Our work is just a drop in the ocean. But we need all the drops we can get
Last summer, I returned home to work as a business desk reporter at the newspaper I grew up reading. In a year when so many newsrooms were shrinking, ours was lucky to be growing — thanks in part to programs such as Report for America. The national service program places reporters in newsrooms across the country; RFA and the news organization share the cost. Think Peace Corps meets Teach for America.
My year here has been eventful, though perhaps not for the COVID-19-related reasons you might think. I’ve teamed up with so many talented and dedicated reporters to help shed light on local stories that could have otherwise fallen through the cracks.
For instance, when we wrote about research that warns that one million residents could be left homeless if a major storm slams into Miami, we knocked on people’s doors in mobile home parks to learn how some of the county’s most vulnerable are preparing.
After Tropical Storm Eta flooded some parts of Miami so intensely that it turned streets into rivers, we documented how residents’ lives have already been upended and how a lack of affordable housing leaves them with little recourse.
As the pandemic continued, we visited Homestead. In the county’s poorest ZIP Code, families shared that the local soup kitchen was the only thing keeping food on their table. We met business owners who talked about the havoc COVID-19 had wreaked on their once-thriving ventures. In the living rooms and dining rooms of grandparents raising their grandchildren, I learned about their fears of catching the virus and leaving these children to fend for themselves.
Over too many cafécitos past midnight, I listened to a local mom who works the overnight shift at a bakery because she can’t afford the high cost of child care. Her story launched our five-part series on child-care affordability in Miami and how the costs are holding families back financially. But we didn’t just talk about the problem, we also highlighted solutions locally and nationally that may help make things just a little bit better.
Many cafécitos were drunk this year in the name of writing and reporting. These stories don’t write themselves (believe me, sometimes we wish they did). They also don’t exist without the support of our readers. Report for America reporters are funded in part by readers like you who make it possible for us to do our jobs and put faces to complex problems in our community. You can make a tax-deductible donation at miamiherald.com/donate.
This work is just a drop in the ocean, but we need all the drops we can get.
