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Yolo Local

Yolo Local launches countywide survey

May 9, 2025--Yolo Local has launched a countywide bilingual survey aimed at better understanding the news and information needs of community members in Yolo County.

Developed by community media nonprofit Davis Media Access (DMA), Yolo Local is delving into how the decline in locally available information and news is impacting both information providers and local residents. The survey is one of several community engagement and information-gathering strategies the project will carry out this spring via its volunteer Yolo Local Working Group.

“Yolo Local is grounded in the belief that our civic health, democratic traditions and capacity to address community issues are directly related to our ability to access local, accurate, trusted information in Yolo County,” said Autumn Labbé-Renault, DMA’s executive director.

“Right now, trust in media is at an all-time low; local news sources are disappearing, and digital platforms are stoking fragmentation and polarization,” Labbé-Renault said. “Many communities feel left out and disconnected by media content, especially where it’s not relevant or useful to them."

Organizers are working to get as broad a range of responses as possible from all areas of the county. Completing the survey should take about 10 minutes, and participants are eligible to win one of four $50 gift cards to Nugget Markets. The survey closes June 15.

Community members can complete the English version of the survey or the Spanish-language version

Labbé-Renault noted the Yolo Local Working Group is relying on its community partners to share and help amplify this survey, which will “help DMA determine how to move forward with a project that works to meet our county’s most critical unmet information needs.”

Yolo Local is conducted in partnership with Impact Architects and Davis resident and community-engaged journalist jesikah maria ross, and is being developed as a national pilot.  Financial support has been provided by the City of Davis, Yolo County Supervisor Lucas Frerichs, and the office of former Supervisor Jim Provenza, as well as private donors. Donations to support the project may be made here.

Davis Media Access Announces Yolo Local Working Group members

Local community media nonprofit Davis Media Access (DMA) has announced the inaugural members of its Yolo Local Working Group.

Known for its longtime civic engagement work, DMA has spent the past 18 months moving from “curiosity about how DMA could help the decline in locally available information, to concrete action towards that end,” said Autumn Labbé-Renault, DMA’s executive director and principal developer of the project.

“We believe the shrinking of local newsrooms and corresponding loss of vital news and information affects every aspect of community life. When information is scarce or inequitable, civic engagement is diminished and our communities suffer,” she said. “Davis Media Access is working to build a civic information project for Davis and beyond, and we’ve named this project Yolo Local.”

Though based in Davis, the organization has strategic partnerships across the county. The first phase of Yolo Local is a countywide community information needs assessment. Labbé-Renault said the goal is to better understand our local news and information ecosystem, both in terms of the “supply side” or information providers, as well as from the “demand side” of local residents’ information needs and preferences.

The assessment will take place over the next four months and include a bilingual survey, engagement at community events, focus groups, and listening sessions. To assist with this project, DMA has convened a Yolo Local Working Group. Members will bring their personal, professional, and community experiences to the space to inform and help build the work.

Members and their affiliations include:

  • Spencer Bowen: Communication & Strategic Policies Manager, City of Woodland
  • Bill Buchanan: Award-winning journalist; retired from UC Davis; Host and Producer of “Davisville” on KDRT
  • Alejandra Cuevas Rash: PhD in Communication Studies; teacher; bilingual consulting; Ethnic Studies development, DJUSD
  • Laura Galindo: Interim Public Information Officer, Yolo County; Office of Emergency Services; formerly Yocha DeHe Wintun Nation
  • Linda Henigan: ED & Founder, Woodland’s Dinner on Main; Founder and former Executive Director, WAVE TV; fomerly Woodland Chamber of Commerce
  • Anahi Monter: Program Director, Yolo County Children’s Alliance; extensive experience working with diverse cultural communities throughout county
  • Leonie Pickett: Teacher (Da Vinci Charter Academy); City of Davis Human Relations Committee Vice Chair; UU Church of Davis
  • Josh Redman: Solar Housing Association; Third Space art Collective; Food Not Bombs, Good and Weird Davis
  • Jenny Tan: Director of Community Engagement, City of Davis; Board Member for Yolo Community Foundation, former Public Information Officer for Yolo County
  • Anthony Volkar: Public Information Officer, Yolo County Office of Education; connected to 30,000 students throughout county
  • Alyx Volzer: Business Owner, Massage Therapy Institute; Yolo Sol; LGBTQIA+, community organizer

Working Group members were vetted and selected by an ad hoc committee comprising DMA’s board, staff and volunteers. Labbé-Renault said the focus wasn’t on journalism experience for this phase, but on “individuals who are connectors, do-ers and committed to working collaboratively.” Labbé-Renault noted the need still for representation from Winters, rural Yolo County, and youth.

