CT Mirror reporter wins national award for series on evictions

Connecticut Mirror Reporter Ginny Monk received the Insight Award for Explanatory Journalism in Philadelphia on Wednesday during the 2023 Nonprofit News Awards for her multi-part series Notice to Quit, which examined the impact of evictions on children and their families.

The Institute for Nonprofit News’ national awards honor excellence in journalism, leadership and community service across the nonprofit news industry. INN received 440 entries from 160 news organizations this year and issued 28 awards across 11 categories. INN judges lauded Monk’s project for its comprehensiveness, community outreach and impact, noting that the stories encouraged state lawmakers to pass legislation in the 2023 session that includes stronger tenant protections.

Monk, CT Mirror’s housing reporter, embarked on the project when it became clear that Connecticut, like other states, was facing a profound housing crisis in the wake of the pandemic. One of the early symptoms of that crisis was evictions, which spiked as the federal eviction moratorium and the state’s emergency rental assistance program expired. During her reporting, Monk found that eviction disproportionately affects women and children, particularly women of color.

Monk’s stories, which were published in December 2022, told the stories of children and parents who were experiencing eviction and homelessness. She spent months finding and getting to know the people featured in her stories, and she interviewed eviction prevention specialists, attorneys, researchers, landlords and court officials. She also organized two community engagement events and met monthly with a group of attorneys, researchers and homelessness service providers to discuss major findings. Finally, she worked with a local artist to create an illustrated book that explains eviction to children.

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Elizabeth Hamilton, executive editor of the CT Mirror, said it is gratifying that this project, in particular, garnered a national award.

“The Mirror’s commitment to holding government officials accountable is foundational to our work. Ginny’s work on this project combined that rigorous accountability reporting with community engagement efforts that not only allowed her to center in her stories the people impacted by eviction but fostered a deeper level of trust between the Mirror and the people who allow us into their lives,” Hamilton said.

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“Notice to Quit” was produced as a project for the USC Annenberg Center for Health Journalism’s 2022 National Fellowship and its Kristy Hammam Fund for Health Journalism. This project also was supported by the Center’s Engaged Journalism Initiative. Monk is a Report for America corps member.

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As CT Mirror's Managing Editor Stephen helps manage and support a staff of 11 reporters. His career in daily journalism includes 20 years at The Hartford Courant, where he served as a member of the editorial board, data editor, breaking news editor and bureau chief. Prior to that Stephen was city editor at the Casper Star-Tribune in Casper, Wyo., and the editor of the Daily Press in Craig, Colo. He was won many awards for editorial writing, data journalism and breaking news. While he was breaking news editor, The Courant was a named finalist for the 2013 Pulitzer Prize for breaking news for its coverage of the Sandy Hook shootings. Busemeyer is a Koeppel Journalism Fellow at Wesleyan University, where he teaches data journalism, and he has also taught at the University of Hartford, the University of Connecticut and the University of Colorado.