NCoC pursues its mission through a nationwide network of partners involved in a cutting-edge Civic Health Initiative, cross-sector conferences and year-round engagement with a broad spectrum of individuals and organizations interested in utilizing civic engagement principles and practices to enhance their work. At the core of our joint efforts is the belief that every person has the ability to help their community and country thrive.
Communities with strong indicators of civic health as measured by the Civic Health Index have higher employment rates, stronger schools, better physical health, and more responsive governments.
Civic Health Index (CHI) partnerships have changed the way governments go about their work, reintroduced civics to our classrooms, redirected investments, influenced national and local conversations, and bolstered a network of civic leaders across the country.
With Strengthening Civic Life as its mission, NCoC’s Civic Health Initiative is designed to support increasingly engaged, resilient communities.
Key Terms
Civic Life: For an individual, a life in which civic engagement has an important place. For a community, all the acts of civic engagement and associated norms and values of its members.
Civic Health: We think of “civic health” as the manner in which communities organize to define and address public problems.
Civic Renewal: A process that leads to better social outcomes. Civic Health is a measure of that process.
Civic Health Index measures civic health in regions defined by its partners.
In the Civic Health Initiative stakeholders in a community engage to set a vision and proceed collectively to remove the hindrances to achieving that vision; and build the community infrastructure to achieve the vision and sustain the work.
Strengthening civic life to improve civic health is our goal.