Nicole Chavez found herself in disturbingly familiar circumstances when she rushed to cover the murders of 19 students and teachers at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas. The shootings by an 18-year-old armed with a military-style rifle triggered traumatic memories of covering the murders of 23 people in her hometown of El Paso almost three years ago.

That 2019 “act of terrorism against Mexicans and the Hispanic community,” as Chavez wrote then, happened at the Walmart where she grew up shopping; her dad and sister could have been there on that day. It was an act “against her people and those she considers family.” Back then, she told palabra that “it was [her] duty” to volunteer to report the story.

Local readers will now help spearhead a national journalism research study aimed at preserving and strengthening local newsrooms nationwide. The study, conducted by researchers from the University of Kansas, University of Colorado-Boulder and University of Minnesota, surveyed 132 publishers and 416 readers throughout the central United States on revenue streams they’d like to see put in action or would support funding.

Researchers chose Hillsboro (Kansas) Free Press and sister publication Harvey County Now for a $10,000 grant to act as a pilot partner in putting the study’s findings into action.