ICFJ is inviting candidates from the Americas (US, Canada, Latin America & The Caribbean) to apply for a “training of trainers” opportunity to learn how they can prepare and run their own community workshops to tackle disinformation. This initiative is part of Disarming Disinformation, a three-year global project run by ICFJ with lead funding from the Scripps Howard Fund.

Applicants can apply now to attend a two-day online course (in English, with simultaneous translations in Spanish and Portuguese) led by The Poynter Institute’s MediaWise that will take place on July 17 and 18, from 2 to 4 pm ET. After the online course, ten applicants will be selected to attend an in-person training and will receive a $4,000 grant to conduct their own community workshops.

It is mandatory for applicants to attend the online course to be considered for the in-person training and the grant. Those who want to attend the online course but do not want to be considered for in-person training and the grant will be able to indicate that in the application form.

Applications will close on July 14 (11.59pm ET). While this opportunity is not limited to journalists, applicants should have previous experience tackling disinformation issues and should be able to demonstrate the credibility needed to build trust with their future trainees.

The online course will cover a wide range of essential topics such as news literacy, media and information literacy, seven types of mis- and disinformation and fact-checking tools. 

In-Person Training and Grants

Ten grantees will be announced by early August and will be invited to attend the in-person “training of trainers” session, which will take place in Buenos Aires, from August 26 to 28. These sessions will be run by MediaWise, in collaboration with Chequeado. The participants will also have the chance to stay in town to attend Media Party (Aug 29-31), one of the biggest journalism conferences in the region. 

After the training, grantees will return to their countries where they will be expected to develop and organize their own workshops for at least 100 people before the end of April 2025. 

If applying for a grant, keep in mind that candidates must:

• Attend the initial four-hour online training on July 17-18
• Attend the in-person training in Buenos Aires from August 26 to 28
• Develop and execute their own trainings before April 2025
• Have a minimum set of previous knowledge on disinformation issues. It is not mandatory to be a journalist, but successful candidates need to be in a trusted position in their communities in order to create the environment needed to impact trainees. 
• Although journalists and journalism students can be the intended audience of your training, we STRONGLY value applications that target other, diverse sets of audiences. In the first year of the program, the audience of successful applications included: nurses, doctors, refugees, homemakers, indigenous groups and others.

AIR Network Financial Forensics Grant Pitching Form

This form is for participants of the AIR Network Financial Forensics webinars to pitch a story that has a financial investigation element.

Participants with the best pitches will be selected for in-person workshops in Manila, Jakarta, Bangkok, and Chiang Mai; with travel and accommodation covered by the AIR Network.

AIR Network will be giving out up to $12,000 in grants across all four workshops. To find out more, contact AIR Network resident investigative editor Ian Yee at iyee@icfj.org.