LOS ANGELES, May 4, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- WorkingNation, a
national nonprofit reporting on the future of work, today published
"The Middle: Indianapolis," a
digital magazine examining the struggle to preserve one city's
middle class amid a changing workplace where workers must adapt and
gain new skills just to stay afloat.
Melissa Panzer of WorkingNation: "We
took special care to get … real stories about real people."
This latest "Inquire Within" digital magazine was
assembled by WorkingNation's team of Emmy-, Peabody- and Murrow
award-winning videographers and journalists, including veterans of
ABC News, CNBC, ESPN Films and The Wall Street Journal.
WorkingNation's projects have been showcased on such outlets as PBS
and CNN.
Though "The Middle: Indianapolis" focuses on a single city's
middle class, similar challenges prevail around America. Workers
face a world far different from that of their parents. Newer
tech-centric jobs require higher levels of training. Plus, the
COVID-19 pandemic has sped up trends, forcing workers to face the
future of work early.
In late 2017, Indianapolis-based Lumina Foundation made its
first grant to WorkingNation to support various forms of video
storytelling about how individuals and companies are working to
bolster the middle-class across the country. In 2016, WorkingNation
was in Indianapolis shooting a
story about Carrier Corp. moving its manufacturing operations to
Mexico when "The Middle" emerged
as a concept.
"The issue of middle-class survival could not be more timely,"
says Jamie Merisotis, president and
CEO of Lumina Foundation. "The pandemic cost millions of people
across the country their jobs and pushed them further away from
attaining the middle-class American Dream. Fortunately, community
leaders are building middle-class pathways. We're excited to share
the stories of everyone involved."
"The Middle: Indianapolis"
includes a mini-documentary featuring workers and families trying
to keep the American Dream alive, plus additional videos and
stories, all available online at
https://themiddle.workingnation.com/Indianapolis.
"We spent four years researching, reporting, interviewing, and
shooting in Indianapolis," says
Melissa Panzer, WorkingNation's
executive producer of video content development and production. "We
took a personal approach to exploring the issues surrounding the
middle class, speaking with community leaders working toward
middle-class survival. And we took special care to get into the
communities themselves, finding real stories about real people and
seeing firsthand how these trends are affecting their
lives."
Among those stories:
- Donte Sims juggled multiple jobs
before landing a manufacturing position he thought had finally
secured a middle-class life—but it didn't last. So he returned to
school to study electrical engineering.
- Tawnya Rachelle McCrary supports
her family in a middle-class neighborhood, is college educated, and
has a solid job. Nevertheless, she worries one health or
professional setback could derail her, wondering, "Are we really
middle class?"
Media organizations wishing to discuss "The Middle: Indianapolis" with WorkingNation experts or to
facilitate interviews with featured individuals should reach out to
the media contact listed below.
About WorkingNation
WorkingNation is a journalism nonprofit telling stories
about solutions to the jobs skills gap threatening our economy.
Follow WorkingNation on YouTube, Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook and
Instagram.
Contact:
Steve Delsohn
steve@delsohn.com
805-358-3318
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SOURCE WorkingNation