OKLAHOMA CITY — Journalists from around the U.S. are finding ways to help their colleagues simply pay rent or buy groceries as they face lost or reduced paychecks because of layoffs and furloughs caused by the coronavirus pandemic.

Writers in Oklahoma can be paid stipends to continue chronicling the effects of COVID-19 on the state and their jobs when they take unpaid time off. Virginia journalists have collected money to donate to others working in their field. And a group of current and former reporters and editors from New York to California are providing interest-free microloans to help others in their field make ends meet.

In Oklahoma, a partnership to support journalists has resulted in The Coronavirus Storytelling Project. The private Inasmuch Foundation pledged $50,000 and is working with Oklahoma Journalism Hall of Fame and nonprofit news outlet Oklahoma Watch to provide five $500 grants each week for the next four months to laid-off or furloughed journalists to provide essays, podcasts, photos or videos of the challenges they face.

This gives journalists a creative outlet during forced downtime, said Joe Hight, the director of the Journalism Hall of Fame.