Conclusion

Despite high levels of gridlock and distrust in government nationally, everyday local elected officials and neighborhood leaders are coming together to build better futures for their communities. From delivering a bus system in Georgia to funding environmental justice initiatives in Washington, civic advocates across the country are showing that new models of collaborative governance are possible.

Our conversations with civic organizations, local governments, and community changemakers demonstrate the importance of a holistic approach to building civic power at the local level—street by street, neighborhood by neighborhood. Successful collaborative governance models offer more than a quick fix to the deep levels of distrust in our civic, social, and political structures, and the harm that has been inflicted on BIPOC and rural communities throughout this country’s history. They commit to a long-term, tailored, multi-pronged approach that invests in places and the people that make them great. From bottom-up and sustained victories at the local level, we can start to build power and momentum to rebuild and reimagine civic institutions at a national scale.

The unprecedented influx of federal funding to communities presents a once-in-a-generation opportunity for reimagining the relationship between community residents and their local, state, and national government. Through programs such as the Inflation Reduction Act and the Infrastructure and Investment Jobs Act, which encourage states and municipalities to embrace meaningful community engagement strategies and support community-led projects, new resources and incentives exist for local agencies to implement co-governance strategies in collaboration with community leaders. Local government officials now have the responsibility to ensure federal resources are connected to the communities they are intended to serve. The intention of this toolkit is to help inspire government actors to build community partnerships and center civic power in decision-making and resource allocation.

Collaborative governance requires sustained investment and momentum, best served by a multi-sector approach. Government and civil society can create opportunities for everyday people to engage in shared problem solving. Academia, businesses, and philanthropy all have roles to play in this endeavor. While there will be tradeoffs and tensions, they are part of the opportunity for growth. Building and investing in the relationships and sustainable processes takes time, experimentation, and a willingness to learn from mistakes. Yet, these experiments are necessary to build a vibrant multiracial, multiethnic democracy that centers traditionally underserved communities and can address the large-scale challenges of governance in the twenty-first century. As Richard Young from CivicLex reminds us, “We owe it to the people in our local places and to the people around the world to actually get our houses in order.”