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Investigative reporting by Center for Public Integrity journalists about student homelessness and the legacy of pollution in communities of colour was recognized amongst the very best information journalism in the globe on Friday at the 2023 Sigma Awards.

Senior reporter Yvette Cabrera’s function on the toxic legacy of lead contamination in American cities whilst a journalist at Grist was recognized with a Sigma Award as a single of the 11 very best information journalism investigations in the globe, a single of only 4 from the U.S. to make the list. The final installment of that project, searching at options, will be published by Public Integrity and Grist this month.

“Unhoused and Undercounted,” an investigation by Public Integrity information journalist Amy DiPierro and senior reporter Corey Mitchell in partnership with The Seattle Instances, Street Sense Media and WAMU/DCist, created the Sigma Awards’ shortlist, amongst the 60 very best information journalism investigations in the globe out of 638 entries. They employed a ground-breaking comparison of federal education information to show that neighborhood college districts undercounted far more than 300,000 homeless students across the nation and failed to give solutions as essential by federal law.

Unhoused and Undercounted

Federal law needs that public schools help homeless students to assist break what could develop into an inescapable cycle of hardship. But lots of of the students who require that help fall via the cracks.

“We’re excited for the recognition in an inspiring year for information journalism,” mentioned Public Integrity editor Jamie Smith Hopkins, the lead editor on the Unhoused and Undercounted project. “A potent information evaluation can assist men and women repair troubles, fight discrimination and reside greater lives.”

Cabrera’s series, in collaboration with Grist senior information reporter Clayton Aldern, constructed on her years of meticulous testing for lead in the soils of Santa Ana, California.

“Soil lead contamination is a pervasive, hazardous trouble in urban centers all through the United States, however due to the fact lead particles are invisible, this threat is tough to pinpoint, specifically the hot spots that endanger the wellness of so lots of young children in low-earnings neighborhoods and communities of colour,” Cabrera mentioned. “What’s most rewarding is how the neighborhood of Santa Ana has galvanized about this challenge and pressed the city for action, resulting in a 2022 common strategy update that pledges to address this toxic threat.”

Public Integrity, a Pulitzer Prize-winning nonprofit news organization that confronts inequality via investigative reporting, partners with hundreds of neighborhood news organizations across the nation. That incorporates collaborative investigations, editing, instruction, mentorship and access to information sets and analyses that assist neighborhood journalists expose inequity and hold potent interests accountable.

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Months ahead of publishing Unhoused and Undercounted, Public Integrity shared its information evaluation with neighborhood journalists across the nation and supplied a reporting toolkit and workplace hours to assist them apply the investigation to difficulties facing homeless students in their regions.

Public Integrity journalists often share understanding about information journalism, investigative reporting and confronting inequality with business peers. Cabrera is president of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists and has helped construct applications to improve the quantity of reporters of colour covering environmental difficulties. 

Earlier this month, Public Integrity announced that it had acquired and will develop The Accountability Project, an revolutionary platform that makes it possible for journalists to search 1.eight billion public records and counting, as properly as organize resulting information for evaluation in reporting. It has been employed in award-winning and impactful accountability journalism across the nation.

Founded in 1989, the Center for Public Integrity is a single of the oldest nonprofit news organizations in the nation and is devoted to investigating systems and situations that contribute to inequality in the United States.

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