Civic Strategies Services :::

We offer six major services to clients, using processes that we've developed working with numerous communities of all sizes and types. Click to below to read about Civic Strategies' services and how they can benefit your community and its civic organizations.

Community visioning. These are year-long initiatives that enlist hundreds of citizens in thinking about and planning how their community should develop in the future. The result is a powerful sense of community purpose.

Community leadership summits. These are one-day gatherings of a community’s leaders – often more than a hundred individuals — to consider and come to consensus on a critical issue. Summits work well when the issue is well known, the alternatives are clear, and cohesion is needed for the community to move forward.

Task force management. Faced with complex and difficult issues, many communities form task forces to sort out the facts, listen to citizens and make recommendations. But managing the work of a task force is not easy. Civic Strategies can help task forces stay focused and productive.

Planning retreats. Every important community board — elected or appointed, government or not-for-profit — should spend time each year reviewing its vision, mission, goals and objectives. But more: The board should also work on building relationships and teamwork, and it ought to visit places that are succeeding with the issues it’s concerned about. How about combining all of these things — planning, team building and an intercity visit — in a single annual planning retreat?  It’s what we call the “perfect planning retreat.”

Candidate assessments. It’s important that communities elect well-informed, well-motivated people to office and support them when they’re elected. But how can community leaders tell which candidates are informed and motivated? Civic Strategies has developed an objective candidate assessment process for local offices.

Consulting. Because we work in many communities and write widely about our work, we’re frequently asked to deliver workshops and seminars about community decision making, local issues and public engagement for governments, community organizations and companies.