tostada and Urban Aging News. Four news organizations represented by New Michigan Media are also involved: Arab-American News, Latino Press, Michigan Korean Weekly and The Jewish News. Community partners include Front Edge Publishing, Michigan State University and Wayne State’s Journalism Institute for Media Diversity.

The initiative will expand this spring to include news and community organizations in Western New York, becoming the first interstate collaborative supported by the Solutions Journalism Network. The New York & Michigan Solutions Journalism Collaborative – as the interstate collaborative will be called – is made possible through a grant from the Ralph C. Wilson, Jr. Foundation. The foundation makes grants in the Western New York and Southeast Michigan regions, honoring Wilson’s connections to both Buffalo and Detroit.