What are “civic opportunities?” They are the chances people have to work together, with other residents and with public servants, to make decisions, solve problems, and build community. They are large and small, ranging from volunteer-driven neighborhood cleanups to youth leadership programs to civic assemblies on major policy issues. They are critical for helping people absorb information, understand one another, build trust, have a say in policy decisions, and plan for the future.
It is clear from all kinds of evidence – falling trust in government, rising polarization, frustration with our electoral choices, resignation with the state of our democracy – that we are facing a severe shortage of quality civic opportunities.
Addressing this shortage is a collective responsibility. No single institution – local governments, community foundations, school systems, libraries, universities – should be expected to bear the burden of providing all the civic opportunities we need. But at the same time, people working in those institutions can’t afford to look away from the problem, or blame residents for failing to step forward. These institutions should be working together, and with residents, to strengthen civic health.
The League is helping communities establish more and better civic opportunities. We can provide them by renovating the outdated ones we have, by introducing innovative new ones, by mapping them all, and by giving people chances to improve all these opportunities by rating them.
Better Public Meetings NYC
The National Civic League, in partnership with the New York City Civic Engagement Commission (CEC) and other civic organizations, continues to advance the Better Public Meetings NYC initiative, which aims to strengthen neighborhood democracy and improve public participation across New York City’s 59 Community Boards and in the CEC.
As part of this work, the project hosted “Participatory and Inclusive Neighborhood Democracy” on July 22, 2026, an event that brought together 90 community board members, staff, civic leaders, and residents. The event featured an interactive performance organized by Perfect City, using real Community Board meeting transcripts to explore challenges in public participation, meeting procedures, and decision-making. See the summary video here.
Building on research and engagement, the project has moved toward two specific areas of work: establishing a peer-to-peer learning network for Community Boards and innovating CEC public meetings. The proposed peer network would give Community Board members and staff opportunities to exchange ideas, share successful engagement practices, build capacity, and strengthen collaboration across the city. The second area focuses on exploring and testing new approaches to CEC meetings that prioritize meaningful dialogue, accessibility, participation, and community input. These two workstreams mark a new phase of practical implementation, with the goal of developing approaches that can strengthen civic participation and inform improvements to public meetings across New York City.
Rhode Island Civic Health Measurement Pilot Project
Community Foundations for Civic Health (CFCH) is a national partnership of the Rhode Island Foundation, the National Civic League, and CFLeads. In Rhode Island, NCL is supporting the RI Foundation in piloting a measurement approach over the next 12 months to help measure the community-level impact of civic health work and bridge a critical gap in civic health evaluation.
Thirty years of social science research have established the importance of social connections and trust in institutions, and their impact on physical health, economic mobility, student success, disaster preparedness, and almost every other indicator you can name. We get a visceral sense of these connections at the All-America City Awards, where communities compete (enthusiastically!) on the basis of the civic opportunities they have. But we need more data to demonstrate and explore those impacts.
Project evaluations can show how a particular initiative affected its participants, and Census-based and population-wide studies can track overall civic attitudes. In between those two levels of measurement, we have almost nothing – very few tools that measure how people are thinking about, investing in, and acting to improve their communities.
Without regular, useful, highly visible ways to measure community impact, community foundations and other institutions have trouble tracking their progress – and, worse yet, residents have trouble believing that their communities can actually be improved.
In the next year, CFCH will fill this measurement gap by creating local systems, starting in Rhode Island, that show the effectiveness of civic opportunities offered by foundations, governments, school systems, libraries, universities, and other organizations.
Because of the scope of CFCH, the role community foundations can play in encouraging measurement, and our partnerships with Trust for Civic Life and the Council on Foundations, we have the potential to show the value of civic opportunities and civic health.
America at 250: Redefining Civics
The National Civic Review is the League’s longest-running vehicle for describing, exploring, and celebrating civic opportunities. We’re working on a special 250th anniversary issue of the Review, presented in partnership with the National Issues Forum Institute and guest edited by Kat Calvin (founder of Spread the Vote and special advisor to the League).
This will not just be a retrospective, but an honest accounting of where American civic life has been, where it stands today, and where it might go next. Rather than moving chronologically from past to present to future, the issue interweaves essays, archival material, and creative work throughout: a new essay next to an archival one, a statistical portrait next to a poem. The intent is a single volume meant to be read cover to cover and returned to for years, not sorted into predictable categories.
To carry that spirit beyond the page, we’ll be hosting regional convenings to launch the issue, pairing author readings with facilitated conversation to generate interest and dialogue around its content. The events will also include a “What’s Next, America?” deliberation facilitated by NIFI, giving participants a chance to talk and learn together. Our first event will be in Franklin, Tennessee, a 2026 All America City.
These are just three examples of the League’s current work. They reflect our belief that we can’t afford to keep treating civic opportunities like peripheral, ‘nice-to-have’ pieces of public life. They are essential, and the shortage of them is at the root of our current national crisis. Our outdated systems for public decision-making erode trust, keep us from tapping into the ideas and capacities of residents, and allow the bad actors to take center stage.
We need civic opportunities that create better, more civil, more accountable relationships among people, and between the people and their institutions.
