CLARIFY is generously supported by the Google News Initiative, The Pinkerton Foundation, The Harman Family Foundation and individual donations from readers.

CLARIFY has emerged as a proven impactful program that is ready to be piloted in local news communities around the United States. We are currently seeking additional investment partners to expand the program in New York City, and to pilot a national program in 2023.  Please join us in building the CLARIFY NEWS CORPS to empower youth and strengthen communities through local public service journalism.

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CLARIFY was launched in Fall 2014 in The Bronx to give teens from underserved communities the experience of using public service journalism to improve their communities. The program has grown to include students from all five boroughs and is needed now more than ever before:

• Only 26 percent of non-charter high schools in NYC have high school newspaper programs and only 15 percent in the Bronx do (as reported in a 2022 survey conducted by Baruch College’s High School Journalism Program)
• There has been a steady decline in local journalism across the country with an average of two local newspapers closing every week–this leaves communities less informed
• Lack of diversity in our newsrooms remains a significant challenge
• Today’s high school students are the first to use social media as a news source. The ability to ensure they have the ability to discern between fake and real news is a growing priority

CLARIFY addresses these issues and more. Alumni report being instilled with newfound confidence, improved critical thinking, and civic awareness.

Upon completion of the program, pre/post surveying has indicated a significant increase in understanding of public-service journalism and the important role it plays in local communities. Students consistently report improved awareness of public officials and their duties, how the local government conducts itself, and an increased willingness to contact public officials and government agencies for information. The CLARIFY Youth Training Program has helped to transform students from hesitant interviewers to bold reporters who have the research skills and knowledge to ask public officials informed questions.

When covering local issues that apply directly to their communities, these students are able to witness the very stories they cover play out in front of them. The benefits of CLARIFY don’t end once the program does. An early comprehension and participation in journalism sets these students up for a lifetime of media literacy and civic engagement.

Workers outside London who have shorter commutes on public transport are returning to their offices more frequently.

Regional Reit, which owns 156 office buildings from Eastleigh to Glasgow, said that virtually all its tenants were back in their offices for at least part of the week. Of the company’s 1,042 tenants, only 12 had not bothered to start working from their offices again. Two of those were Scottish government departments, it said.

Occupancy has increased markedly compared with last spring. A year ago, the group said about 30 per cent of its tenants had reopened their offices after the pandemic. That is now 99 per cent.

Hybrid working is the most popular form of working among its tenants, the “vast majority” of whom have full offices on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays. “For many, this is four or even five days per week,” Regional Reit said.

Workers have been less enthusiastic about returning to the office in London. Even in the busiest parts of the capital, the West End and Canary Wharf, offices are rarely more than 50 per cent full, according to the latest data from Remit Consulting. That compares with 70 per cent before the pandemic.

Mark Dixon, 63, the boss of IWG, the serviced offices group, said last year that “the enemy is commuting” rather than the office itself.

Stephen Inglis, 53, chief executive of London & Scottish Property Investment Management, which runs Regional Reit, agreed. He said “shorter and simpler commutes” in regional towns and cities partly explained why offices outside the capital were welcoming workers back more quickly.

“Most of our occupiers are encouraging their staff to be in the office the majority of time . . . [and] the trend remains towards more people being in the office more of the week,” he said. “We expect this momentum to continue through 2023, until employers and employees strike the right balance for them between working from home and working from the office.”

There has been much uncertainty around the return to the office, but Regional Reit expects employers to have established their long-term strategies by the end of 2023. Inglis’s forecast is that the majority of regional businesses will make their staff go into the office on three or four days a week. “From the trends we are seeing, we believe employees working fully from home, that were not doing so pre-pandemic, will be in a small minority,” he said.

Data from the Office for National Statistics shows that only about one in six employees are working from home only. Employers have been almost forced to acquiesce to workers’ demand for less time in the office, given how difficult it has been to find new staff over the past two years. With the jobs market starting to become less competitive, some bosses are considering becoming stricter on working from home.