March 05 2021
Oregon Values & Voices project will pair unbiased research with independent reporting to inform Oregonians working to build stronger communities across the entire state.
As a recently retired opinion researcher, I spent a professional career exploring the divides in Oregon.
The political divide.
The urban-rural divide.
Too often, my exploration was limited to one or another subgroup of Oregonians, rather than all Oregonians. And my charge was to simply report the numbers and let my clients take it from there, which most often meant using the data to promote their self-interest in one way or another.
As a co-founder of the nonprofit Oregon Value and Beliefs Center (OVBC), I now feel like Django Unchained. As a native Oregonian (another divide: short- and long-term residents), I consider it an honor to help provide Oregonians a tool to not only explore the divides in our state but also to help bridge those divides.