History of Civic Strategies

Civic Stragegies was founded by Otis White in 1998 and has become one of the country's best known community consulting companies.

Partly our reputation has spread because we've been so eclectic in our work. While most community consultants specialize in a single subject like economic development or a single discipline like urban planning, we've felt that community issues were too intertwined to be approached so narrowly.

Partly, our reputation has been built on our approach: a deep respect for the roles of citizens and leaders and how both are needed to move communities foward. (For more about our approach, please click here.)

And partly we've become known as more than just consultants, but also writers and teachers about communities, leadership and decison making. (To view some of our articles and presentations, please click here.)

As a result, we've worked on a broad array of issues, from economic development and the environment, to public transit and downtown development. And we've worked in communities of all sizes around the country.

Some of our most notable contributions have come in designing and managing year-long community visioning initatives and creating a process of objectively evaluating candidates for local political office. But we've also designed large-scale community leadership summits and annual planning retreats, and managed important community task forces.

What's ahead for Civic Strategies? In 2007, we began a long-term project to understand how communities make important decisions — and how they can make better decisions. As we learn more about the patterns of decision making, we'll publish our results and, of course, share what we learn with our clients.