Health solutions powered by reporting and community engagement
WFAE
When North Carolina’s communities can access trustworthy public health news and information, they are better prepared to navigate the public health challenges of our time—from protecting against infectious diseases to recovering from a natural disaster. Charlotte-based public radio station WFAE is among the organizations at the forefront of public health reporting in the Carolinas. Since 1981, WFAE has lived its mission to “inform, enrich, and inspire” the 32 counties it serves by taking a solutions-oriented approach to the challenges facing North Carolina.
In addition to daily health reporting, WFAE invests time in unpacking some of the most complicated injustices in the U.S. healthcare system, including mental health in the criminal justice system and the costs of medical care. Their work provides a critical foundation for conversations and action.
The general operating grants issued by the North Carolina Local News Lab Fund support the station’s community listening and engagement in Charlotte, including bringing on a full-time community engagement producer. As a member of the Charlotte Journalism Collaborative—another grant partner of the Fund’s—WFAE partners with other local media organizations to reach even more of its community. With a team that is increasingly embedded in and a convener of community conversation, here are just a few of the strategies WFAE utilizes to turn their reporting into solutions:
WFAE hosts programming that helps people make decisions to support their health.
Guided by pressing questions from the community, WFAE hosted a five-part series about mental health, featuring a diverse panel of speakers who answered questions about accessing mental health care, finding culturally competent providers, and overcoming the mental health stigma that often exists in communities of color. Going beyond traditional reporting, this programming fostered deeper interaction among community members and experts and gave space for folks to get their specific questions answered reliably.
WFAE convenes action-oriented forums that reflect the diversity of its community.
WFAE regularly facilitates conversation among people with lived experience, community members, civic leaders, reporters, and subject matter experts. These are never a one-way presentation, but a multi-viewpoint discussion where all have the power to share and take action. In one such convening on the public health issue of homicide rates in Charlotte, the dialogue moved a local community organizer to launch a nonprofit organization that takes a holistic approach to neighborhood revitalization. Instead of ending the conversation after each convening, WFAE continues to build on past programming, such as their ongoing in-depth series on the intersection of mental health and the criminal justice system.
WFAE uncovers issues that spur local and state leaders to act.
WFAE’s investigative series on justice for survivors of sexual assault examined the fissures in our healthcare system that undermine people’s ability to get care. The reporting revealed that many of the state’s Sexual Assault Nurse Examiners weren’t adequately compensated by the government and had been waiting for reimbursement checks for more than a year. Upon hearing the series, government officials reached out to the station. Soon after, WFAE began hearing from healthcare providers, reporting they’d finally received their reimbursements.
WFAE advances a healthier North Carolina by delivering essential reporting and convening communities. No matter the story, WFAE always takes care to honor the context, where the community has been, and where it’s going.
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