The Our Towns Civic Foundation is a nonprofit launched by writers Deborah and James Fallows to share stories of civic renewal and local innovation across America. Rooted in their bestselling book Our Towns: A 100,000‑Mile Journey into the Heart of America and the HBO documentary that followed, the foundation aims to highlight community-driven examples of progress and possibility.
We partnered with Deborah and James and collaborated with designer Michelle Ellia to build a website that reflects the foundation’s mission and storytelling approach. The site presents curated articles, community profiles, founder stories, and an interactive media library with interviews and documentary content. It also features an interactive map that showcases featured towns and their local initiatives.
The custom site built on WordPress, balances editorial credibility and inviting accessibility. It’s fully responsive, optimized for readable longform content, and incorporates accessibility best practices. The architecture supports rich taxonomies covering topics like journalism, environment, education, and civic engagement, and handles content from dozens of contributors and ongoing updates.
The result is a polished digital home for civic storytelling – a platform that optimizes navigation, amplifies the Fallows’ reporting legacy, and makes it easy for readers to discover regional examples of real-world renewal.
