The Detroit Equity Action Lab (DEAL) launched its Race and Justice Reporting Initiative to support independent journalists with mini-grants to cover racial justice issues and their impact on Detroit's Black, immigrant, and low-income communities. Areas of focus for this initiative include environmental justice, equitable development, and more to be determined.

This is a unique opportunity for print, radio, and video journalists to receive funding to help cover reporting expenses, mentoring and coaching, and assistance with placement of their work to news media outlets. Learn more.

The Detroit Equity Action Lab (DEAL) transforms the narrative by centering racial equity in conversations around and coverage of communities of color.  

It is a huge injustice that the media does not report on us as holistic communities. This is why DEAL created a media initiative to change the language and coverage of communities of color to transform the narrative using a racial equity lens. We tell compelling, truthful stories about the reality of our people. 

Read articles and stories by DEAL Journalism Fellow Martina Guzmán. 

What happens when a city shuts off water to tens of thousands of residents? 

This is what we are witnessing in Detroit: an ensuing public health catastrophe from water shutoffs in a city unwilling to address the needs of its people. 

Researchers have found a significant connection between Detroit's water shutoffs and water-related illnesses, according to a recent study by researchers from Henry Ford Health System’s Global Health Initiative and Division of Infectious Disease in collaboration with We the People of Detroit.  

Click here to watch our videos, see shareable social graphics, and read articles on the crisis.