Questions to Ask: Components of the Civic Index

Abstract

The Civic Index provides a method and a process for identifying community strengths and weaknesses and then structuring collaborative solutions to problems. It offers communities a means of undertaking a self-evaluation of their civic infrastructures. Creating civic infrastructure is not an end in itself. Rather, it is a community's first step toward building its capacity to deal with critical issues. Citizens can use the Civic Index to analyze their community's civic infrastructure by asking a series of questions about the community. During the initial steps of a stakeholder process, citizens can assess their community's components and later come to agreement on the desired condition of the twelve components of the new Civic Index.