Our work centers on collaboration: listening to local voices, identifying shared needs, and building the relationships that strengthen trust and community life. 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 term begins, we connect several weeks in advance to agree on goals, clarify roles, and plan activities together. We then co-design surveys and events tailored to your community. During the term, our team meets weekly with partners to stay engaged, track progress, and make adjustments based on community feedback. 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 local groups, nonprofits, libraries, or newsrooms that care deeply about their community’s access to reliable information and participation in local life.
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 Journalism Center helps with planning, organizing, and guiding community conversations and surveys, while offering proven tools and practical guides from our statewide and national partners. We also provide 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 (stories) and quantitative (data) insights into how residents access, trust, and use information, along with actionable recommendations for improving how information flows in your community. We also aim to keep the momentum going by staying connected with communities and supporting local media outlets.
How will this help our work?
The process builds relationships, informs future reporting, and can help shape funding proposals or local projects.
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.