On Friday, Sept. 27, at noon Eastern, the Fund for Investigative Journalism will host a free webinar with the investigative journalists behind two award-winning investigations that exposed abuses in government programs meant to help people who are incapacitated.
Reporters from WLRN in South Florida and the Maine Monitor will share how they investigated guardianship and conservatorship programs – and how other journalists can do similar investigations. Both of these projects received grants and other support from the Fund, and both of them sparked reform.
Samantha Hogan, who is now an investigative reporter at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, spent a year investigating Maine’s probate court system for the Maine Monitor. Her series showed a serious lack of oversight in the state system and sparked calls for reform. Hogan received the Livingston Award for the series.
Joshua Ceballos and Daniel Rivero investigated Dade County’s guardianship program for WLRN, the NPR member station in South Florida. Their series found that people’s homes were being sold to a real estate company owned by relatives of the city attorney and then flipped for large profits. As a result of their reporting, the county stopped the practice, a U.S. Senate committee held hearings on reforms, and the city attorney was fired. The WLRN team received an Esserman-Knight Media Award and an IRE Award for the series.
The discussion will be moderated by Ellen Weiss, who serves on the Fund’s board of directors. Weiss, a four-time Peabody Award winner, served as Vice President and Washington Bureau Chief for Scripps and Senior Vice President for News at National Public Radio.
This is the latest in the Fund’s yearlong webinar series, “Inside the Investigation,” that shares grantees’ experience, tips and resources with the broader field.