CIVIC HEALTH

INDICATORS
Enhancing community capacity

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Developed with cooperation from the National Civic League

Introduction
What are Civic Health Indicators?
Indicators are quantitative measures of the quality of community life. Wellbeing and progress in a community can be measured by indicators of outcomes in the major elements of the quality of life, such as education, the economy, the natural environment, the social environment, culture and recreation, health, mobility, and public safety. However, no community would reach its potential for wellbeing without the civic capacity to engage effectively in mutual learning, decision making, and action to maintain and improve the quality of life in each of these elements. This process aspect of a community's wellbeing can be measured using civic indicators. The purpose of this project is to develop a set of civic indicators to measure the status of and progress toward improving our community's civic health and the civic infrastructure that makes our community's civic capacity strong. The National Civic League (NCL) challenged Jacksonville and Northeast Florida, through JCCI, to consider these questions: How can we measure the degree of success of our civic infrastructure? How well does the civic governance process work in Jacksonville and Northeast Florida? The charge was to develop a set of "civic indicators" to measure progress in our civic governing processes, as a guide toward improving the civic health of our community. Jacksonville is one of five communities selected nationwide by NCL as pilot sites for the establishment of civic indicator projects. Each pilot project will develop a set of indicators, measure them for three years, and report the results. NCL will analyze the results and share them widely, encouraging communities throughout the nation to develop projects to measure their own civic health, emulating the positive practices identified through the pilot experiences. Jacksonville was selected as a pilot site in part because of JCCIs extensive experience with community indicators (see the 2002 Indicators for Progress document for more information or online at www.jcci.org.) This document does not provide the data for all of the indicators described. Instead, it provides the data JCCI already had through its Indicators for Progress work, and identifies additional indicators for which data need to be found. NCL's conceptual framework for the project is contained in a Civic Index that it created some years ago to guide community visioning and strategic planning processes (see page 3). After working with the Civic Index in many communities, NCL became convinced that its general, qualitative values needed to be supplemented with specific, quantitative measures of civic health. Civic indicators measure the quality of our community's life in terms of its collective capacity to process information, involve stakeholders, and make decisions that will positively affect all the other aspects of the quality of life. From this perspective, the concept of "civic" encompasses collective learning, involvement, and decision making that takes place throughout the community, both through local government itself and through citizen involvement in publicly involved private organizations such as nonprofits, the Chamber of Commerce, United Way, civic groups, neighborhood associations, and others--including JCCI itself. The Civic Indicators design team was chaired by Joan Carver and met in Spring 2002. Members of the design team included: A. Wellington Barlow Lois Chepenik Jeff Clements John Crofts Jill Dame Edward F. R. Hearle Connie Hodges Suzanne Jenkins Susan Siegmund Anna Scheu Ted Stumm Deborah Thompson Deborah Walters Nina Waters Pat Yack

Staff support was provided by David Swain, from JCCI. Additional assistance was provided by Drew OConnor, from the National Civic League.

Jacksonville Community Council Inc.

The Civic Health Indicators are presented using the framework of the National Civic League's Civic Index. All of the indicators identified by the design team, even those which were not able to be included in this document, are based on an understanding of how they report aspects of civic health. The indicators, as pieces of a much larger puzzle, describe a much larger picture of a community working together in new ways, solving problems with a shared vision of the future. That shared vision of the future of Jacksonville and Northeast Florida leads the indicator set: before the community can determine how well it works together, it needs to determine if everyone is working on common goals. With a vision in place, the Civic Index describes the following concepts of civic health:

Fulfilling new roles for community governance

New roles for citizens (moving beyond a passive role of "customers" of public services toward becoming active, direct participants, engaged in learning and advocacy to improve the quality of life in their communities) New roles for local government (moving beyond the traditional role of creator and implementor of the public agenda toward a more collaborative, inclusive role in which individual citizens, private institutions, and nonprofit organizations share in partnership with local government the functions of determining the public agenda, planning and implementing its provisions, and evaluating progress in the community) New roles for nonprofits (moving beyond traditional role of providing specific services funded through discreet public and private sources toward a more collaborative approach for meeting community needs that includes direct citizen involvement and partnerships with government, business, and other institutions in the community) New roles for business (moving beyond traditional community roles of lobbying in favor of business interests to government and selective philanthropy and involvement with nonprofit organizations toward a more collaborative approach to community involvement that includes direct participation and partnering with citizens, government, and nonprofit organizations, as well as resource sharing to help improve the community)

