Civic Engagement Capacity Building: An Assessment of the Citizen Planning Academy Model of Public Outreach and Education

Abstract

Planning organizations have recently initiated planning academies to increase citizens’ capacity to effectively engage in city and local planning activities. Yet, the success of these programs is largely unknown. This article seeks to address this gap in knowledge by proposing an assessment framework to identify increased civic engagement capacity using three tiers of outcomes. The results of a multicase study suggest that this model of public outreach and education programming is successful at realizing improvements in individual human and social capitals that translate into effective citizen engagement measured as actions taken by participants to improve community conditions.