Are you a journalist with big ideas who wants your work to matter? If so, USC Annenberg invites you to apply to apply for the all-expenses-paid National Health Journalism Fellowship — 4 1/2 days of stimulating discussions in Los Angeles, a proving ground for new ways to think about health, plus reporting grants of $2,000-$10,000.

This year, the program will focus on vulnerable children and their families and the community conditions that help determine their prospects for health and well-being.

Based at USC's Annenberg School of Journalism, the National Health Journalism Fellowship is open to print, broadcast and online journalists from around the country. About half of the 20 National Fellows will receive grants of $2,000 each to undertake ambitious reporting projects on underserved communities, healthcare reform or vulnerable children. The other half will receive grants of $2,500-$10,000 from one of two specialty reporting funds — the Dennis A. Hunt Journalism Fund and the Fund for Journalism on Child Well-being.

The Hunt Fund will support investigative or explanatory projects that examine the effects of a specific factor or confluence of factors on a community's health, such as poverty, health disparities, pollution, violence, land use, urban development, access to health care and access to healthy food. The Child Well-being Fund will support investigative or explanatory reporting on the impact of poverty, trauma or adversity in childhood .

Competition for the National Fellowship and the specialty reporting grants is open to both newsroom staffers and freelancers. The grants can be used to defray reporting and publishing-related costs such as travel, database acquisition and analysis, translation services, community engagement strategies and a journalist's otherwise uncompensated time. Preference is given to applicants who propose co-publication or co-broadcast in both mainstream and ethnic media.

For more information, visit ReportingonHealth.org or e-mail Martha Shirk at Cahealth@usc.edu. To improve your prospects for success, we strongly recommend that you discuss your project idea with us in advance (no later than March 16).