Journalists at the Kennebec Journal, Morning Sentinel and Sun Journal were named winners of a Publick Occurrences award Thursday during the fall conference of the New England Newspaper & Press Association.
The Publick Occurrences award, which recognizes the very best work that New England newspapers produce each year, was established in 1990 to mark the 300th anniversary of the founding of Publick Occurrences, the first newspaper published in America. Four days after it appeared in Boston in 1690, Publick Occurrences was suppressed by the royal governor.
The Maine newspapers won the award for their five-part “Homeless in Maine” investigation into the homeless crisis in Maine, including examining causes of homelessness, talking with people struggling through homelessness — including teens — and examining possible solutions to the crisis.
According to NENPA contest judges, the project “humanized the issue for readers and local officials” and “made it clear that much more attention is needed on this growing problem.”
In the letter nominating the newspapers for this award, Executive Editor Judith Meyer explained that the joint investigation was prompted by personal observations of the staff that the population of homeless in Lewiston, Augusta and Waterville was clearly on the rise over the summer of 2022. As fall approached, those observations led to newsroom discussions about Maine’s “harsh environment even for those who have homes, warm clothing and access to regular meals. For those who have nowhere to go and not much to eat, it can be positively hostile,” according to the nomination letter.
The first part of the project was published in December, framing the scope of the homeless crisis through data collected from local and state governments and from advocates who reported the number of adults, families and children experiencing homelessness increased rapidly throughout 2022, as Maine’s housing crisis persisted.
The second part looked at the working homeless, many of whom have full-time jobs but still do not earn enough to afford housing, and part three examined the rising number of teens who are homeless and what schools are doing to support their education and what social services are available to help them.
The newspapers also examined how the homeless population is policed in Maine’s largest cities, and what ordinances govern shelters and encampments in those cities.
Finally, part five examined successful programs set up to help the homeless and identified possible future solutions to reduce the size of this population.
The journalists who contributed to the project were Sun Journal writers Chris Wheelock, Emily Bader, Vanessa Paolella, Steve Collins and Mark LaFlamme; Kennebec Journal writers Emily Duggan and Keith Edwards; and Morning Sentinel writer Amy Calder.
Sun Journal photographers Andree Kehn, Russ Dillingham and Daryn Slover also worked on the project, as did Kennebec Journal photographer Andy Molloy and former Morning Sentinel photographer Michael G. Seamans.
The digital side of the project, which was published online at centralmaine.com and sunjournal.com with additional data and photos, was managed by Sun Journal Web Editor Carl Natale, Audience Engagement Editor Nina Mahaleris and Ben Pinette, who is the web producer for the Morning Sentinel and the Kennebec Journal.
Kennebec Journal graphic artist Sharon Wood produced a number of charts for print and online to accompany the reporting.
The project was supervised by Morning Sentinel City Editor David Warren, Kennebec Journal City Editor Meg Robbins, Sun Journal Managing Editor Mark Mogensen and Scott Monroe, the managing editor for the Kennebec Journal and Morning Sentinel.
Other publications that won Publick Occurrences awards this year include The Providence Journal, The Day in New London, The Berkshire Eagle, the Concord Monitor, and Seven Days, a weekly newspaper based in Burlington, Vermont.
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