Cabin Radio is finalist for mental health reporting award

A Cabin Radio report on Tuktoyaktuk’s House of Hope has been shortlisted for a national award recognizing reporting on the mental health of young people.

The House of Hope is a safe space for youth in the Arctic coastal community to play games and talk to volunteers about struggles they may be facing.

It was established by young residents of Tuktoyaktuk in response to what Mayor Erwin Elias called a mental health emergency that followed a string of tragic events in 2022.

Cabin Radio’s reporting featured a video produced by freelance journalist Karli Zschogner in Tuktoyaktuk, accompanied by additional journalism from staff reporter Megan Miskiman.

This week, the Canadian Journalism Forum on Violence and Trauma announced the report is one of four finalists for 2022’s Mindset Award for Reporting on the Mental Health of Young People.

Other finalists are CBC News’ The Fifth Estate, The Walrus, and Prince Edward Island community newspaper The Eastern Graphic.

Finalists for the second of two Mindset awards, for workplace mental health reporting, are The Globe and Mail (twice), Maclean’s and Windspeaker.

Cliff Lonsdale, president of the forum, said in a press release: “There’s a lot of very good journalism being done now in the mental health area. Choosing the finalists was hard enough. The independent juries, I’m sure, have an even harder task picking the winners.”

Winners will be announced in March and celebrated at the Canadian Association of Journalists’ national conference in April.