Our work centers on collaboration: listening to local voices, identifying shared needs, and strengthening the civic connections that sustain trust and democracy. By working together, we can ensure that every community has access to reliable information and meaningful ways to participate in shaping its future.
Our Listening Session with Florence residents (by Will Yurman, Feb 2025) 
Our Listening Session with Hispanic youths in Salem (by Andrew DeVigal, Mar 2024) 
Our Listening Session with Rogue Valley residents (by Andrew DeVigal, Mar 2023) 
Our Listening Session with Florence residents (by Will Yurman, Feb 2025) 
Our Listening Session with Rogue Valley residents (by Ian Enger, Mar 2023) 
Sharing our project with Capital Community Media audiences (by Courtney Knox-Bush, Mar 2024)
Captions: 1) Our Listening Session with Florence residents (by Will Yurman, Feb 2025); 2) Our Listening Session with Hispanic youths in Salem (by Andrew DeVigal, Mar 2024); 3) Our Listening Session with Rogue Valley residents (by Andrew DeVigal, Mar 2023); 4) Our Listening Session with Florence residents (by Will Yurman, Feb 2025); 5) Our Listening Session with Rogue Valley residents (by Ian Enger, Mar 2023); 6) Sharing our project with Capital Community Media audiences (by Courtney Knox-Bush, Mar 2024)
How do we collaborate?
Before each academic term begins, we connect several weeks in advance to align on priorities, clarify roles, and refine the research plan. We then co-design surveys and events tailored to your community. During the 10-week term, our team meets with partners on a weekly basis to ensure active participation, share progress updates, and respond to emerging insights, concerns, or community recommendations. These touchpoints keep the collaboration responsive and grounded in real-time feedback from your organization and community members.
What’s required?
We’re eager to work with willing community partners—local groups, nonprofits, libraries, or newsrooms that care deeply about their community’s civic health and information wellbeing.
Ideal collaborators include civic or cultural organizations that want to strengthen public connection, and newsrooms eager to deepen their relationships with local residents by listening to their needs and helping to rebuild civic trust.
Agora provides coordination, expert facilitation, and research design support, along with access to proven tools and resources from our statewide and national partners. We also offer minor funding and logistical assistance to bring community members together, whether for listening sessions, survey distribution, or local convenings that surface shared priorities.
What will we learn?
You’ll receive both qualitative and quantitative insights into how residents access, trust, and use information, along with actionable recommendations for strengthening your community’s communication ecosystem. We also aim to keep the momentum going by continuing to engage with communities beyond the initial assessment, supporting their civic health through ongoing collaboration, shared learning, and local journalistic reporting.
How will this help our work?
The process builds local relationships, informs future reporting and policy decisions, and can serve as a foundation for grant proposals or civic engagement initiatives.
Ready to Collaborate?
If you’re ready to explore a partnership, or simply have questions about how this work might fit your community, we’d love to hear from you. Whether you’re a newsroom, civic organization, library, or local civic leader, we’ll work with you to identify shared goals and design a collaboration that strengthens your community’s information health and civic connection.