Working together as a community

Bridging our diversity (understanding and celebrating the broad diversity of people and interests in the community, improving and maintaining open, inclusive intergroup relations, and providing, when needed, effective means for conflict resolution) Reaching consensus (establishing and maintaining a atmosphere conducive to consensus building in the community, as well as an open and effective process designed to achieve mutual learning, dialogue, and agreement on community issues and improvement) Sharing information (establishing and maintaining an open and effective community process, including an effective public media function, to obtain, interpret, and share information that helps to understand current events, define issues, identify alternative solutions, and measure progress) Crossing jurisdictional lines (maintaining a focus on the community as a dynamic organism of people, build environment, and natural environment, whose geographic boundaries transcend formal political jurisdictions and tend to shift over time, and in which issues have relevance and impact at differing levels, including neighborhoods, towns, cities, and regions)

Strengthening our community's ability to solve problems

Educating our citizens to meet community challenges (providing adequate civics curriculum in the schools, as well as opportunities for the public to remain informed on key community issues and on how they can participate in improving the community) Building leadership in the community (establishing and maintaining a process that identifies, mentors, and develops diverse and capable generations of future community leaders, and which supports and encourages current community leaders to fulfill their trusteeship responsibilities effectively) Ensuring that we learn from our experiences (establishing and maintaining a community capacity to document, remember, and learn from the lessons of past civic and community experience, including the use of evaluations of community-improvement efforts and measures of community progress and public-service performance) Civic Health Indicators

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Sharing a Vision for the Community New Roles for Community Governance Working Together as a Community Strengthening Our Communitys Ability to Solve Problems About JCCI 5 6 11 14 18

Jacksonville Community Council Inc.

SHARING A VISION FOR THE COMMUNITY

The civic health of the Jacksonville community is enhanced to the extent that citizens share civic pride, identity, and a vision for the community. Citizens share a strong sense of civic pride in and identity with their community.
One indicator that could measure this shared civic pride, identity, and vision would be the percentage of people surveyed who report having a sense of pride and identity with their community. At this time, no survey asking this type of question is available in Northeast Florida.

Citizens share a consensus on and buy into a generalized vision of a community that is vibrant in its quality of life and robust in its civic health.
The percentage of the vote by which candidates are elected or propositions are approved could measure how well the community reaches consensus on significant community issues.

Civic Health Indicators

NEW ROLES FOR COMMUNITY GOVERNANCE

The civic health of the Jacksonville community is enhanced to the extent that citizens help make community decisions, all major institutions are involved in community improvement, and individuals and businesses give generously to the community. Voter turnout is high.
One of the first steps in civic participation is registering to vote. In Duval County, 77.3 percent of the population 18 and older were registered to vote in 2001. The trend line for this indicator has been gradually increasing since 1993, when only 60.5 percent were registerd to vote. In the last 20 years, the highest recorded rate of voter registration was 79.3 percent, in 1997. Voter registration In 2000, 69.9 percent of the people 18 and older in Florida were registered to vote. Nationally, 69.5 percent were registered to vote in November 2000. In 2000, registered voters by county in Northeast Florida were: Baker Clay Duval Nassau St. Johns 76.7% 85.8% 74.0% 81.5% 94.6%

Another indicator of civic involvement is the percentage of registered voters who actually vote in scheduled elections. While no scheduled general election occurred in 2001, 68.8 percent of registered voters voted in the 2000 presidential election. Nationally, voter turnout was 67.5 percent in the same year, and 68.1 percent in Florida. By county, registered voter turnout in 2000 was: Baker Clay Duval Nassau St. Johns 67.2% 66.5% 68.8% 72.2% 68.5% Voter turnout

Jacksonville Community Council Inc.

