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Photo: Canvassing to raise awareness about the 2023 school board election, provided by School Board School
This year, we have followed the themes of our 2024 report, Our Health, Our Opportunity. We now turn to the final theme: Power to Shape the World We Want to Live In.
A range of civic actions, such as voting, organizing neighborhood groups, participating in the census, attending school board meetings, donating blood, volunteering at community events, or even community gardening, contribute to a community’s civic muscle.
Higher civic participation increases people’s sense of belonging and allows communities to proactively address issues. Counties with higher participation in both the 2020 presidential election and the census have, on average, better health outcomes than those with lower participation. In some parts of the region, residents in high-participation communities live, on average, five years longer than those in areas with lower engagement—and the benefits extend to the youngest members as well, with child mortality rates 2.1 times lower in these more civically engaged areas.
Elisa Hoffman, Founder & Senior Advisor of School Board School, knows this work well. Over 140 people, ranging from 22 to 75 years old, have completed School Board School’s no cost, seven-month fellowship in Greater Cincinnati. In this fellowship, participants are empowered with the knowledge and network they need to drive systemic change in their communities.
“At School Board School, we really believe that the people who are most impacted by systems and by decisions or policies or practices, should be the ones that are actually leading those systems, and whose voices should be centered in the conversations around the policies and practices that make up those systems,” said Hoffman.
Hoffman highlighted the growing desire among everyday people to strengthen their civic engagement, though many don’t know how to get started. “There are so many people in our community who want to be more civically engaged. They just don't know how. And so, they're out there on their own…you don't change systems on your own,” Hoffman said. She noted that systems change “when you've got this coalition of people working around you; when you've got the time to learn and to think and then to act.”
School Board School’s Say It Louder toolkit has materials on how to organize people around a common cause, with no prior experience needed.
Another local organization driving civic change in our region is Cincinnati Documenters. They train and pay everyday citizens to attend public meetings and publish the results through real-time social media updates and multimedia reports. Powered by Signal Cincinnati, the program increases government transparency and encourages broader public access to civic decision-making spaces, which can be difficult to access or under-reported.
Increasing civic engagement and civic curiosity creates change in community. Rita McNeil Danish, Signal Ohio’s Chief Executive Officer, said one major win for the program occurred in Cleveland, where documenters noticed that casino revenue consistently appeared on City Council meeting agendas, meeting after meeting, without any action.
Because Documenters were in the room asking questions and raising concerns, this issue was investigated. Through public records requests and interviews, they discovered funds meant for schools and community organizations hadn’t been released properly—and their actions led to that money reaching its intended recipients.
This outcome wasn’t just a win for transparency—it also underscored why programs like Documenters matter. McNeil Danish explained that jargon, unwelcoming government buildings, and rising political polarization often discourage civic participation. Documenters works to eliminate this barrier by inviting people in and letting them know, as McNeil Danish puts it, “You have a role in the process, and you have a voice that deserves to be heard.”
“My dad told me when I was a little girl: you're either part of the solution or you're part of the problem,” McNeil Danish said. “You get to make that choice. So be part of the solution and just take that first step.”
Ultimately, we all want to know that we matter, have a voice, and can contribute meaningfully to our community. While we all have the ability to meaningfully participate, not everyone has the historical privileges, power, or resources to do so.
If you or someone you know is interested in getting involved in community efforts that build and exercise civic muscle, check out these resources:
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