The All-America City Award recognizes communities that leverage civic engagement, collaboration, inclusiveness and innovation to successfully address local issues.

Watch the Video

Resources

The National Civic League has pulled together a wealth of resources to support local communities as they explore applying for the All-America City Award.  Review the materials below for key resources to help you better understand the application process, what we mean by engagement and to discover other tools to help you better understand areas of focus within the 2023 application.   

As you fill out the application, it may be helpful to consult the following materials:

All-America City Award Related:

  1. The All-America City Experience: Brief informational video on the award program
  2. Previous All-America City presentations
  3. Previous All-America City Award Event Program
  4. Previous Applications:

 Engagement Resources:

  1. National Civic League’s Civic Index to help evaluate your civic infrastructure
  2. National Civic Leagues ’s All-America Conversations Toolkit
  3. Asset-based framework–Discovering Community Power: A Guide to Mobilizing Local Assets and Your Organization’s Capacity. (Provided by permission of co-author John McKnight)

 National Civic Review Articles on Civic Engagement:

  1. Engaged Communities are Thriving Communities
  2. Hampton, Virginia: Civic Engagement as a Management Strategy
  3. Dubuque: Creating a Culture of Engagement
  4. Decatur, Georgia: Diversity, Gentrification, and the Art of Community Conversation
  5. Volunteers and Public Engagement

 Youth Engagement Resources:

  1. Promising Practices for Reducing Barriers to Youth Civic Engagement
  2. Promising Practices Webinar: Youth and Participatory Budgeting
  3. Promising Practices Webinar: Embracing Youth Leadership and Activism
  4. All In Campus Democracy Challenge
  5.  BridgeUSA
  6. Campus Compact
  7. Campus Democracy Challenge
  8. Civics Unplugged
  9. Project TEAL
  10. Young Invincibles

All-America City made me so hopeful about America’s future - a total antidote to the negativity that can sometimes corrode our civic life.

Curtis Johnson, Executive Editor of Citiscope

Webinars, Interviews and Speeches

This page includes webinars, interviews and speeches covering promising practices around the country. The free monthly Promising Practices Webinar series highlights successful projects around the country with speakers from cities implementing creative strategies for civic engagement. These webinars are free and open to anyone who is interested in creating stronger communities. The National Civic League's interview series includes conversations with elected officials, civic engagement experts, figures important to our history and others. Recorded speeches allow you to re-live the keynote addresses of past All-America City awards events and conferences.

View the Webinar Archive
View All

Thank You to Our Key Partners