I have written a number of stories for the NB Media Co-op but one series in particular made an impact last October.
We reported on Oct.11, 2022, that children of some international students enrolled in career colleges were being denied access to public school.
We learned about the situation from Hola NB and Moncton Cares, two non-profits that support immigrants.
When those groups learned the children would finally be permitted to attend school, we broke the story with the article titled ‘Children of some international students, previously barred from accessing public school, to gain access.’
The following week, we reported that provincial Child and Youth Advocate Kelly Lamrock would open an investigation into why they were denied access to public school.
I recently reached out to Lamrock for an update.
He told the NB Media Co-op: “Our office had launched an investigation into the exclusion of these students; however, 48 hours after we provided notice of our investigation and a list of questions, we were advised that the Department of Education and Early Childhood Development would be admitting these children and revising the policy to avoid a repeat. After verifying that parents were indeed being told they could register their children, we suspended our investigation pending a review of the policy changes.”
Lamrock added: “Let me take this opportunity to thank the NB Media Co-op for their reporting on this issue, which was timely and helpful in our intervention.”
As a reporter, I think this story certainly made an impact for the children of international students in New Brunswick, perhaps speeding up the process to ensure they would have access to the education system.
Thanks to CACTUS and the Local Journalism Initiative, we were able to shine a light on this story and many others.
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About LJI
LJI Impact is the section of commediaportal.ca where the journalists and their organizations participating in CACTUS' Local Journalism Initiative can share their greatest successes.
Through the written stories, photos and videos you see in the LJI Impact section, you'll be able to read first hand accounts about how the presence of a community journalist is making a difference in communities across Canada through the Local Journalism Initiative and the Community Media Portal.
The Community Media Portal is a gateway to the audio-visual media created by community media centres across Canada. These include traditional community TV and radio stations, as well as online and new media production centres.
Community media are not-for-profit production hubs owned and operated by the communities they serve, established both to provide local content and reflection for their communities, as well as media training and access for ordinary citizens to the latest tools of media production, whether traditional TV and radio, social and online media, virtual reality, augmented reality or video games.
The Community Media Portal has been funded by the Local Journalism Initiative (the LJI) of the Department of Canadian Heritage, and administered by the Canadian Association of Community Television Users and Stations (CACTUS) in association with the Fédération des télévisions communautaires autonomes du Québec (the Fédération). Under the LJI, over 100 journalists have been placed in underserved communities and asked to produce civic content that underpins Canadian democratic life.
