CatchLight Mental Health Visual Desk Opportunity: Visual Journalism Support for Mental Health Reporting

Overview

For this second cycle of the Mental Health Visual Desk, CatchLight is looking to support local newsrooms whose reporting efforts are helping reframe how mental health is seen, felt, and understood — and, crucially, what can be done about it.

Building on our first year of work across California, CatchLight is expanding this initiative nationally. We'll award up to six grants to local newsrooms producing solutions-driven visual journalism on mental health. Both new and in-progress reporting projects are eligible. For examples of some of the past stories produced by newsroom grantees in collaboration with CatchLight visit https://www.catchlight.io/mental-health-stories 

Mental health is a critical and complex issue intersecting with nearly every aspect of social life and public policy. Visual journalism — through photography, illustration, video, data visualization, and design — can play a powerful role in illuminating these connections with nuance and empathy. This cycle, we're especially interested in reporting that doesn't just document the crisis, but examines possible solutions and what's already working: the people, programs, and policies making a real difference in communities across the country.

Through this initiative, CatchLight aims to support visual storytelling that goes beyond statistics to reflect local community experiences, challenges, cultural context, and structural realities — with an eye toward community solutions.

We are seeking proposals from local newsrooms interested in producing visually-driven stories that explore mental health through a solutions lens, with particular interest in the following themes:

• Youth & Young Adults
• Climate Displacement
• Criminal Justice
• Maternal Health & Caregiving

This initiative offers both financial support and visual editorial guidance to help newsrooms deepen their coverage, enhance storytelling impact, leverage visuals for impactful community engagement and center the lived experiences of local communities, issues and perspectives often underrepresented in mainstream media. 

What Selected Newsrooms Receive

• $6,000 in direct funding to support staff reporters and visual journalists, provided in two equal payments: 50% at the start of the grant period, 50% upon completion of deliverables and submission of an impact/evaluation form. 
• Visual commissioning support is available for newsrooms that do not have in-house photojournalists. In addition to your newsroom’s grant, CatchLight will be responsible for hiring, contracting, and reimbursing freelance photographers, in close coordination with your team.
• Editorial guidance and mentorship from experienced visual editors, engagement specialists and mental health-focused journalists
• Optional group training opportunities and resources on solutions-oriented mental health reporting, visual storytelling and journalist safety and well being.

Project Scope & Eligibility

We welcome proposals that:

• Focus on mental health as a central theme, not a peripheral issue
• Are designed to be visually driven, or include a strong visual storytelling component (e.g., photo essays, illustrations, video, data visualization, or mixed media)
• Approach the subject through a solutions lens — examining what's working alongside what still needs to change
• Include a cross-publication plan, with the story published by your newsroom and made available through CatchLight and distribution partners
• Have a target publication date within the grant period (August 1 – December 1, 2026)
• Commit to submitting an impact form within six weeks of publication, outlining key outcomes and performance metrics
• Are aligned with one or more of the following thematic areas:     
  • Youth and Young Adults: Mental health challenges among teens and emerging adults; school and university pressures; access to care; identity formation
  • Climate Displacement: Psychological toll of climate change, eco-anxiety, displacement due to climate disasters, and community adaptation
  • Criminal Justice: Mental health inside jails/prisons, reentry challenges, diversion programs, mental health courts, and policing
  • Motherhood: Postpartum mental health, intergenerational trauma, caregiving stress, mental health in immigrant or low-income mothers 

Frequently Asked Questions

1. Who is eligible to apply? This grant is open to local newsrooms nationwide — no CatchLight membership required. The primary applicant contact should be an editor or newsroom leader who will provide oversight for the proposed project. New and in-progress projects are eligible, as long as they can be completed and published within the grant period.
2. Does our story have to fit one of the listed themes and does it need a solutions journalism angle? Yes to both, though we interpret each broadly. Proposals should connect genuinely to at least one theme, but don’t need to be a literal match – make the case in your application. On solutions journalism: we’re looking for reporting that grapples honestly with both progress and gaps, grounded in evidence. Read more about the framework here.
3.  What counts as “visually driven” – and can we apply with a series? A visually driven project is one where photography or video journalism plays a central role – not just as illustration alongside text, but as a primary storytelling tool. Illustration and data visualization can support the work, but the visual backbone should be photographic or documentary. Series are welcome, as long as the first installment can be published within the grant period.
4. What is the payment schedule for grant funds and what should the funds be used for? The $6,000 grant is paid in two equal installments: 50% at the start of the grant period and 50% upon completion of deliverables and submission of an impact form. Funds can be used for personnel time, reporting, travel, and production.
5. What does CatchLight’s support look like beyond funding? Selected newsrooms are paired with a CatchLight visual editor who serves as a consistent point of contact from story development through publication. Expect biweekly check ins and hands on support, including photographer coordination and editing .If your project requires a freelance photographer, CatchLight identifies, contracts, and pays them directly Additionally, newsroom grantee staff may be eligible to participate in workshop and training opportunities facilitated by CatchLight in connection to visual reporting on mental health. 
6. What are the deliverables, and who owns the work? Deliverables include a published story or series, visual assets filed to our digital asset management system Mediagraph with captions, and a completed impact form within six weeks of publication. Your newsroom retains copyright over its reporting. If CatchLight commissions a photographer, copyright over those images remains with the photographer – CatchLight and your newsroom each receive a licensing to use them.

Additional questions? Reach out to CatchLight Executive Editor Jenny Stratton: jennt@catchclight.io