10/02/2026
What's working in addressing growing youth mental health issues?
Well, most people don't know. That's a problem.
Enter the HEAL Fellowship, SJN's new fellowship that aims to serve youth struggling with mental health issues by supporting U.S. journalists to report on and amplify solutions.
Successful fellowship projects will:
- (H)elp spread rigorous reporting on what’s working to address mental health issues and inequities, including anxiety, depression, ADHD, trauma, racism, neglect, loneliness, food insecurity, housing instability, economic instability, and community violence.
- (E)xpand young audiences’ access to solutions reporting on issues affecting them by partnering with mental health influencers and local networks related to the issue area
- (A)ssess impact of solutions reporting and community engagement by collecting audience engagement metrics and anecdotes
- (L)earn and teach others how to report on and amplify youth mental health solutions journalism, by creating training materials and becoming certified SJ trainers (ToT)
Notice the key bits here. We're not just talking about producing stories. We are also talking about ensuring those stories make it to the people most affected by the problem. That's the next frontier of solutions journalism, and you can help build it.
Get ALL the details, like how Fellows get an honorarium of up to $5,000, proportional to the scope of each project, plus lots of training and professional development. If you're a U.S. journalist ready to take your stories off the page and into communities, we want to hear from you: https://solu.news/HEAL-Fellowship-Application
