Our Approach to Civic Health
What is Civic Health?
CivicLex is a unique nonprofit that is working on strengthening the civic health of our community, Lexington-Fayette County Kentucky. We’ve built this page to help you understand what we mean when we say that.
While you might have heard of public health, chances are, the idea of civic health is less familiar. The idea was popularized by the National Conference on Citizenship (NCoC), who has helped produce several Civic Health Indexes across the country to measure civic health in states and communities.
The NCoC defines civic health as “the way that communities are organized to define and address public problems.”
You can also interpret civic health as the strength of a community's social networks and their capacity for knowledge, participation, and trust in civic and political activities.
Studies show that communities with high civic health are more likely to have strong leadership, effective problem-solving strategies, and a sense of shared responsibility among its members.
How is CivicLex strengthening civic health in Lexington?
CivicLex has a 5-part approach to strengthening our community’s civic health.
This framework grew out of five years of programming and community feedback. We originally founded CivicLex to fill a civic information gap by providing education about important long-term civic issues in person and online. We also covered city hall meetings and provided reporting to our community about the issues moving through local government.
Over time, we heard from residents that the processes for engaging with government sometimes left them frustrated, so we started approaching parts of our local government to partner experimental programs that would make it easier for residents to engage. This put CivicLex in a variety of roles in our community: news organization, education platform, convener, civic engagement advocate, and more.
Over time, we saw that each of these parts of our work strengthened and reinforced one another. So, we sat down to build a framework that could encompass each part of our work and help us measure our progress. Below, you can see the framework that we use to evaluate our work, understand our impact, and determine future programming,
CivicLex’s Five Areas of Focus:
Civic Education
Local News & Reporting
Convening & Bridging
Public Realm
Civic Transformation
Civic Education
What we’re doing:
We’re helping residents of all ages understand how our community works through educational programs, workshops, and resources.
How we do it:
We create intergenerational educational programs, workshops, and resources about local governance and civic responsibilities.
What will make our work successful:
Increased community understanding of local governance and civic processes.
What we’re working towards:
Residents that actively participate and bring others into civic life.
Local News & Reporting
What we’re doing:
We’re helping residents understand and engage with timely and important civic issues.
How we do it:
We create and distribute quality, free, accurate, neutral news and information about the daily civic actions shaping our city.
What will make our work successful:
Improved public access to timely and relevant information about local civic matters.
What we’re working towards:
A well-informed public that engages in local decision-making.
Public Realm
What we’re doing:
We’re enhancing public spaces to facilitate greater community interaction and engagement.
How we do it:
We provide guidance and gather community perspectives in the development of public spaces, and help residents connect with the policymaking that shapes our public realm.
What will make our work successful:
Enhanced public spaces that facilitate community engagement and interaction across difference.
What we’re working towards:
A vibrant, accessible public realm that serves as a hub for civic engagement and community building.
Convening & Bridging
What we’re doing:
Helping people from different backgrounds, experiences, and perspectives learn from each other and build relationships.
How we do it:
We organize events and forums that bring together diverse community members to share perspectives and build relationships.
What will make our work successful:
Enhanced understanding and collaboration among different communities in Lexington.
What we’re working towards:
Stronger community cohesion and a culture of inclusivity and mutual respect.
Civic Transformation
What we’re doing:
Changing how civic institutions work to make resident engagement a rewarding and meaningful experience.
What will make our work successful:
More inclusive and participatory governance practices.
How we do it:
We work alongside civic institutions to pilot and integrate new ways of governing that center residents in their decision-making processes.
What we’re working towards:
Governance that reflects community needs and fosters a sense of shared responsibility and trust.