"Your Florida" celebrates its one-year anniversary by being named a Champion of Curiosity for its world-class civic engagement.
The award comes from Hearken, which helps organizations embed listening into how they work, leading to stronger operations, deeper audience engagement, and news stories powered by you — our listeners.
"Your Florida" began during the 2025 legislative session. Funded by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and WUSF, it aims to explain how state government works and to reach people wherever they are.
With the continuing deterioration of local journalism, there's a lack of knowledge about civic affairs, the legislature and legal processes that structure our government, said WUSF's grant application for the project. This is a real threat to our democracy and our nation as a whole, where apathy, misinformation, and disinformation can lead citizens to disengage from society. Florida is the third-largest state in the country.
According to the Local News Initiative at Northwestern University, Florida’s 67 counties included nine with no news source in 2023; 22 counties had only one. As a response to this problem, WUSF created this comprehensive community engagement project using innovative methods to educate and connect with the public. We want people to be inspired to participate in the process of government.
The Champions of Curiosity award entry included several stories from Your Florida’s community engagement reporter, Meghan Bowman and Tallahassee reporter, Douglas Soule. They were edited by WUSF Editorial Manager Amy Tardif.
The stories
It's widely known that Florida is now a red state, but we wanted to know how red it was. We also wanted to know when and why the flip from blue happened. Talking to several question-askers, as well as doing a data dive, revealed the answers. People were quite surprised by the results.
READ: Red, Blue or Neither: The Changing Color of Florida Politics
We started a segment called "You Asked, We Answered" regarding state policy and legislation. Examples include how the state legislature calendar system works and an explainer on the state's Sunshine Laws.
Because reporter Meghan Bowman is the first social media-first public media reporter in the state, this explanation style took off.
You also asked several questions about Florida's new condo laws, which left homeowners with exorbitant fees to bring their condominiums up to code. These stories, by Meghan Bowman, and one talk show segment on the statewide show, "The Florida Roundup," are all based on the one investigation that turned into power plays between condo owners (who reached out to us) and condo boards. The talk show aired on every public radio station in Florida.
READ: Floridians share impacts of the state's condo crisis
READ: Frustrated Florida condo owners and board members clash. How reforms could help
Property tax reform is one of the hottest issues in Florida right now. We set out to tell the story of how hard it is to stay in your home after receiving multiple questions about the reform proposals through Hearken. Douglas Soule reported on the issue with their help and continues covering the issue today.
READ: Could property tax change? Florida lawmakers want it to
School choice has been a huge story in Florida for many years. In 2025, other states started to look at Florida's program as an example to copy. Douglas Soule set out to explain how the voucher program is affecting education in the state. He highlighted one parent's experience using vouchers for her differently abled child after she wrote to us about how helpful the program has been for her son.
READ: Florida voucher expansion's effects as school begins
"Your Florida" is now fully covering the 2026 legislative session.
You can find all of our stories here and by following WUSF on social media.
