Calls for pitches: Puerto Rico & Energy, and Seawalls
PUERTO RICO AND ENERGY Making Contact is looking for a local freelancer living in Puerto Rico (also open to diasporic Puerto Ricans who want to produce a story!) who is proficient in radio for a piece about the power grid in Puerto Rico and the fight for community owned energy. We would love to talk about the purchase of the power grid by Luma Energy and what this means for local communities fighting for microgrids and other adaptable...
The Fallen of 2020
Making Contact · The Fallen of 2020 2020 was a tumultuous year rocked by two twin plagues: police violence which led to the George Floyd protests and continued discussions about police brutality and of course the novel disease COVID-19. Normally here at Making Contact, we look back on movement leaders we’ve lost over the year in order to pay them tribute and honor their lifetime of work. But this year, we’re commemorating...
Voter suppression in some communities is ‘by design’
By Emily Rose Thorne, Mercer University Center for Collaborative Journalism Voter suppression in the Native American community is compounded by the COVID-19 pandemic. Native American populations, who could tip the scales in several key states, testified before Congress about the voter suppression they experience. Prohibitive distances from voting locations have posed significant challenges for voters living on reservations, who have...
‘A pandemic within a pandemic’: Intimate partner violence cases rise during pandemic
By Emily Rose Thorne, Mercer University Center for Collaborative Journalism On March 23, residents of the United Kingdom were ordered to shelter in place to slow the spread of COVID-19. Two weeks later, calls to the domestic abuse helpline shot up by 110% within a single 24-hour window. As the pandemic continues to rage, experts say that the U.K. is not alone in seeing an alarming uptick of another public health crisis: intimate...
Call for pitches on prisoners during COVID-19
How do prisoners and their loved ones cope during COVID-19? People in prisons, jails, and immigrant detention centers are at an exceptionally high risk for coronavirus. Meantime, family members of those locked up are worried sick. Relatives along with advocates and prisoners themselves organize to limit the spread of the virus. They demand prisoner releases and reimagine a world without humans in cages. But releases are slow. By some...
You’re invited!
Making Contact celebrates a new beginning. We invite you to celebrate with us! In June, we welcomed the third Executive Director in the organization’s 26 year history, Sonya Green. Her appointment is exciting for a few reasons. To start, we think Sonya’s great. You can judge for yourself at the soiree. However, we think you will agree. Additionally, her appointment adds to the list of great women leaders of the...
