Pulitzer Center Awards Civil Society Microgrants to 12 U.S. Community Initiatives

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The Pulitzer Center’s 2026 U.S. Civil Society Microgrants support organizations and groups in the United States using Pulitzer Center-supported reporting as part of projects that contribute to more informed and empowered communities. 

The 12 projects selected this year will support industry professionals and civil society organizations in nine different states to engage in conversations on the issues of AI, mental well-being, and the impacts of climate change on labor and fisheries in fall 2026. Through hands-on workshops, in-person and virtual discussions, digital outreach campaigns, and other community-centered activities, grantees will use Pulitzer Center-supported reporting to amplify the voices of affected communities, foster public debate, and drive meaningful civic engagement. 

The following projects were selected as 2026 U.S. Civil Society Microgrant recipients:

Information and Artificial Intelligence

Mariah Hagadone-Bedir 

Title: AI & You: Understanding AI and Using Your Agency 

Location: Ohio

Project description: This project is run by researcher Mariah Hagadone-Bedir, of the College of Education & Human Ecology at The Ohio State University, who will conduct a series of public library sessions across the state that help everyday community members understand what artificial intelligence is, how it's already shaping their daily lives, and what agency they have over it. Each session opens with curated excerpts from Jennifer Strong's Pulitzer Center–supported project The Race to Superintelligence, moves into a facilitated discussion connecting the reporting to participants' lived experiences, and closes with an "Agency Action" segment that sends people home with concrete next steps. 

Pulitzer Center-supported reporting: The Race to Superintelligence

Elizabeth R. Ortiz 

Title: Our Allentown: Youth Voices on AI Power, Impact, and Accountability

Location: Pennsylvania

Project description: The project strives to put the young people most affected by AI systems at the center of the conversation about how those systems should be governed. The initiative is conducted by educator Elizabeth R. Ortiz in partnership with the Boys & Girls Club of Allentown. Pulitzer Center-supported reporting will serve as foundational material for students to critically examine how AI systems affect their lives and neighborhoods. At the Boys & Girls Club of Allentown's Teen Center, a three-session workshop series of facilitated discussions, hands-on activities exploring how AI shapes their community, and digital creation aims to move participants from personal reflection to public voice. Their perspectives culminate in a youth-produced podcast and community listening party, making room for these conversations to happen on their terms.

Pulitzer Center-supported reporting: "Misinformation on TikTok: How 'Documented' Examined Hundreds of Videos in Different Languages,” “AI Embeds Bias on Social Media,” State of Surveillance: Police Use of AI and Facial Recognition in Communities of Color

APEX Advocacy 

Title: Synthetic Media and the Crisis of Truth 

Location: California

Project description: Using articles from the Pulitzer Center’s groundbreaking reporting, this workshop examines how AI fundamentally alters our relationship with time, memory, and shared cultural history: What does it mean to remember when we have no permanence? What happens when our primary media experiences come through algorithmic feeds that prioritize a perpetual present, constantly overwrite themselves, and produce increasingly realistic deepfakes? This workshop will have participants examine various types of AI-generated content and discuss what makes it engaging or attention-grabbing. Through interactive activities, the participants reflect on how the content affects their emotions, attention, and sense of time. In small groups, they will use Pulitzer Center-supported reporting to explore how different publics are assembled, intensified, fragmented, or forgotten online. Groups will focus on topics such as AI-related mental health issues, deepfakes, or misinformation. Participants will also explore strategies for responding to challenges posed by AI-generated content, taking greater control of their attention, and using technology in ways that support healthy communities and civic engagement.

Pulitzer Center-supported reporting: "AI Psychosis: A Mental Health Crisis for the 21st Century," "A Field’s Dilemmas: Misinformation Research Has Exploded. But Scientists Are Still Grappling With Fundamental Challenges," "Celebridades brasileiras viram alvo de deepfakes de IA" 

Caroline DeVane 

Title: AI in Plain Sight Focus Issue: Information and AI Accountability 

Location: Massachusetts

Project description: This project extends Pulitzer Center-supported investigative journalism on artificial intelligence to audiences encountering AI’s consequences in daily life. University of Massachusetts Amherst graduate instructor Caroline DeVane will adapt Center-supported stories into short-form video for TikTok and Instagram. These videos will also anchor Anthropology of AI, a new course launching in fall 2026, pairing investigative journalism with critical AI studies coursework. 