NEW ROLES FOR COMMUNITY GOVERNANCE

Citizens feel that they have a voice in community decision making and have the opportunity to be involved in the community's civic affairs and activities.
One way to measure whether people feel like they have a voice in community decision making is to ask them. The percentage of people surveyed who feel that they have a meaningful voice in community decision making would be useful to know, if that survey question existed. Data do exist to answer whether people feel that they have influence over local government decision making. American Public Dialogue conducts an annual survey for JCCIs Indicators for Progress document. In this survey, they ask: Our governmental system values citizen input and involvement. As a citizen of Jacksonville and Duval County, how would you describe your ability to influence local-government decision making? Would you say that you have great influence, moderate influence, a little influence, or no influence at all? In 2002, 35 percent of those surveyed felt that they had "moderate influence" or "great influence" over local-government decision making. Can you influence local government?

Another indicator could be the percentage of people who feel that they have ample opportunity to be involved in the community's civic affairs and activities. Currently, no data exists to answer this question.

Civic Health Indicators

NEW ROLES FOR COMMUNITY GOVERNANCE

In practice, the voice of citizens is influential in community decision making, and citizens are broadly involved and deeply invested as direct participants in the community's civic affairs and activities.
One indicator of public involvement would be the number of citizens attending public meetings, such as Citizens Planning Advisory Councils (CPACs), City Council meetings, School Board meetings, and the like. Another could be the percentage of people who report having participated locally in a political campaign A third indicator might be the number of citizen initiatives on the local ballot. Other indicators of citizen involvement could measure the rate of volunteerism in the community. From the 2002 JCCI survey conducted by American Public Dialogue, 67 percent of those surveyed reported volunteering time in the community. The question asked: Some people in our community are contributing their time to causes they consider worthwhile. In the past year have you given your time, without pay, to any charitable, civic, religious, or other volunteer organization? This rate of volunteerism exceeds the national average. In a 1999 national survey by Independent Sector, 56 percent of adults reported having volunteered in their community in the previous year. Do you volunteer?

The same survey then asks: If you volunteered during the past year, about how many total hours do you think you have volunteered, on average, per week (1-3, 4-7, 8-10, 11-15, more than 15)? In 2002, 21 percent of those volunteering said that they gave more than seven hours per week. The average dollar value of volunteering seven hours per week for a full year would be $5,605, according to Independent Sector. From their 1999 survey, the national volunteer workforce represented the equivalent of over 9 million full-time employees at a value of $225 billion. Do you volunteer over 7 hours/week?

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NEW ROLES FOR COMMUNITY GOVERNANCE

Neighborhood organizations are strongly organized in all areas of the community and are actively involved in the community's civic affairs and activities.
Measurements could include the percentage of identifiable neighborhoods having a functioning neighborhood association, the percentage of neighborhood associations that meet regularly, and the percentage of neighborhood associations that disseminate a newsletter regularly.

Candidates for elective office are well qualified to serve, and their election campaigns are conducted vigorously and fairly around important community issues.
Measuring the quality of political candidates is an admittedly difficult task. However, some information could show the degree to which choice in candidates exists in the local community, and the level at which local candidates provide information to the citizens as part of their campaigns. Indicators might include the percentage of elective offices on each election ballot for which multiple candidates run, the percentage of local elective offices for which more than one party runs at least one candidate in an election, the number of issue forums or candidate debates held during an election campaign that are open to the public and/or broadcast in the media, and the number of public speaking engagements held during political campaigns by candidates for local elective office.

The media actively and effectively facilitate citizen dialogue about and engagement in issues leading to community improvement.
Ways to measure this aspect of civic health include identifying both the extent of media coverage of local issues and the percentage of time/print space dedicated to community concerns. These indicators might include the volume of broadcast- and print-media coverage of local/regional civic and community issues, the number of media websites offering interactive opportunities for dialogue on civic and community issues, the number of public-affairs forums/talk shows presented by the media to foster dialogue on civic and community issues, or the number of editorials presented by local TV, other electronic media, and print media, reported separately. For an added dimension of information, an indicator might measure the percentage of media editorials devoted to local/regional civic and community issues, reported separately for TV, other electronic media, and print media.

