Evaluation Platform and Application for Recognition

The questions below will help you (and us!) determine how well your agency or municipality is actively practicing the related civic engagement element.

Not ready to apply yet? Email us and we will be happy to send you the platform as a pdf for your own use. We are also happy to direct you to any resources that can help you meet these criteria.

When you are ready to apply, please note that you will not be able to save answers in this form. We recommend typing answers in a document and copying and pasting them into the fields when you have completed the evaluation.

When applying for recognition, please support your self-certification by describing what you have done/are doing in support of the criteria. A limited number of attachments may be appropriate and are welcome. If supporting documents are available online, please provide a link directly in the application form. If you would like to send attachments as pdf or Word documents, please email them to the Davenport Institute. Please be sure your email includes the name of the agency or municipality applying and the contact information of the person submitting the application.

Please do not hesitate to contact Pooja.Digiovanna@pepperdine.edu if you have additional questions or experience any trouble submitting the form.

Applicant Information

Your Municipality

Contact Full Name

Contact Title

Phone Number

Municipal Website

Culture of Engagement

1. A formal, written public engagement strategy and/or policy is followed and is made accessible to the community.

2. The elected board has formally adopted a policy/strategy that supports public engagement. Council and senior staff have developed a shared understanding (through an orientation, etc.) about which kinds of issues are well suited to public engagement.

3. Public engagement is an assigned responsibility in the job description of one or more staff members.

4. Within the past 24 months staff members and/or elected officials have received training in how to identify and apply the most effective public engagement strategies to the range of issues that confront our agency/community.

5. In the past year, our agency completed a significant community engagement process, the outcome of which informed policy deliberation and improved decisions by the agency (please describe).

6. Communication strategies include both traditional and electronic forms, such as newsletters, library postings, e-notification systems and other web based communication, social media, and mobile apps, offered in "plain language" as well as any translations appropriate to the community.

7. Intentional efforts - such as topic specific web pages, data visualizations, databases, workshops - have been taken to enhance transparency and increase opportunities to review and understand policy decisions, financial data, compensation, and other matters of high public interest (e.g. budgets, land use, tax measures, environmental).

8. Efforts are made to develop and nurture a database or contact list of interested residents and groups to build relationships with the community beyond one-off involvement.

9. Regular interactions with both well-established and community-based organizations are an institutionalized practice (e.g. regular meetings to share information and improve dialog with local groups such as neighborhood associations, community organizations, clergy/congregations, business groups, schools, ethnic media, etc.).

10. Active citizen commissions and/or standing advisory bodies are supported with staff, resources, and training. There are intentional recruitment efforts to make these bodies as representative of the community as possible.

11. Task forces and/or ad hoc committees are utilized as appropriate to address issues, and supported with staff, resources, and training.

12. For more complex and/or controversial issues, special resident engagement efforts are sometimes used whereby our agency serves as partner with the community, and/or other local agencies such as schools or health departments, and not as the lone "decider," to jointly solve problems. Efforts are made to ensure that those involved represent the diversity within the community.

13. In such partnership engagements, residents are actively involved in setting and defining agendas and planning other aspects of the engagement (e.g. outreach to underrepresented voices, involving issue experts, shaping a process that enhances community trust, determining how decisions will ultimately be made).

14. Deliberate steps are taken to ensure that public engagement processes include people and viewpoints reflective of the population and interests within the community (including partnerships with ethnic media, community organizations and advocacy groups, etc.) and steps are taken to eliminate barriers to civic participation (e.g. alternative meeting locations/times, accommodations for disabilities, translation for non-English speaking populations, practices to ensure participants a welcoming, comfortable experience).

15. The agency is clear about the conditions under which the use of impartial facilitators is appropriate to help resolve conflicts and enable diverse views to be expressed, and has utilized facilitators as needed.

16. Community training and education are also a component of the community's civic engagement and community-building efforts to strengthen the ability of community members to participate in government decision making (e.g. a leadership academy, the "functions of your local government" page on website, how to attend a council meeting, etc.).

17. Elected representatives and/or senior staff regularly make themselves available in accessible community settings to answer general questions.

18. In partnership with schools, community colleges, and local youth-serving nonprofits and community organizations, students and young adults are offered opportunities to get involved in community issues.

19. Participants in public engagement efforts are kept informed about progress and other opportunities for participation, and are informed how their participation affected the outcome of decisions made.

20. Public engagement programs, policies, and methods are periodically evaluated by the agency and refined in light of experience and community feedback.

General Data Protection Regulation

Pepperdine's communication and GDPR Privacy Notice.

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