Pulitzer Center-supported reporting: “My AI Girlfriend: A Cure for Loneliness,” “AI Psychosis: A Mental Health Crisis for the 21st Century,” “Child Welfare Algorithm Faces Justice Department Scrutiny,” “Researchers Say an AI-Powered Transcription Tool Used in Hospitals Invents Things No One Ever Said,” “‘There Is No Standard’: Investigation Finds AI Algorithms Objectify Women’s Bodies”

Look Up & Live, Inc. 

Title: AI, Faith, and Flourishing: A Multigenerational AI Academy for Digital Wellness and Mental Health 

Location: New Jersey

Project description: Led by Look Up & Live, Inc., in partnership with The Church of the Good Shepherd United Methodist Church, AI, Faith and Flourishing is an initiative that promotes AI literacy, digital wellness, mental health, and human flourishing within faith communities through workshops, community conversation, creative expressions, and educational experiences. The program launches with a conference and community health fair in collaboration with Cooper University Health Care, bringing together faith leaders, healthcare professionals, mental health practitioners, educators, and community members. The initiative encourages thoughtful conversations about the opportunities and challenges of emerging technologies. AI, Faith and Flourishing empowers congregations to ethically use artificial intelligence in ways that strengthen relationships, support well-being, and foster human flourishing.

Pulitzer Center-supported reporting: "AI Psychosis: A Mental Health Crisis for the 21st Century"

Climate and Environment 

North American Marine Alliance 

Title: In Our Wildest Salmon Dreams 

Location: Alaska

Project description: This multimedia storytelling project run by Block Corporate Salmon with North American Marine Alliance showcases oral histories and visionary fiction from Salmon Protectors and BIPOC activist accomplices working toward fisheries restoration and food sovereignty. In addition to gathering in-depth interviews with Indigenous leaders, they will host cultural gatherings centered around food, collective study, and visionary fiction workshops, styled after workshops organized by writer-activists Adrienne Maree Brown and Walidah Imarisha. As part of their collective study, they will read and discuss Pulitzer Center-supported reporting by Nathaniel Herz about the privatization of Alaska’s salmon fisheries. 

Pulitzer Center-supported reporting: Net Losses

Project Petals 

Title: Environmental Justice, Heat, Work, and Us

Location: New York City

Project description: This initiative led by Project Petals founder Alicia White uses Pulitzer Center-supported journalism to engage New York City residents in conversations about how environmental inequities and extreme heat affect workers, public health, and the environment. Through a community forum, storytelling workshop, and a public showcase, participants will connect national reporting with their own lived experiences and share stories that highlight local climate and labor realities. The project focuses on communities in Queens, New York, where communities and outdoor workers face disproportionate climate risks and often lack adequate protections. Combining trusted journalism with community voices, the initiative aims to increase awareness, strengthen civic engagement, and empower people to advocate for climate equity and help shape the future of work in a changing climate. Ultimately, the project will create a replicable model for using journalism as a catalyst for community dialogue, storytelling, and local action on climate justice. 

Pulitzer Center-supported reporting: “Extreme Heat Is Endangering America's Workers—and Its Economy,” “Momentum Grows for Environmental Justice and Advocacy at Grassroots Level” 

United Nations Association of Greater Boston (UNAGB) 

Title: Voices of Change: Climate Reporting Meets Model UN 

Location: Massachusetts

Project description: UNAGB will deliver an experiential learning experience for high school students across Boston-area and Merrimack Valley schools, integrating investigative climate journalism with its Model U.N. pedagogy. Students will build media literacy and source-evaluation skills by analyzing Pulitzer Center-supported stories on climate and labor before applying those lessons in a simulation where they debate fisheries and climate policy. Teams will then produce country profile research materials that translate the reporting into local policy positions, distributing these resources schoolwide to reach 200-plus additional students. UNAGB is leading this project because students from low- and moderate-income communities in Greater Boston experience climate impacts directly yet have little structured access to the media literacy and civic engagement skills needed to participate in policy debates about them. Drawing on more than five decades of experience running civic education programs in these districts, UNAGB aims to turn Pulitzer Center reporting into a springboard for students to become confident, evidence-based participants in climate and labor policy conversations. 

