Sound Partners for Children's Health: Pathways Through Diversity in Metro Detroit

Detroit, MI, 1998

WDET's primary partner was William Beaumont Hospital in Royal Oak, Michigan. Our goal was to explore the barriers to health care for children and their families among three of Metro Detroit's largest racial and ethnic groups-African-American, Arab-American, and Hispanic communities.

We proposed producing 25 feature-length stories on this subject, and used the bulk of the grant to hire a reporter to investigate and report on them. The outreach component of the project was to closely follow the reporting so that areas of need identified in the reports would be addressed with the combined resources of WDET and William Beaumont Hospital.

A reporter was assigned to a children's health beat, covering issues ranging from the hardships of recent Iraqi immigrants in getting medical care to distrust of immunizations in some segments of the African-American community.

Outreach projects included a child car safety clinic for Arab-Americans, and a children's health screening and photo ID session at an elementary school in Detroit's black community.

Members of the Metro Detroit area who attended our clinics and screenings enjoyed a direct benefit from participation in the project. More general services were provided through the awareness we raised by identifying and reporting on barriers to children's health.

Listener feedback, listener questions, and other word-of-mouth response to our reports and outreach efforts indicate that the project has affected change in terms of problem-solving and supporting existing programs that work.

Awards:

WDET Round One
Honorable Mention, Best Radio Series — Michigan Associated Press