A member of the media sets up at the Gay Pride Parade in Durham, North Carolina. Photograph by John Biewen.

Supported by a $140,000 media grant from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, Groundwork, a Center for Documentary Studies documentary radio and multimedia project, is gearing up for national broadcast this spring with a series of radio features, followed by a one-hour radio special this summer. The project also includes a multimedia, interactive website that invites stories and media content from the audience. Visit groundworkproject.org, to see a video about the project and for links to its Facebook and Twitter pages.

The aim of Groundwork is to examine the current state of American democracy in six diverse places across the United States—how people solve problems, make decisions, and get things done at the local level when grappling with issues that resonate with broader national concerns like immigration, the environment, energy, and civil rights, among others. “The project essentially asks, at a time when American democracy seems hopelessly polarized and gridlocked at the national level, what does it look like, and sound like, where the people trying to work things out are neighbors,” says John Biewen, audio director at CDS and Groundwork producer.

Audience participation is a key component of the project—how is your community discussing issues, working together (or not), and solving problems? Groundwork wants to know. The website instructs visitors on contributing photos and videos via Flickr, Vimeo, and YouTube, and sharing stories via Facebook and Twitter.

On February 14, we’ll randomly select a total of fourteen Facebook and Twitter followers to receive a free copy of Local Heroes Changing America, a book from the major CDS project Indivisible, in which photographers, radio producers, and folklorists explored life in twelve America communities. Three of the six Groundwork stories return to places and initiatives featured in that project. Local Heroes features the work of world-renowned photographers Bill Burke, Lynn Davis, Lauren Greenfield, Reagan Louie, Danny Lyon, Sylvia Plachy, and Eli Reed, among others, and includes a CD of first-person narratives.