This site has been running in the background since March. The work has been happening longer than that.
We’re making it public now.
Ground Truth NC is a civic intelligence practice based in North Carolina. We help communities, institutions, and coalitions understand the operating environment — what’s actually happening, what it means, and what options exist.
The practice is built around a specific argument: that the quality of decisions in a community depends on the quality of shared understanding. Bad information, missing information, and information designed to confuse — these aren’t background noise. They’re the terrain.
What this site is for
The Field Notes section is public analysis. Observations about the operating environment in North Carolina — political, institutional, civic, climatic. The Strategic Assessment section is deeper work: framing, trend analysis, condition reports.
Not everything we produce will be public. Some of it is for clients. What appears here is what we’ve judged to be useful to a wider audience.
Who this is for
Civic practitioners. Local government staff. Community organizations. Journalists covering North Carolina. Anyone trying to understand what’s happening here and make decisions in response to it.
We also work with organizations that need a steady picture of conditions on the ground — not a one-time report, but sustained civic intelligence over time. If that describes your situation, the contact page is the place to start.
A note on what this isn’t
This is not a news outlet. We don’t publish breaking news or event recaps. We don’t do advocacy. We don’t tell you what to think about what we find.
We provide analysis. The distinction matters. Analysis is interpretation of conditions against a frame. It requires judgment and it requires transparency about that judgment. We try to be clear about both.
The site is live. The work continues.