Wichita Journalism Collaborative focuses on mental health solutions

The spotlight on the challenges our community faces in mental health has grown in recent years. The Wichita Journalism Collaborative (WJC) is discovering solutions to meet this information need. 

“The partners are working on a series of stories that will explore mental health from a variety of angles,” said Chris Green, executive editor of The Journal and project manager for WJC. “Many of our stories will be solutions focused, which means they will examine the experiences of other communities to investigative how they might be doing it better.”

WJC includes ten media and community partners working to enhance local journalism through collaboration and audience engagement initiatives. Support from the News and Information Fund at WF and the Solutions Journalism Network has allowed WJC to expand collaboration across the media ecosystem and push the boundaries of traditional delivery platforms. 

Since launching in 2020, partners have published several in-depth stories including the effects of COVID-19 in Wichita and the elections. WJC’s current focus is to improve community responses to mental health crises, reduce barriers to accessing social services and provide housing to vulnerable populations. Other efforts include:

1. Stakeholder Engagement Sessions – Hosted sessions to build knowledge about mental health and receive key insights about challenges to help inform their reporting.
2. Preventing Suicide in Our Community – 100 people attended a suicide prevention training hosted by WJC, Wichita State University, the Sedgwick County Health Department and the City of Wichita.
3. Democracy Day – Three partners contributed seven stories as part of a story-sharing effort that will increase with the publication of WJC’s mental health series.

“Strong collaboration between news and information organizations can help keep our community better informed,” said Green. “We hope that fostering public discussion of the topic and telling the stories of Wichita residents will help make discussion of mental health issues less stigmatized in our community.”
Learn more about WJC by visiting their website and sign up to receive the latest news about mental health in Wichita.