Community institutions, such as higher education, faith-based, and nonprofit organizations, are actively and deeply involved in civic affairs and efforts to improve the community as a whole.
Building civic capacity requires all institutions to take a stronger role in improving civic health. Indicators that measure how well the community is embracing these new roles could include the number of community institutions sponsoring election debates and/or public issue forums, the total number of 501(c)(3) nonprofit organizations electing to be governed by the public-advocacy regulations Section 501(h) of the IRS Code (which cover public lobbying efforts.) Besides examining the direct actions of community institutions, indicators might measure other ways in which these organizations are involved in the community in nontraditional roles. For example, an indicator could measure the percentage of staff and faculty affiliated with higher-education institutions who are actively involved in community-service activities, or the number of institutions that actively encourage their staff to be involved. The design team asked JCCI to examine itself, and determine the percentage of JCCI study-committee members whose occupation or major affiliation is with a faith-based organization, a higher-education institution, or a nonprofit organization. This would measure the extent to which these institutions are involved in volunteering at JCCI and being involved in its ongoing public dialogue and community consensus-building activities.

Civic Health Indicators

NEW ROLES FOR COMMUNITY GOVERNANCE

Companies doing business in the community are actively involved and invested in the community, even if corporate headquarters are located elsewhere. Businesses are sensitive to the need for, and play active roles in, philanthropy that benefits the community.
Businesses are an important part of the civic fabric of a community. This set of indicators attempts to identify the degree to which local companies are actively involved in improving the community. Indicators could include the percentage of business employees of companies that actively encourage them to be involved in community-service-activities who actually are so involved, the percentage of companies operating in the community that actively invest in local/regional civic and community improvement, or the total value of corporate investment in local/regional civic and community improvement. Others measures might include the level of funding by local lending institutions under the federal Community Reinvestment Act, the percentage of United Way giving that comes from corporations (rather than individuals working in the corporations), or the number of corporations with corporate foundations that contribute in the community.

Community philanthropy grows along with the community and its needs and aspirations for improvement.
Strong communities have a spirit of giving that provides many of the resources needed to address community problems. Indicators suggested include the total value of philanthropy to nonprofit organizations, the value of the assets of the Community Foundation as a percentage of "community assessed value," and the number of local private or family foundations that contribute in the community. In 2001, Northeast Florida residents gave $20.67 million in charitable philanthropy to the following five federated charitable fundraising efforts in Northeast Florida: United Way of Northeast Florida, United Way of St. Johns County, Twogether for Life, Combined Federal Campaign, and Florida State Employees Charitable Campaign (FSECC). Campaign totals were: United Way of Northeast Florida Combined Federal Campaign United Way of St. Johns County Twogether for Life FSECC $17,015,153 $ 2,197,534 $ 822,615 $ 429,746 $ 201,862 Charitable philanthropy

10 Jacksonville Community Council Inc.

WORKING TOGETHER AS A COMMUNITY

The civic health of the Jacksonville community is enhanced to the extent that citizens and organizations bridge diversity, reach consensus, share information, and are willing to cross jurisdictional lines to work together for a better community. Majority and minority members of the community work together harmoniously and effectively to address issues that affect particular groups as well as the entire community.
Racism impedes the ability of a community to work together. Half of all Jacksonville residents thought racism was a local problem when asked in a 2002 JCCI survey: In your opinion during the last year, do you feel that racism is a problem in Jacksonville? This same survey, conducted by American Public Dialogue, found that 45 percent of white respondents perceived racism to be a local problem, compared to 67 percent of people of color surveyed. These findings are consistent with a 2000 Jacksonville University poll, which found that 63 percent of white people thought the state of race relations in Duval County was excellent or good, compared to 19 percent of black respondents. Is racism a problem?

Community institutions are broadly inclusive and diverse in their governance, membership, and activities, both within each institution and in their collaborations and partnering.
The design team suggested that the degree to which the demographics of board and clientele in organizations serving the community broadly reflect the demographics of the entire population would be an important measure of diversity and inclusiveness.