DMA's partners in this process are community-engaged journalist and Davis resident jesikah maria ross [she does not capitalize her name], and Boulder, CO-based Impact Architects, who are providing the framework and methodology for this undertaking. The project has received financial support from the City of Davis, Yolo County Supervisor Lucas Frerichs, and former Supervisor Jim Provenza, as well as private donors, and is actively pursuing other funding.

Labbé-Renault encouraged interested community members to email yololocal@davismedia.org to sign up for a forthcoming newsletter about the project.

 

Davis Media Access partners with nationally recognized Impact Architects

Davis Media Access (DMA) has announced a new partnership with Impact Architects, a nationally recognized firm that partners with nonprofits, philanthropy, and businesses to address complex challenges on a global scale. Impact Architects will provide the framework, methodology and data analysis for Yolo Local, the community information needs assessment DMA is driving.

The firm has worked with public media outlets and universities to evaluate the impact of their programs, and with large foundations including Ford, Knight and the Walton Family foundation to assess the impacts of their giving around engaged journalism. One of their most recent projects was an information needs assessment for the state of Wyoming.

DMA’s Executive Director, Autumn Labbé-Renault, said DMA is not a typical client for Impact Architects, but their approach at the right moment—brokered by Davis resident and Yolo Local advisor jesikah maria ross—yielded an opportunity to be the pilot for a program that Lindsay Green-Barber, founder and principal of Impact Architects, calls a hybrid model.

“Over the past five years of doing local information ecosystem assessments we've learned that the work is best when we have strong, engaged, local partners,” Green-Barber said. ”In this hybrid model, we'll bring our research expertise and strong assessment model, and our local partners will bring their relationships, deep knowledge of people and place. Together, we hope to deeply understand the opportunities, needs, and gaps in information across Yolo County."

DMA manages multiple media projects out of its facility on Fifth Street in Davis, including Davis Community Television, DJUSD.tv and community radio station KDRT 95.7FM, and works with public and private partners throughout Yolo County. With its historic funding in decline, the organization has been exploring its future strategic directions. Labbé-Renault notes one of the project’s goals is to pilot a process that community media centers elsewhere could use.

In late 2023, she led DMA in the launch of an exploratory process that started with her curiosity about how DMA’s technical infrastructure and expertise, as well as its deep community connections, might help turn around the decline of locally available civic information? With the support of DMA’s board of directors and staff, she talked with nearly 50 community leaders, raised $25,000, including support from the City of Davis and Yolo County Supervisors Lucas Frerichs and Jim Provenza (former), and branded the project Yolo Local.

Working under a framework that Impact Architects provides, DMA will form a working group for Yolo Local, which will in turn drive the on-the-ground community engagement work comprising a survey, focus groups and listening sessions throughout the county. The timeframe for this is February-September of this year.

“Ultimately, Impact Architects will deliver a comprehensive, data-driven report that details how our Yolo community views its information needs, which in turn will drive the next phase of Yolo Local,” Labbé-Renault said. “We know it's critical to take the time to listen to people in an inclusive way, and to get good data. The opportunity to work with IA levels up our project in multiple ways, and we’re most grateful for the opportunity to explore this collaboration.”

Labbé-Renault said DMA needs to raise another $25,000 to fully build out the assessment phase, and that she is actively identifying and pursuing funding opportunities.

Statement of Purpose - Yolo Local

In the void left by shrinking news coverage in Yolo County, Davis Media Access (DMA) is working to build a civic information project for Davis and beyond. We’ve named this project Yolo Local.

We believe the shrinking of local newsrooms and corresponding loss of vital news and information affects every aspect of community life. When information is scarce or inequitable, civic engagement is diminished and our communities suffer.

Concept Paper: Community Media Meets Public Service Journalism

Community Media Meets Public Service Journalism
Creating a Civic Information Hub for Yolo County
By Autumn Labbé-Renault, Executive Director, Davis Media Access
Updated April 2024

This is a vision for a project that seeks to bring together an award-winning noncommercial community
media center in Davis, CA with other local news and culture resources, including student-run newspapers
and podcasts; a community arts/culture/entertainment newspaper, and a once-robust local newspaper—
all in the service of a community and its citizens’ information needs.

Generally, this would be a new source of community and civic information about Davis/Yolo, drawing on
the strengths and needs of people in the community, and available to all. We don't see this as a
commercial venture; we do see it as a supplement to existing local sources of information. How this
would work or function, or how it would be funded, are questions we hope to answer through our
exploration phase, but we envision a three-year runway to get the project up and running in Davis in Year
1, with expansion to covering other important news in Yolo County beginning in Year 2.

Project Principals

Autumn Labbé-Renault (she/her) began her career as a newspaper reporter and editor; worked in development and public affairs/policy for Planned Parenthood, and has spent the past 20+ years using media tools to build capacity and community in Yolo County. She’s served as DMA’s ED since 2007.