Yolo Local

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 (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.