Community leaders are broadly representative of the diversity of the community's population and interests, and this diversity is specifically exhibited among the candidates offering themselves for appointive and elective office.
Two ways to measure this characteristic of a civically-healthy community could be the degree to which the demographics of communitywide public office holders (elected and appointed) and nonprofit board members reflect the demographics of the total population, and the degree to which the demographics of candidates for public-office positions (elected and appointed) reflect the demographics of the total population. Measuring the diversity of community leadership would be an important way to discover if all people in the community are included in community decision making or if barriers exist to people working together.

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WORKING TOGETHER AS A COMMUNITY

Members of the community are able to reach consensus on often contentious issues and make decisions toward community improvement, without the expectation of having to achieve unanimity on the issue before deciding and acting.
The ability to reach decisions together is as important for civic health as the ability to come together to address community issues. A potential measure of the communitys ability to reach consensus on important decision is the number of court cases filed contesting major public decisions after they are made.

Community institutions understand the importance of cooperation and mutual support and practice both through effective collaboration and partnering.
While this is also an important dimension of civic health, as of yet no indicators have been identified for this characteristic.

The media are sensitive to the need for, and play active roles in, presenting diverse viewpoints and in-depth information on community issues and civic affairs, including government and community decision making.
The concept of public journalism, where local media feel a responsibility to the community, not only to present breaking headlines but also to engage the community in discussion and ensure all voices are heard, conveys the importance of the media as a factor in improving the civic health of a community. Measure of this characteristic include the number of contrasting responses to editorials broadcast and printed by local media, as well as the number of indepth TV specials and newspaper series covering issues of local importance.

The community has a recognized and credible "neutral-convener" capacity, which consistently and effectively brings together diverse citizens and institutions from throughout the community and across jurisdictional lines to engage in: facilitated public dialogue and information sharing; mutual learning, consensus building, and advocacy for community improvement; and collaborative planning and action among community institutions.
This is the mission and function of JCCI. Across America, communities which have an organization in place to act as a neutral convener are stronger in their civic health than communities that do not. Measuring this characteristic requires not only discussing the existence and name of the neutral-convener entity or entities, but also measuring the number of people participating in activities sponsored by the neutral-convener entity or entities and the number of volunteer hours devoted by participants to activities sponsored by the neutral-convener entity or entities.

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WORKING TOGETHER AS A COMMUNITY

The community has a comprehensive "information-clearinghouse" capacity, through which data and other information relevant to the community's quality-of-life and civic interests are readily accessible to all citizens and institutions in user-friendly form.
Just as with the neutral-convener characteristic, the existence and name of the information-clearinghouse entity or entities provides the most accurate measure of the capacity of a community to share information needed for community decision making.

Effective region-level organizations address civic and community issues at the regional level, and local-level organizations reach out across jurisdictional lines to cooperate and collaborate in ways that enhance civic health and regionwide community improvement.
The 2000 JCCI study, Improving Regional Cooperation, found that: The pressures of rapid population and economic growth in the First Coast create issues that must be addressed regionally. traditional local-government boundaries are too small to address these issues efficiently and effectively. Many of these issues are interrelated and cannot be resolved in isolation from one another. Measuring the characteristic would require identifying the number of region-level organizations and the number of local-level public and nonprofit organizations actively involved in regional cooperation.

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The civic health of the Jacksonville community is enhanced to the extent that citizens and institutions educate our citizens to meet community challenges, build community leadership, and ensure that we learn from our experiences. The community's electorate is well educated on community issues and civic affairs, including government and community decision making.
Thomas Jefferson once said, "I know no safe depositary of the ultimate powers of the society but the people themselves; and if we think them not enlightened enough to exercise their control with a wholesome discretion, the remedy is not to take it from them, but to inform their discretion by education. This is the true corrective of abuses of constitutional power." This quote is often summarized as A democratic society depends on an informed and educated citizenry. With that in mind, measuring the degree to which local citizens are well educated about local issues can be difficult. Several indicators provide important information to discuss this aspect of civic health. In an annual survey for JCCI, American Public Dialogue asked: Can you name two members of the Jacksonville City Council? In 2002, only 36 percent of those surveyed could give even the last name of two City Council members. (Jacksonville has 19 City Council members, 14 representing specific districts and five elected at-large. But you knew that, right?) Can you name two on the City Council? The same survey also asks: People generally obtain local government news from television, radio, newspapers, the Internet, or from other people. How often do you keep up with news from any source about City Council, the Mayor, the School Board, or other local-government bodies? Would you say frequently, sometimes, seldom, or never? In 2002, 56 percent of respondents said that they kept up with local government news frequently. Do you keep up with local news?

