When the North Carolina Local News Lab Fund announced new grants this past August, it was not just a who’s who of local news outlets. Among the grantees were a voter education organization and a network of public health information sharers in rural and tribal areas. NC Local News Lab Fund Director Lizzy Hazeltine has been driving a more ecosystem focused approach to funding local media. “These investments recognize the reality of growing threats and support the full range of people and organizations who help communities stay informed and engaged.”

Having a local philanthropic leader like Hazeltine to highlight and fund a collaborative approach to making sure people in a community can get the information they need is central to building a more ground up system of information access. As she collaborates on this model around North Carolina, she’s been using the Civic Information Index to provide some background data on each county she considers and what their unique needs are when it comes to information ecosystems.

“It’s been incredibly valuable to look [at the Index] and say, well one of the barriers to access here is clearly broadband. One of the clear needs is access to health care based on the cost burden and medical debt. But also, then to say, look at the level of volunteerism in this community. Look at the level of library usage. Look at some of these different behavioral cues that help us understand beyond demographics and beyond the impacts of race-, place-, and class-based discrimination. What does that actually mean in practice, and how might the Fund intervene?”

As part of our rollout of cases studies from Civic Information Index users, we’re super excited to share one centered on the unique work being done around the state of North Carolina to build community led information ecosystems. Check out the full case study here.