NJCIC, Center for Cooperative Media, and Civilio Launch First AI-Assisted Statewide Civic Information Database

New Jersey Civic Information Consortium, Center for Cooperative Media, and Civilio launch first AI-Assisted statewide civic information database

New AI-assisted platform will turn public meetings across New Jersey into searchable, accessible information for journalists, researchers, and the public.

LOS ANGELES and MONTCLAIR, N.J., June 24, 2026 — Civilio today announced its partnership with the New Jersey Civic Information Consortium (NJCIC) and the Center for Cooperative Media at Montclair State University (CCM) to launch a statewide civic information service designed to help New Jersey residents, journalists, and researchers more easily follow government plans and decisions.

The initiative will capture and analyze public meetings across municipal, county, school board, and statewide government bodies throughout New Jersey. Using AI-assisted analysis grounded in public records, the system will notify the public of government actions, plans, and decisions through plain-language summaries and alerts linked directly to source materials.

The resulting database of transcripts, meeting documents, and supporting analyses will power a deep research platform for New Jersey news organizations, universities, researchers, and other public-interest groups seeking to monitor and better understand government activity across the state.

“One of our goals at the Consortium is ensuring all New Jerseyans have equitable access to trustworthy, local information that supports civic participation. This project represents the kind of statewide civic information collaboration New Jersey needs to reach that goal. Many communities face growing gaps in local information access and civic awareness. Barriers to accessibility, capacity, and discoverability often prevent residents from meaningfully engaging with government. Strengthening civic participation requires investing in systems that make public information understandable and usable, and enable the general public, local researchers, and journalists to see the trends and uncover the stories within.”

— Lisa Sahulka, Executive Director of the New Jersey Civic Information Consortium

“I’m really excited about this project because it will centralize and streamline public meeting activity across all of our state’s diverse municipalities in a way that can directly augment public-interest reporting. Communities benefit when journalists and residents have better tools to access, verify, and understand local government information. The Center is proud to bring this tool to its partners across the state.”

— Stefanie Murray, Director of the Center for Cooperative Media at Montclair State University

The partnership with Civilio is supported thanks to funding from Google News Initiative.

“This partnership highlights Civilio’s, NJCIC’s, and the Center’s shared commitment to government transparency, civic engagement, and public trust. We put our systems through a rigorous independent benchmarking process to ensure that the information the public receives is insightful, reliable, and accurate. This is about improving public visibility into government activity at scale, and it does not replace the important role journalists play in reporting and contextualizing this information.”

— Von Raees, CEO of Civilio

The initiative is designed to address a growing information-access problem facing local communities and institutions. While most government meetings are technically public, meaningful barriers to access — including the scale, complexity, and volume of government information — often place public awareness and civic engagement out of reach for many residents and under-resourced organizations.

Civilio structures public meetings into searchable and verifiable datasets that include transcripts, agenda packets, and supporting documents linked back to original source evidence, allowing users to independently verify claims and context.

Residents will be able to follow issues affecting their communities through a notification service, while journalists and researchers can use the platform to conduct longitudinal investigations and cross-jurisdictional analysis into public policy, spending, contracting, housing, education, infrastructure, and other government activities.

This initiative will be evaluated by Dr. Sarah Stonbely of the Tow Center for Digital Journalism at Columbia University. Her evaluation will assess the program’s implementation for its value to participating newsrooms and residents.

Journalists, researchers, and community organizations interested in learning more about the platform will have opportunities to explore its features and ask questions at an upcoming informational webinar. Additional details, including registration information and training dates, will be announced in the coming weeks by the New Jersey Civic Information Consortium and the Center for Cooperative Media.

Learn more about the Civilio platform →

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