About the Issues 

“Now more than ever, new approaches are required to make cities places where individuals and families can thrive.  At the center of making this work are initiatives that put equity at their core and strive to find the right mix of public, private, nonprofit, and grassroots policies, investments, and strategies that serve the needs of all residents and workers to buildings, better outcomes and better futures for all across race, income, age, ability, household type and geography.” 

-  Building Better Futures: Innovations in Inequitable Development Conference 

Inequitable development occurs when housing, businesses, infrastructure projects, and educational institutions are developed in ways that privilege certain people, populations, and communities at the expense of others. This often results in communities of color being displaced from their long-time neighborhoods for the disproportionate benefit of white newcomers. Development is inequitable when it does not take into consideration the needs, values, and histories of impacted communities and when communities are excluded from the opportunities and benefits of development projects. 

We are looking for stories on equitable development in Detroit that demonstrate the unequal distribution of land and housing and a lack of community benefits, such as employment and skill training, which perpetuate the racial inequality of social and economic benefits of development. 

“How can development lift all people, especially people who have been systematically oppressed? Good development allows all people to participate and prosper.” 

-  Sam Butler, Executive Director of D4

Possible topics to explore may include: 

• Land grabs:  Who is actually getting land in Detroit?

• Are community members able to buy lots in their own neighborhoods? 

• Is the Land Bank good for Black Detroiters?

• Is all development good development? 

• The state of community benefits in Detroit? Who is using them and who isn’t? 

• How are Detroiters fighting for equitable development in their communities?

• How does gentrification perpetuate inequitable development? 

• How does inequitable development propel cultural displacement?

• Public subsidies: Who is getting them and who isn’t? 

• How is new development driving environmental injustice?

About the Opportunity

This is a unique opportunity to cover critical issues about the impact of development in Black, immigrant, or low-income communities and receive funding to help cover transportation and other reporting expenses. 

This paid fellowship is open to staff reporters and editors, and to freelance journalists, and are awarded on a competitive basis. The fellowship is structured to allow flexibility for journalists with full-time jobs or other obligations

The grants are available for print, radio, and video journalists. Since DEAL is not a media outlet, independent/freelance journalists must pitch stories to outlets on their own. To qualify, applicants must identify to which news outlets they will pitch their stories. Outlets should be respected, well-known, credible, independent journalism platforms.

The deadline to apply has passed.