Abstract
This Field Notes brief reports on 20 potential best practices that relate to enhancing civic engagement outcomes for human service organizations as part of an initiative by the Alliance for Children and Families (Alliance) and the United Neighborhood Centers of America (UNCA). Four strategic clusters were evident in these best practices: board of directors expertise and focus, organizational infrastructure, empowerment of community residents, and tactical strategies. The best practices were identified through a process benchmarking exercise which compared the frequency of various civic engagement strategies between organizations having high levels of positive civic engagement outcomes with the frequency among organizations in a comparison group. Groups were identified using the Civic Engagement Measurement System, a set of interrelated tools developed by the Alliance and UNCA to help organizations measure concrete outcomes.
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