I recently completed my Master in Public Administration in State and Local Management at the University of Delaware. As the capstone to my graduate studies, I completed an analytical paper entitled, “Democratic Institutions Create Civic Health: How local jurisdictions can enhace their problem-solving capacities through inclusive governance, including a case study of Newark, Delaware.” As part of this project, I administered a survey to a cross-section of stakeholders in the Newark community. I will be presenting my findings at the February 23 city council meeting and plan to dedicate time during the remainder of my term to work on the issues identified in these papers.
To read a pdf of the two-page executive summary, click on the following link: Executive Summary_Newark Civic Health_Ezra Temko
To read or view the full paper, click on the following pdf link: Newark Civic Health_Ezra Temko
Civic Health refers to the strength of a community’s economic, civic, and social infrastructure, a measure of the community’s capacity to address opportunities and challenges it faces.
Democratic governance is the art of governing a community in participatory, inclusive, deliberative, and collaborative ways.
Democratic governance is a tool to enhance civic health. For example, “community visioning” is a common democratic governance tool used to help communities that need to develop their community vision. Contemporary local governments are also incorporating democratic governance into their governing systems which also enhances civic health. Democratic governance is increasingly important to governments trying to get results because of the growth in importance and changing in roles of non-government actors (private sector, citizens, nonprofits, etc). Democratic governance is a concept supported by the National League of Cities.
Civic Health can be measured in Newark through four components: having a community vision, fulfilling new roles for community governance, working together as a community, and the community’s problem solving ability. Each of these components involves specific criteria.
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Community vision entails having a vision for the community’s desired future.
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Community governance includes collaborative roles for business, citizens, local government, non-profits, the University of Delaware, and citizens.
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Working together includes bridging diversity, bridging university-community relations, crossing jurisdictional lines, reaching consensus, and sharing information.
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Problem solving includes building community leadership, educating citizens to meet community challenges, and learning from experience.
I administered a survey asking 74 participants from nine different stakeholder groups to evaluate the civic health of Newark based on 69 questions. Seventy-seven percent of surveys were returned. The following is a very general reporting of the survey results. For information on democratic governance tools used to address civic health areas in which Newark needs improvement, please see the full paper.
Civic health areas that are strengths for the Newark community:
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The Downtown Newark Partnership is active and highly visible in the Newark community.
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The Newark government is responsible and accountable to its citizens.
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Businesses in the Newark community participate in broad community improvement efforts.
Civic health areas that need improvement:
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Communicating Newark’s Vision
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Building Leadership
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Neighborhood Involvement
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Bridging Nonprofits
Civic health areas that need further exploration:
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Bridging diversity
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Bridging university-community relations
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Crossing jurisdictional lines
