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For communities to respond to their challenges, they must resolve, for themselves, that their capacity to solve problems requires revitalization. Outside consultants can make recommendations, but without local ownership of the strategy and implementation plan, it is not likely that the community will take action. The Civic Index, a twelve point community self-evaluation tool, helps communities develop their problem solving capacity by providing a method and a process for first identifying strengths and weaknesses, and then for structuring collaborative problem solving strategies. Today's column provides an overview of the Civic Index and the context in which community problem solving efforts take place.

A New Approach to Improving Community Life

Our approaches to solving societal problems in the United States have been evolving for over a decade. Successful communities no longer look primarily to Washington for money or program guidance. Rather, leaders in America's most vibrant and vital communities are blurring the boundaries between government, business, and the nonprofit sector. These successful communities recognize the interdependence among sectors and citizens, and they struggle to identify common goals to meet individual and community needs and aspirations.

Shifting our approach from federal patriarchy to community problem solving is a difficulty but necessary task. Successful communities are throwing off old traditions, realizing that no group will succeed unless the diverse needs of the entire community are met. Bank presidents, community activists, developers, and religious leaders are using informal gatherings and processes to sort out differences and develop principles they can agree to.

Astute elected and appointed officials do not view these activities as threats, but embrace them warmly. They understand, for instance, that moderate-income housing does not get built when a city council or a county commission passes an ordinance. It gets built when a coalition of community development corporations, financial institutions, churches, and government agencies collaboratively design and accept responsibility for the effort.

Communities that are operating in this way have developed new techniques for improving the lives and prospects of all their residents. Ten years ago, the National Civic League set out to identify the capacities and competencies that existed in these communities. The key to success is the building - or rebuilding, when necessary - the community's civic infrastructure.

In a wide variety of settings - small towns like Sedona, Arizona; the border town of McAllen, Texas; suburban towns like Westminster, Colorado; the old manufacturing center of Lorain, Ohio; the metropolitan areas of Charlotte-Mecklenburg, North Carolina and Portland, Oregon; and the entire state of New Hampshire - citizens from all sectors and corners of the community have come together to build their community's problem solving capacity.

All these communities have looked at the challenges confronting them, considered where they would like to be in the future, agreed on what everyone in the community must do to achieve that vision, and finally, developed an action plan to achieve that vision.

The New Realities
The National Civic League helps citizens understand that the challenges they face are not unique to their community. This is not meant to diminish the seriousness or unique nature of the issues they are dealing with, but to let them know they can look to other communities for successful approaches to resolving issues. All communities are facing this new set of realities:

• There will continue to be fewer public dollars available for dealing with critical societal issues;

• Challenges and problems, and the solutions to them, will increasingly be the responsibilities of local and regional communities;

• Increased local decision-making responsibility places greater importance on integrity and effectiveness in local governance;

• Collaboration and interdependence will be watchwords for local and regional action;

• Increasing diversity - racial, ethnic, cultural, socio-economic, age, physical or mental ability - and the potential for polarization, are realities for every community.

Civic Infrastructure
Every community has a civic infrastructure - the complex interaction of people and groups through which decisions are made and problems are resolved. The quality of this interaction determines a community's health. Social and political processes reflect how people engage in public discourse and make decisions; how people work together and relate to each other; how people help each other and the community as a whole sets priorities and deals with problems.

Just as with a community's physical infrastructure, if the civic infrastructure has deteriorated, it must be rebuilt. In new communities it has to be built before the community will be able to deal successfully with its challenges.

The Civic Index
The National Civic League developed the Civic Index a decade ago to help communities evaluate and improve their civic infrastructures. The ten components of the Civic Index serve as a description of the types of skills and processes that must be present for a community to deal effectively with its unique concerns. These components are:

1. Citizen Participation
2. Community Leadership
3. Government Performance
4. Volunteerism and Philanthropy
5. Intergroup and Intragroup Relations
6. Civic Education
7. Community Information Sharing
8. Capacity for Cooperation and Consensus Building
9. Community Vision and Pride
10. Regional Cooperation

Communities need to look at all ten of these components. Focusing on only one or two will not improve a community's problem solving capacity because of the inter-relatedness of the Civic Index components.

Whether the specific issue is a quality school system, an air pollution problem, or lack of adequate low-income housing, the need for effective problem solving is the same. Communities must have the capacity to solve the problems they face.

The Civic Index provides a framework within which communities can undertake a self-evaluation of their civic infrastructure. The result of such projects is not an end. Rather, the outcome is a clear picture of the actions a community must take - the types of skills and processes it must develop - to build its own capacity to deal with critical issues.

For information on how the concepts and techniques presented in this column can be applied in your community, or for a copy of the 1999 Revised Civic Index, contact the National Civic League by e-mail at ncl@ncl.org; on the world wide web at www.ncl.org; or by phone at (303) 571-4343.

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