The Dart Center for Journalism and Trauma announced on Thursday that “Unheard” by the Anchorage Daily News and ProPublica won the 2021 Dart Award for Excellence in Coverage of Trauma.
“Unheard” is a first-of-its-kind story-sharing project that is part of the “Lawless” series, an ongoing investigation into sexual violence in Alaska. The state has the highest rate of sexual assault and child sex abuse in the U.S. Yet for generations it has been an unspoken epidemic. Predators have assumed, often correctly, that victims would remain silent or no one would listen.
The powerful digital and print project — which features the portraits and stories of 29 Alaskan sexual assault survivors who chose to talk about what they experienced — gave a voice to those who have been sexually assaulted in the state. Participants were women and men of different races and socioeconomic backgrounds, Native and non-Native, all seeking to inspire change in Alaska’s justice system and to de-stigmatize being a survivor of sexual violence.