Pulitzer Center-supported reporting: “In New England, Climate Change Is Moving Fast. The Fishing Industry Is Not,” “The Floods Kept Coming. He Needed To Grow a Crop That Would Thrive in Water — or To Quit,” “After the LA Fires, Scientists Study the Toxic Hazards Left Behind” 

Coastal Carolina University

Title: Waties Island Dialogues 

Location: South Carolina

Project description: The Center for Applied Civic Leadership at Coastal Carolina University, in partnership with HTC Honors College and the Gupta College of Science and the Burroughs & Chapin Center for Marine and Wetland Studies, will convene business, civic, and university leaders for a series of place-based learning experiences that combine Pulitzer Center-supported journalism, scientific expertise, and facilitated dialogue to explore the impacts of climate change on coastal communities. Participants will engage with the reporting before traveling aboard the university's research vessel to Waties Island, one of the last undeveloped barrier islands in South Carolina, where they will learn from faculty experts and examine similar challenges facing South Carolina's coast firsthand. By bringing together influential community leaders from different sectors, the project aims to foster informed conversations, strengthen civic relationships, and equip participants to lead more thoughtful public dialogue on issues affecting the region's environmental and economic future. 

Pulitzer Center-supported reporting: “Shrinking Prize: Challenges Mount for Alaska and Washington Fishing Crews As Halibut Decline,” “In the Alaskan Fishing Village Already Vanishing Due to Climate Crisis” 

Global Health 

Mentor Leaders Produce Mentor Leaders (MLPML) 

Title: Healing Through Storytelling 

Location: Pennsylvania

Project description: This project is inspired by the Pulitzer Center-supported audio documentary Criminalizing Mental Illness, Part 2, by Sarah Shourd and Andrew Stelzer. The documentary highlights the consequences of responding to mental health crises with incarceration rather than care. For many young men in Philadelphia’s juvenile justice system, the issues explored in the reporting mirror their lived experiences of trauma, unmet mental health needs, and repeated system involvement. Utilizing the reporting, MLPML will conduct a youth afterschool program to transform justice-impacted young men from passive stakeholders into informed advocates and contributors to community dialogue.

Pulitzer Center-supported reporting: “Criminalizing Mental Illness, Part 2” 

The Consortium of Universities for Global Health (CUGH) 

Title: From Evidence to Impact: A Science Communication Workshop for Global Health Professionals 

Location: Washington, D.C.

Project description: The global health research community generates a large body of evidence-based material that can profoundly improve the health of people and the sustainability of our planet. The dissemination of that evidence often ends at publication, limiting its ability to influence global health dialogue, policy development, and implementation. As a network of global health professionals, a large portion of whom work within academia, CUGH knows that there are few opportunities available to develop science communication skills or learn how to engage with the public, policymakers, or journalists. To address the research-implementation gap, CUGH will hold a two-day, in-person, hands-on science communication workshop in Washington, D.C., for global health researchers, practitioners, and graduate students utilizing Pulitzer Center-supported reporting. The workshop focuses on building skills using current media platforms to communicate effectively with the public, policymakers, and journalists. 

Pulitzer Center-supported reporting: “Fears of Hidden HIV in Rural West Virginia”, Cuts and Consequences: The End of USAID, “Congo’s Mpox Crisis,” “Predicting Outbreaks: University of Pittsburgh Team Develops Model to Track Measles” 

Nowruz Media, led by founder Faisal Karimi 

Title: Healing in a New Home: Mental Well-Being for Afghan Immigrants in California

Location: California 

Project description: Nowruz Media, in partnership with MAS-SSF, will use Pulitzer Center-supported reporting on Afghan refugees to support community conversations about displacement, family separation, uncertainty, and mental well-being. The project will include a community listening session, a public dialogue, multilingual digital content, and a practical resource guide in Dari/Farsi, Pashto, and English. Organizers hope to engage Afghan refugees and immigrants in California, especially families, women, youth, elders, and people with limited English proficiency. The organization is leading this project because of its connection with the community and has spent years building trusted journalism and information services for Afghan audiences. 

Pulitzer Center-supported reporting: After the Fall: Afghan Refugees in America, "The Endless Wait of Afghan Refugees"