An evaluation of how civic media design served people’s information needs in Fresno, USA

The Listening Post Collective (LPC), Internews’ US-based program, partners with people and organizations to develop local news and information solutions that help communities thrive. LPC is working toward a future where civic power is strengthened by equitable media, and to support that vision, LPC provides research, tools, mentoring, networking, and funding for local media outlets and information sharers in diverse communities across the country.

As part of this 25×25 project, Internews hired Impact Architects (IA) to evaluate one of LPC’s flagship local programs in the US — where the LPC has invested for two years — in order to assess the effectiveness of a new approach: providing start-up funds to incubate and/or accelerate two community information initiatives that serve the Black, Latinx, and immigrant communities in Fresno, CA.

The focus of the evaluation was to observe any impact 1) of the IEA on the wider community, and 2) that LPC supported partners Ivanhoe Sol and uSpark Valley had on their community and audience. The grants were small and were intended only to seed local initiatives, but not provide a long-term sustainable funding stream, and the evaluation intended to provide evidence of the effectiveness of the small grants and this overall approach and methodology.