STRENGTHENING OUR COMMUNITYS ABILITY TO SOLVE PROBLEMS

From local Nielsen ratings, we can determine the percentage of people watching local television news programs. In 2001, local early-evening news shows were broadcast at 6:00 or 6:30 p.m. on stations WJXT Channel 4, WTLV Channel 12/WJXX Channel 25 (same program on both channels), and WTEV Channel 47. During the February sweeps, 30.1 percent of all households watched local early-evening news programs. The Jacksonville/Northeast Florida television market is defined to include Clay, Duval, Nassau, and St. Johns Counties. In February 2001, the Jacksonville Metro Area contained 417,500 households, 412,320 of which had TVs. However, citizens are informed about local government news in other ways besides television. In a 2001 poll conducted by Marshall Marketing, 38 percent of respondents in Northeast Florida said that a daily newspaper was their primary source of news about local government. 36 percent said TV was their primary source. Another indicator could be the percentage of households subscribing to major community-related publications, such as the Florida Times-Union or the Florida Star. People watching local news on TV

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STRENGTHENING OUR COMMUNITYS ABILITY TO SOLVE PROBLEMS

The community offers an effective process and multiple opportunities for leadership development and support that produce and nurture a steady stream of qualified, committed, and diverse community leaders to guide the community's present and future.
Indicators that measure leaderhip development in the community might include the number of programs offering leadershipdevelopment opportunities to existing or emerging community leaders, as well as the number of people participating in leadership-development programs. Included in this indicator would be their demographic distribution.

Existing community leaders actively perform the ongoing role of mentoring emerging leaders and of enlisting them into civic service for the benefit of the community.
Personal mentoring can be highly effective in preparing emerging leaders to serve the community. This characteristic could be measured by determining the percentage of community leaders, perhaps through survey, who report mentoring emerging leaders.

Many military personnel who have served here retire to the community and become involved as active citizens and leaders in the community's civic affairs.
Northeast Florida has a strong military presence. The communitys civic health is improved when those who have served here, return here. This could be measured through the number of retired military people actively involved in community volunteer activities.

Large proportions of young people from the community choose to remain in or return to the community to live their adult lives and to become involved in civic affairs.
How well does the community do at keeping its young people? Measures might include the percentage of local high-school alumni with local addresses, the percentage of local high-school-leader alumni with local addresses, the percentage of Youth Leadership Jacksonville alumni with local addresses, or the percentage of JCCI Forward members who grew up locally.

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STRENGTHENING OUR COMMUNITYS ABILITY TO SOLVE PROBLEMS

Community leaders, including both public officials and leaders in private organizations, are visible, accessible, and responsive to citizens and to issues of community wellbeing.
This characteristic of a healthy community tries to measure the quality of local leadership. Some indicators could include the number of elected officials who sponsor public forums on community or neighborhood issues, or the percentage of top local leaders in major corporations who are active members on nonprofit boards in the community. Other indicators could ask people to rate the perceived quality of local leadership. In 2002, 57 percent of people surveyed by American Public Dialogue rated the quality of Jacksonville city-government elected leadership "good" or "excellent. In the same survey, 28 percent rated the quality of Duval County School Board elected leadership "good" or "excellent." City government leadership School Board leadership

The media are sensitive to the need for, and play active roles in, informing and educating citizens on community issues and civic affairs, including government and community decision making.
Page 12 discusses the importance of public journalism. The role of the media is important not only in educating citizens through providing all sides of important community issues, but also in informing local government and community decision making.

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STRENGTHENING OUR COMMUNITYS ABILITY TO SOLVE PROBLEMS

The community offers an education system that prepares young people for effective citizen involvement in civic affairs and that actively involves citizens and community institutions in the schools.
Civic education, like all education, starts young. One measure would be the number of civic clubs in schools. Another indicator could be the number of schools with community-service requirements for students. Oportunities also exist to track the number of schools with a required civics curriculum, the number of business or nonprofit partnerships in schools, and the number of adult mentors working with students in schools.

