Our Process
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The Mt. Hood Cable Regulatory Commission (‘MHCRC’), in mid-2008, began planning for an initiative to ascertain the local community’s current and future use of communications technology and community media. The MHCRC saw a need for such an initiative for a variety of reasons:
▸ Current local and regional planning processes do not consider communications infrastructure and services in planning efforts – even though the importance of communications technology is vital to the health and livability of the community;
▸ Many public agencies are spending resources on communications technology but haven’t had the ability to collect local, relevant data on which to make decisions;
▸ The Comcast cable franchises expire in December 2010. The franchises provide significant technology resources in Multnomah County communities - for schools and libraries data connectivity needs, community media centers, access television, and many others - and solid, local data will provide a basis for updated benefits in any renewed franchise agreements.
The geographic area for the ascertainment was the MHCRC’s service area, which includes the cities of Portland, Gresham, Fairview, Troutdale and Wood Village, and unincorporated Multnomah County (‘County’).
In June 2009, the MHCRC selected CBG Communications, Inc. (‘CBG’) to assist the Commission in designing and conducting an ascertainment that would:
- Provide a thorough and realistic ascertainment of the community’s current and future communications technology needs and interests.
- Engage and reflect the broad and diverse voices of multiple communities.
- Build greater awareness of existing cable-related public benefits and communications technology opportunities.
- Document and evaluate the impact of past cable-related public benefits (grants, I-Net, community access, consumer protection, etc.) and,
- Provide local data and related trending and data analysis.
Gathering Community Voices
The “Gathering Community Voices” phase of the ascertainment focused primarily on implementing strategies and methods to engage the broad and diverse voices of the Communities in the local data collection.
This phase also included building greater awareness of existing cable-related public benefits and communications technology opportunities and documenting and evaluating the impact of past cable-related public benefits (capital grants, the Institutional Network (I-Net), community access, consumer protection, franchise fees, etc.).
The Study Report
Download Full Report PDF
Download Executive Summary PDF
Our Partners
The YourVoice initiative is fortunate to have developed unique and valuable partnerships with local nonprofit organizations. Our Partners include:
Caldera
Caldera's mission is to be a catalyst for transformation through innovative art and environmental programs. Founded in 1996, Caldera's youth program began as a summer-season experiment, introducing a group of underserved Portland children to the beauty of the Cascade Mountains. In the past thirteen years it has grown dramatically into a comprehensive, long-term, year-round arts and environmental mentoring program that has impacted thousands of young lives. Caldera begins mentoring kids in sixth grade, and stays with them through the end of high school and beyond, helping them to transition to jobs or college. The YourVoice initiative is partnering with Caldera’s Careers in Creative Technology youth program to visually document the phases and process of the YourVoice initiative and to create an easy to understand and accessible Report to the Community.
re:Active
re:Active is a nonprofit, arts-education program for youths 13-19. re:Active uses the production of a theme-based magazine (titled "re:") about issues affecting youth as the vehicle for introducing students to design thinking and the creative process in general. We help youth to see a path that makes sense for them by introducing them to jobs in the fields of design, writing, illustration and photography. Our first set of classes began in 2004. Re:Active has made magazines with many incredible organizations and youth including: Street Poets LA, 826 Valencia, Caldera Arts and the Echo Park Film Center. The Caldera youth program is partnering with re:Active to develop the Report to the Community.
The MHCRC also contracted with CBG Communications, Inc. to design and implement the YourVoice initiative.