Mutual Strength

Lokting head shot

 FIRE helped IRE Fellow
Britta Lokting report
for the Guardian.
 

Support and story release for IRE fellowship

FIRE is pleased to announce the first release of a story under a pilot program launched in cooperation with the IRE Freelance Fellowship.

The pilot program, which provides a two-hour FIRE Consultancy to any interested IRE Freelance Fellow, helped Britta Lokting deliver for her Guardian US editors on a challenging child-welfare investigation.

The story explored the implications of using parental IQ scores to justify separating children from their parents.

"FIRE's help and support along the way was invaluable," Lokting wrote after the story's release in March, 2024. "I'm so glad the story survived."

Investigative Reporters and Editors (IRE), FIRE's fiscal sponsor, has offered the Freelance Fellowship since 2008.

FIRE Consultancies, available since 2016, provide critical reporting and contract-related assistance to help freelancers successfully release stories. Several other IRE Fellows are using the consultancies.

"IRE is pleased to partner with FIRE to augment our Freelance Fellowship," said IRE Executive Director Diana R. Fuentes. "The goal of the generous donor who started the endowment was to help freelancers get published. FIRE's consultancies significantly increase their chances of success."