About Resource
The Civic Engagement Scorecard is similar to other rating tools such as Yelp, TripAdvisor and RateMyProfessor, and lets the public provide input on different kinds of meetings, processes, town halls, festivals, and online activities. It also allows users to provide feedback about their community’s strengths and areas for improvement overall.
Measuring and improving engagement is important now more than ever to ensure that institutions are accountable to the wants and needs of their residents. The information gathered from the Scorecard can show how informed, connected, respected, and supported people feel in a way that emphasizes the value of engagement as a community-wide, cross-institutional priority. The lessons learned from utilizing the Scorecard can be leveraged to build more productive and sustainable frameworks for engagement, which will hopefully lead to institutional changes that improve people’s daily lives.
Public Agenda is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization based in New York City, helping to build a democracy that works for everyone. By elevating a diversity of voices, forging common ground and improving dialogue and collaboration among leaders and communities, Public Agenda fuels progress on critical issues, including education, health care and community engagement.
How to Use
Scorecard demos and a sample report are available to browse, however to use the Scorecard with your community, you will need to partner with Public Agenda.
The Civic Engagement Scorecard is free for community members (i.e. survey respondents) to use and it is easily accessible via smartphone, computer or tablet. The data gathered from the Scorecard can help local officials, nonprofits, community foundations and other leaders better understand how the public feels about specific engagement activities and their community as a whole. The Scorecard can also be a vital tool for building civic infrastructure by helping to identify the programs and activities that people value–as well as the ones that residents find frustrating and unhelpful.
Author(s)/Organization: Public Agenda
Publication Year: 2020
Tags
Attributes:Respects Community Strengths, Centers Community Priorities
Outcomes:Strong Community Partnerships, Capacity for Civic Engagement
Approaches:Civic Engagement & Policymaking
Type:Guidebooks & Manuals