Rooted in the collective moral fiber of communities, civic engagement is driven by a desire to enhance everyone’s quality of life. It plays an instrumental role in improving many facets of your neighborhood, including infrastructure, public safety, and citizen services.

This involves both apolitical and political methods of engagement, with many avenues for participation. Though some apprehension towards the latter isn’t unheard of, it can make for an excellent learning opportunity for those wanting to get civically involved for the first time.

Notable instances include political activism, environmentalism, community service, national service, participation in public forums, community meetings, petition signing, civil protests, and social media activism.

In this article, we discuss how citizen engagement strengthens communities and explore ideas that your administration can implement to get more people involved.

Definition and Dynamics of Civic Engagement

Civic engagement means different things to different people. It varies in expression across communities and age groups, but certain commonalities persist across all definitions, no matter which way you slice it.

We approach the concept of civic engagement similarly to how we define the democratic process—a mutually beneficial collaboration between citizens and their government.

It involves the different ways in which civic groups can band together and improve their communities, shape their identities, or plan for their futures.

Voting is among the simpler examples, but there are many other forms of engagement, all displaying a vibrant expression of the democratic process.

Peacefully living together requires people to assemble, voice their concerns, and reach a consensus. This is true for friends, families, and large communities alike.

Small government administrations can secure many benefits for their community by fostering participation. Some of them include:

• Better government: When people voice their concerns and opinions constructively, the government department in question can better address their needs.
• Better sense of community: The members of the city, town, or neighborhood will feel like more of a team with shared interests and values.
• Better understanding of government: Many people are unclear on how local governments function. To them, decisions seem arbitrary. However, engaged citizens understand and willingly take part in the decision-making process.
• Increased personal responsibility: Citizens learn that meeting their civic responsibilities helps others, and they develop the skills they need to participate in their government more fully.
• Lower crime: A study from the American Sociological Review links decreasing crime rates to locally formed citizen groups focusing on community building.

How to Improve Community Participation

Governments can employ many strategies to motivate community participation. Failure to implement them can alienate the public and shroud regional authorities from pressing municipal matters.

Even though most inhabitants are intimately in tune with key issues related to their locality, it’s not uncommon for them to shy away from being involved in civic engagement.

By incentivizing participation, civic administrative bodies can mitigate the pitfalls of disengagement or prevent them entirely. With that in mind, we’ve selected 3 criteria for implementing strategies that aim to engage groups. These include:

• Setup cost
• Type of engagement they encourage
• Popularity with residents

Each initiative mentioned below balances these criteria perfectly; they’re not cost-prohibitive, especially if they focus on volunteer labor.

Some of these directly invite residents to participate, such as community clean-up drives or town hall meetings, while others focus on raising awareness of engagement opportunities, like informational campaigns about local advisory boards.

All 5 options are consistently popular among residents.

Run Public Opinion Polls

Websites are unequivocally the best tools for communicating with residents. Whether your municipality has a mayor, select board, or town council, test the waters well ahead of public debates or significant decisions.

People have opinions, and they want to be heard. Unfortunately, most town councils have low engagement because the citizens don't think their opinions matter. However, you can change this dynamic by adopting a product marketing mindset.

According to Forbes, “Without your customers’ honest opinions, it’ll take longer to cultivate a loyal audience." Loyal customers are engaged customers, and frequently asking your residents' opinions is a great way to win them over.

Every community is different, but there is no limit to what you can poll. Consider some of the following ideas to get started:

• Public works proposals
• Budgetary issues
• School policies
• Parks and recreational facilities
• Community festivals/celebrations
• Garbage removal/recycling
• Names for (new) municipal structures
• Community branding

Public opinion polls increase engagement by allowing citizens to communicate their opinions quickly. As in business, listening to your "customers" increases loyalty—and loyal customers make the best brand ambassadors.

Produce Periodicals and Other Print Media

While websites are ideal for timely communication, physical media can leave a lasting impact. Consider releasing a monthly, bi-monthly, or quarterly town/city magazine to residents and businesses.

Official publications are practically advertisements for government-sponsored events and can reach citizens who don’t go online often. In addition, by highlighting local businesses, activities, and whatever else the town offers, they encourage residents to connect with their communities.

Dedicating pages of your magazine to the citizens themselves is a fantastic way to drive participation. For instance, short pieces highlighting volunteer work can memorialize expressions of participation and inspire others to follow suit.

