News Release

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CONTACT: Ms. Nancy Record, Executive Director, The Community Forum, (901) 722-0011.

Assessment Completed of Community's Civic Health

Next Task To Prioritize Key Performance Areas That Will Strengthen The Ability Of Memphis And Shelby County To Come Together And Solve Problems

MEMPHIS (April 11, 2001) - At a pivotal meeting today, over 120 invited local stakeholders will reconvene to prioritize the areas of focus aimed at improving the "civic infrastructure" of all the communities that comprise Shelby County. The lead consultant to this initiative, the National Civic League uses the term "civic infrastructure" to describe the formal and informal processes and networks through which communities make decisions and work to solve problems. The quality of a community's civic infrastructure plays a big role in determining that community's health- economic, civic and social. Like the muscles of a body, civic infrastructure becomes stronger with use and weaker with disuse.

Over the past six weeks, individuals across Memphis and Shelby County have been hard at work assessing the civic health of this community, through an initiative called "Memphis Can!" The results of this self-assessment have now been documented and are ready for community review and prioritization. The meeting will be held today from 5:00 to 8:00 p.m. at the Memphis City Schools Auditorium, 2597 Avery Avenue. Registration, networking and dinner will be available from 4:30- 5:00 p.m.

"Our task for this meeting is to select key performance areas, to identify the areas of critical importance to the civic infrastructure of Metro Memphis," said Drew O'Connor, Director of Community Services at the National Civic League.

The team from the National Civic League team assigned to Memphis Can!, the local name for the Memphis and Shelby County Civic Index initiative, recently analyzed the information provided in the first three meetings by the diverse, representative sample of citizens. The Community Forum, a local nonprofit organization that brings community members together to define, discuss and solve community issues and problems in a neutral, turf-free environment, is coordinating the implementation Memphis Can! using the Civic Index tool. Developed and refined over a twenty-five year period by the National Civic League, the Civic Index is a twelve-point community self-evaluation tool.
Phase One of Memphis Can!, which began on February 21, will span four months and eight intensive stakeholder meeetings. The intended outcome of the process, a framework for action to improve the civic democracy of Memphis and Shelby County, is scheduled for release in July, 2002.
"After selecting key performance areas, we will create task forces and chairpersons for each area," said Nancy Record, Executive Director of the Community Forum. "Subsequent meetings will focus on the development of task force recommendations for strengthening our civic health, with 2003 dedicated to implementing these recommendations."

The local participants in Memphis Can! conducted the assessment during two extended meetings in March. The scorecard results from the National Civic League are a combination of qualitative information generated during several hours of small group discussion and tallied results from the Civic Index Evaluation - a form completed by each stakeholder at the end of the two March meetings.

The assessment rated Memphis and Shelby County in each of the following categories: Vision, On-going Learning, Citizens, Government, Non-profits, Business, Bridging Diversity, Sharing Information, Reaching Consensus, Crossing Jurisdictional Lines, Citizen Education and Community Leadership. Citizens were asked to rank each component on a scale of one to five Results from Memphis Can! indicate that a diverse and representative cross-section of this community believe that the six strongest areas, beginning with the strongest component: Nonprofits, Business, Citizens, Bridging Diversity, On-going Learning, and Government. According to local stakeholders, the six weakest areas, beginning with the weakest component, are: Reaching Consensus, Crossing Jurisdictional Lines, Vision, Sharing Information, Citizen Education, and Community Leadership.

The National Civic League assessment team identified five themes repeated both in the formal assessment as well as the extended group discussions. The first theme, Shared Vision and Planning Together, stresses the value of a shared vision that encompasses organizations and sectors across our community, and better coordination and collaboration between organizations, sectors, and planning projects. The second repeated theme, Public Participation in Community Decision-Making, emphasizes approaches that encourage public participation and build stronger relationships between citizens and government. The third theme, Information Sharing/Educating Citizens, is intended to increase the available information for citizens on past, present and future projects, as well as increased training opportunities for people on the notion and responsibilities of citizenship. The fourth theme, Building Leadership, describes an opening up the process of becoming a leader in this community to make it more commonplace for individuals with differing backgrounds and perspectives to rise to the challenge of leading the community. The final repeating theme, Crossing Jurisdictional Lines, highlights the importance of developing a shared regional vision and working more collaboratively across municipal lines.

"Anyone who is interested in civic issues needs to participate in this initiative, for it is already providing a very honest citizen-driven evaluation of the civic health of our community," said Marlon Foster and Russell Gwatney, Co-Chairs of Memphis Can!.

Community members not available for today's meeting may still participate in the process through the official website of Memphis Can!, www.memphiscan.info. Access to the site is also available on the Community Forum's web site, www.communityforum.info.

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