Aerial view of a neighborhood playground with green slides and surrounding homes, showcasing a residential area with mature trees, grass, and parked vehicles, conveying a sense of community and local environment.

Civic Capacity Index

An abstract graphic with interconnecting circles and lines overlaid on colored shapes, with the text "LEARN. PLAN. ACT. TOGETHER" at the bottom on a green background.

Assessing community-driven change

The Civic Capacity Index assesses a community’s capacity for community-driven change.

The index measures a community’s ability to collectively respond and make progress on shared and complex social challenges in cooperative, equitable, and democratic ways. The Civic Capacity Index helps inform, share, and evaluate local community development and intervention strategies such as civic leadership training programs, needs assessment, capacity building initiatives, policy development, problem-solving, and technical assistance. The Civic Capacity Index is designed to assess and help transform civic culture.

What is community-driven change?

The capacity of communities and regions to create change from within rather than with a top-down approach.

A group of people having a picnic at sunset with a view of a lake and mountains.

Community-driven change and the Civic Capacity Index

Paradigm Shift in Community Development

Over the past two decades, there has been a distinct shift in thinking regarding where the impetus for adaptation and change should come from in neighborhoods, communities, and regions. Perhaps recognizing the limitations of top-down, externally driven approaches, foundations, government agencies, and other socially-oriented institutions now aspire to encourage and support community-driven responses to adaptive challenges such as public health, education, housing, policing, and other public crises that require the community to adapt or to be resilient.

Three premises inform this thinking:

  1. It is more effective in making lasting progress because a broad range of stakeholders are involved, from defining the problem to taking action to address it.
  2. It is more inclusive and egalitarian, therefore more democratic.
  3. Communities with the capacity for community-driven change are observably more resilient and better equipped to respond collectively as complex challenges arise.

At its core, then, community-driven change might be defined in terms of shared power between decision-makers and community members, multiple perspectives on issues, strong participation from diverse people, a focus on the common good, and decision-making processes that are equitable, authentic, and transparent.

Why Assess Community-Driven Change?

The Civic Capacity Index (CCI) is a diagnostic tool that was created in partnership by a national panel of community members, practitioners and leadership experts using a concept mapping process. Experts identified what is needed in communities for community-driven change.

While community-driven change has become the preferred mechanism that decision-makers call for to guide collective innovation, there is no broadly accepted definition of what constitutes community-driven change, nor is there a standard for what it looks like in practice. This index provides communities with a diagnostic tool to:

Inform policymakers about key mechanisms of community-driven change to leverage resources for long-term progress in collective action.

  • Assess their collective capacity to respond to current and future challenges
  • Identify a starting place for building community’s capacity to learn, plan and act together
  • Create a deeper understanding of why some communities respond more effectively to challenges than others
  • Provide a common measure for assessing the impact of community development interventions
  • Strengthen community’s ability to be resilient during a crisis

Civic Capacity Index Currently Being Used in Colorado

The Civic Capacity Index is currently being piloted in rural and urban communities in Colorado. The civic capacity index assesses 6 dimensions of civic capacity. These dimensions include:

  • Collaboration
  • Leadership
  • Inclusion
  • Institutions
  • Civic Culture
  • Coalitions

Learn more

For questions about administration and interpretation of the CCI:
David MacPhee
CSU Department of Human Development and Family Studies
Email David MacPhee

For all other information:
Patti Schmitt
CSU OEE Community Development Director
Email Pattie Schmitt

Thank you to everyone who made this project possible

The CCI is the result of collaboration between many individuals and institutions including David Chrislip of Skillful Means, dedicated teams of researchers and academics, communities around the state of Colorado, and more.

The Colorado State University ram's head icon above the text "ENGAGEMENT AND EXTENSION, COLORADO STATE UNIVERSITY" in green.
A logo featuring three green stylized human figures with arms raised, forming a connected shape above the text "PREVENTION RESEARCH CENTER, COLORADO STATE UNIVERSITY."
The logo includes the Colorado State University ram's head icon above the text "FAMILY LEADERSHIP TRAINING INSTITUTE, COLORADO STATE UNIVERSITY EXTENSION" in green.

The Civic Capacity Index is supported by the Boettcher Foundation

A horizontal logo featuring a stylized flame-like design in orange and red on the left, followed by the text "boettcher FOUNDATION" in gray.

Need help?

Please contact us with questions or for more information.