The community offers youth-development programs that provide meaningful opportunities to learn about and to practice civic involvement.
Indicators might include the number of youth-development programs available, as well as the number of participants in youthdevelopment programs.

The community values, respects, and preserves its historical heritage and resources in ways that enhance civic pride and health, as well as providing valuable perspective to guide the community as it creates its future.
A learning community respects its past as it plans for the future. A tangible indicator of this respect is the number of designated historical buildings and other landmarks. Other measures include the number of historic-preservation organizations communitywide and in specific neighborhoods. One last direct indicator would be the number of designated historic buildings demolished.

The community's civic processes benefit the future by consciously learning from the past.
Lastly, a strong community that addresses and solves problems learns from the past. Measuring this aspect of civic health is problematic. The design team suggested measuring the existence of a formal evaluation process in local government that is applied to all major public-policy initiatives and projects.

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Board of Directors
David M. Foster, President John Cobb, President-Elect Paula B. Weatherby, Secretary Michael Boylan, Treasurer Ron Autrey Oliver Barakat A. Wellington Barlow William H. Bishop III, AIA Mary Borg Joy Burgess Charles A. Clarkson Gary Corbitt John Daigle, Jr. Jack Diamond Edward J. Eng, P.E. Allan T. Geiger Eric Holshouser Harriet Howe Helen Jackson Wally Lee Guy Marlow William Mason III Edgar Mathis John Rutherford Susan McCranie Siegmund Mary Ellen Smith Bob Snell Glenda Washington Gerald W. Weedon

ABOUT JCCI
Jacksonville Community Council Inc. (JCCI) was created in 1975 with the goal of improving the quality of life in Jacksonville through informed citizen participation in public affairs. JCCI is a nonprofit, nonpartisan, broad-based civic organization. It involves citizens in community issues through open dialogue, impartial research, consensus building, and leadership development. Each year, JCCI produces an annual report on the quality of life in Jacksonville. It also selects two issues for in-depth community study. Diverse study committees meet weekly for about six months, gaining a thorough understanding of the problem and reaching consensus on key findings as well as recommended solutions. Following completion of the study and publication of a report, an implementation task force of citizens takes the report to the community and seeks to place the issues on the community agenda. The goal is to seek further deliberation, increased public awareness, and finally, action by appropriate officials. In addition to its annual studies and the Indicators for Progress report, JCCI plans and coordinates human services for United Way of Northeast Florida and the Human Services Council (HSC), a coalition of the local funders of human services. JCCI also facilitates JCCI Forward, an initiative of emerging leaders to pave the way for greater progress under the next generation of local leadership. Upon request, JCCI provides a variety of planning, research, consulation and facilitation services under contract. JCCI receives funding from United Way of Northeast Florida, the City of Jacksonville, the Duval County Public Schools, corporations, and individual members. JCCI membership is open to all citizens interested in building a better community. More information about JCCI and its projects is available at www.jcci.org.

Executive Director
Lois Chepenik

Past Presidents
J.J. Daniel Jack H. Chambers Yank D. Coble, Jr. Robert D. Davis George W. Corrick Howard R. Greenstein Jacquelyn D. Bates David M. Hicks James C. Rinaman Kenneth W. Eilermann J. Shepard Bryan, Jr. Juliette Woodruff Mason Lucy D. Hadi Charles P. Hayes, Jr. Steve Pajcic Tracey I. Arpen, Jr. Guy Marvin III Luther Quarles III W.O. Birchfield Michael J. Korn William E. Scheu Afesa Adams William D. Brinton Sherry Burns Sue K. Butts Edgar Mathis

JCCI Staff
Lois Chepenik Executive Director Ben Warner Associate Director

Planning Staff
Clanzenetta Brown Laura Lane Cheryl Murphy Jennifer Parsons Michelle Simkulet

Support Staff
Earlene Hostutler Tabatha Joyner Chandra Mitchell Lashun Stephens