Your publication does not need to be expansive, especially if there are budgetary concerns. Data shows that simple content-based updates lead to higher customer involvement. With that in mind, here are a few tips to help you get started:

• Think ahead: Define a time span. Get information well in advance to make publishing it worthwhile.
• Collaborate with local businesses: Offer advertising opportunities that are mutually beneficial.
• Use pictures: Citizen submissions (user generated content) are great instances of participation. Showing imagery that highlights your community in action is excellent reinforcement for civic engagement.
• Whole government approach: Get something from every department for each issue. Anything that highlights civic engagement or announces new opportunities for participation is valuable.
• Cross-promotion program: Upload a PDF copy on the website and advertise the publication on social media.

Physical publications increase engagement by communicating to the citizens and reminding them what the community offers. They’re great opportunities to commemorate and honor engagement that has already happened while highlighting opportunities on the horizon.

Establish a Community Preparedness Team

Unfortunately, not all citizen engagement examples are leisurely volunteering at festivals or assisting food banks. Almost every city or town sometimes experiences extreme weather; volunteer preparedness teams can bolster the existing workforce during emergencies.

This will increase engagement by involving citizens in emergency planning. Their meetings should be regular and open-door; the more residents involved in the planning, the more prepared the community will be for emergencies.

Disaster planning also requires thorough community surveying to identify people who are most likely to need special attention in an emergency. Preparedness teams can liaise between relevant government departments, community assisted living centers, private schools, and medical facilities.

Think of community preparedness teams as civic engagement opportunities for residents to collaborate with existing emergency services and help to plan, organize, and execute a solution to community disasters. FEMA even includes neighborhood-based groups on its emergency management list as important stakeholders.

Make Government Officials Accessible

Good CEOs need to be accessible to their employees. Likewise, good town managers, mayors, and other officials should dedicate time to engage with their constituents. For best results, pick a casual setting.

Engagement is a two-way street; it hinges on communication and collaboration. A lot can be achieved when people at the top liaise personally with the public every once in a while.

Accessibility might look different depending on individual preference, but informal small group formats such as "coffee breaks" or a "lunch and learn" can go a long way. Residents often feel more comfortable asking questions or raising concerns outside of town meetings—coffee shops or other casual settings are an ideal environment for relaxed conversation.

Google co-founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page host a company-wide Q&A for 30 minutes every Friday. In contrast, some c-suite types prefer an open door policy. This civic engagement instance shows a willingness to hear the concerns of residents and community members.

An accessible executive is as good a policy in governments as in business. Employees and citizens prefer an environment where they feel the leadership is interested in what they think and have an open line of communication.

Produce a Local News Show

Video content is another way for public authorities to leverage their online presence to encourage more engagement in the community. The principle is a lot like leveraging print media as it reminds the community about what’s on offer.

Transparency builds engagement in both business and government. For instance, producing a local show that recaps the past week and previews the upcoming week can highlight how residents have collaborated with the administration. It can also inform people about upcoming opportunities for involvement, further encouraging citizen engagement.

In addition, you can engage the public in the production process; the A/V department of the local high school could assist in production, perhaps by offering credit to students. Citizens with media expertise might volunteer to help, and you could also call for people to assemble their own short segments for inclusion.

Here are some ideas for events, services, and engagement ideas you could do stories on:

• Upcoming events
• Registrations for events
• Recycling tips
• Seasonal safety tips
• Public works updates
• Local business profiles
• Reports on volunteer programs
• Election procedure changes/updates
• Road construction updates
• Committee meeting recaps

Producing a weekly local news video is another citizen engagement example. It informs the citizens of what the community has accomplished over the last week and lets them know how they can help.

Take Initiative

As part of a healthy democratic process, civic engagement measures how effectively residents and administrations work together to improve their communities.

This collaborative effort ensures active participation from community members in local governance and that administrations address their needs and concerns.

Each community has a unique personality. Our civic engagement examples present options for local council administrations to adapt to their residents' needs. Tailoring these initiatives to fit the preferences of each community helps ensure maximum participation.

Reach out to us at Town Web to discuss even more ideas on how your administration can encourage citizens to take an active role in shaping your community.

We’re dedicated to creating effective municipal websites that will provide avenues for the development and implementation of civic engagement strategies. Contact us to learn more.