Journalist's Legacy Honored through 'Youth Voice' Fellowship

HUNTINGTON, N.Y. - Aug. 2, 2018 - PRLog -- This Sunday, a memorial service will be held for Brian Donovan, a Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter for Long Island's Newsday who died after a long bout with Alzheimer's disease in June. Donovan's legacy will live on through a fellowship that will enable young people who were involved in the child welfare and juvenile justice systems to be trained in journalism and have their work published.

The memorial service will be held on Sunday, Aug. 5, at 3 p.m., at the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Huntington, 109 Browns Road in Huntington, New York.


One of Donovan's journalistic achievements was a 1999 investigative series for Newsday focused on dangerous conditions within – and poor oversight of – childcare centers across the country. In 2000, Donovan and colleagues were honored with the prestigious Casey Prize presented by the Casey Journalism Center for Children and Families, which was housed at the University of Maryland.

In honor of his legacy and his dedication to serving vulnerable children and families through his reporting and his individual kindness, his family is creating the Brian Donovan Youth Voice Fellowship along with Fostering Media Connections (FMC), a national nonprofit organization.

"Our father was fiercely dedicated to improving the lives of others through reporting in the name of at-risk populations, particularly children. We are so excited to partner with Fostering Media Connections, to make sure our father's legacy of altruism lives on," said Rebecca Margolis, Donovan's daughter and a pediatric anesthesiologist at Children's Hospital of Los Angeles, and her brother Gregg Donovan, who is a software developer for Etsy.

Initial funding for the fellowship comes from a fundraising campaign started by Donovan's family.

FMC publishes a daily news site, The Chronicle of Social Change, and a print magazine, Fostering Families Today. The organization partners with mainstream media outlets, thus amplifying stories for impact.

FMC's Youth Voice Program teaches youth who have been involved in the child welfare and juvenile justice systems how to produce journalism and then publishes their work and compensates them. Youth Voice participants have gone on to have their work published in Teen Vogue, KQED Radio in San Francisco, Youth Radio and many other outlets.

Through the Brian Donovan Youth Voice Fellowship, FMC will offer one summer-long journalism fellowship to an outstanding Youth Voice participant. The fellow will benefit from extensive journalism training and the opportunity to file impactful stories with The Chronicle of Social Change and partner news outlets.

"Brian Donovan forged an impressive journalism career," said Daniel Heimpel, FMC's president. "It is an honor that his spirit will be with these young reporters as they try to tell stories that matter."