We're Stronger Together

We Create Here was an initiative within the Gazette Company to develop evolving narratives and authentic conversations throughout Iowa's Creative Corridor. read more

One of the cornerstones of our work at We Create Here is direct engagement and collaboration with community members in Iowa's Creative Corridor.

Since our launch last fall, we've made it a priority to seek input and get feedback from the community at every step of the process, from the creation of story ideas, to formation of the stories, to determining the best way to bring people together to continue the dialogue and discussion.

The goal of getting the community involved in our process and getting constant feedback is twofold. First, by opening up the process, we're creating transparency around our work. We're giving the public a better understanding of how and why we do what we do.

Second, getting input from the community helps us ensure our work is meaningful and has the most impact it can.

It is in this spirit that I am excited to share with all of you a project I'm involved with here at the Gazette Company called Stronger Together. It involves other journalists, photographers, web developers and more.

This project aims to explore and explain the causes, characteristics and solutions to the problem of poverty in Linn and Johnson counties.

Since the very beginning, we have had direct involvement from the community. A community advisory group has regularly met to give us their thoughts on the goal and scope of the project. We've consulted them and asked them directly to tell and show us what is happening on the ground at their organizations. They've also helped confirm or challenge some of our thoughts up until now.

And critically, they are helping us connect to the people that are directly impacted by these issues every day.

As I continue the reporting and fact-finding process, I plan to share updates on lessons learned here. In addition, I welcome your thoughts or suggestions to help make the process of information gathering even stronger.

You can reach me at kiran.sood@sourcemedia.net.