What is civic health, and how can we cultivate it? That’s a question on the minds of many these days — our social fabric has been stretched thin by the pandemic, social media, political divisiveness, and most recently the rise of artificial intelligence.
It’s also the topic of discussion at an upcoming Lexington Lyceum event, moderated by Cameron Hickey, a Lexington resident and CEO of the National Conference on Citizenship, a congressionally chartered organization working to strengthen civic life in America. (Hickey is also a member of LexObserver’s board of directors).
The Lyceum Advocates’ VP Janel Showalter asked Hickey about civic health, why it matters, and what we can do to cultivate it here in our community.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
What is civic health, and why is it important for a community?
Civic health is a way of describing the conditions and capacity of a community to solve problems together. I like to compare it to physical health — when we call a person “healthy,” we’re talking about things like diet, exercise, age, etc. When a person faces adverse conditions — like a broken bone or a virus, how “healthy” they are will directly impact how easy it is for them to recover or cope with that adverse circumstance. When we think about civically healthy communities, we’re focused on the combination of factors that increase the likelihood that a community will successfully address a challenge.
We think of civic life, and by extension how we measure civic health, as falling into a set of pillars or categories: trust, knowledge, access, connection, and action.
When most people think about civics, they think about the action part: voting, volunteering, donating. But we know that the level of trust present in communities — trust between neighbors, trust in institutions — is critically important to believing that when you seek solutions, you believe they will actually work. Civic knowledge — that means knowing how government works, having access to local news, understanding the lives of people around you — helps you focus on the right problems and understand what levers you can pull to address them. Civic access — including access to the core functions of government, but also to community spaces like libraries, cultural institutions, and even restaurants and cafes where people can connect — is important to developing that knowledge, building connection, and ultimately unlocking the capacity for action. Civic connection kind of binds everything together — it’s that shared understanding that makes us more likely to step up and do the hard work of civic action.
Tell us about your organization’s Civic Health Index reports, which analyze civic health at the state level. Why measure civic health? What questions do you ask? What are some patterns that emerge?
Our organization depends largely on data collected by the US Census Bureau every two years through the current population survey. Every other September, the Census Bureau asks a large sample of residents questions about the civic actions they take: did you volunteer, did you donate, did you talk to your friends about issues, did you contact a public official, did you attend a public meeting? There are basically 20 questions that we consider the core measures we’ve used for a long time. These stats tell us about trends over time, let us compare states, and highlight differences between demographics around these measures.
Some key patterns are consistent over time. Veterans are notably more civically engaged across many measures than non-veterans. Women are consistently more civically engaged than men for a key set of indicators — save a few where the opposite is true. The youngest people consistently rank at the bottom for most measures, and people in the older, but not oldest category tend to do the most. We also see that some states consistently rank at the top for certain measures — Utah consistently ranks as the number one state in the nation for volunteering. We also see trends over time, for example the political action of boycotting or buycotting — essentially expressing your political opinions through your purchasing power — has been on the rise for the last decade. Unfortunately, some indicators that are important to me — contacting public officials, discussing issues with friends or neighbors, and most importantly, learning about issues — are all very clearly showing a continuous decline. Ultimately these data show us things we may already recognize about our communities — we’re becoming more isolated, polarized, disconnected, and less aware of the challenges others around us are facing.
How has our understanding of civic health changed over the years? Civics used to mostly mean voting and volunteering, but you take a more expansive view. What does that include?
After a number of years working in this field, I’ve learned that the word “civic” has a wide range of interpretations. Lots of people think about civic in a very specific sense — civic education, which often gets distilled down to government 101. For many, it means the things we do related to our government, like voting, calling our representatives, and perhaps even jury duty.
For me, civic life is much broader and comprises the full set connections and behaviors within our community. Civic engagement happens when we see music at Cary Hall, or visit an art opening at a local gallery. It’s showing up together on discovery day, shopping at the farmers market, reading our local news. These broader engagements within our community are what build the richer “social capital” that truly binds us together in ways that ensure we fulfill the social contract we have as members of society.
What are some factors that correlate highly with civic health?
We know that communities with higher measures of civic health and social connection also see better health outcomes, lower crime, higher educational attainment, and more economic prosperity, even when we control for socio-demographic factors. We can’t prove that it’s causational, but the correlations are important and consistent. To me, that’s the main motivation to work to increase our participation, build connections in our community, volunteer, and help others find pathways to do the same. It makes us all stronger and healthier.
How do we create environments conducive to community engagement? Are there specific steps a community can take to help increase its civic health?
My number one piece of advice – we need to relearn a core civic skill: having conversations with one another. We have to exercise this muscle, long atrophied from years of polarization brought on by social isolation and divisiveness caused by mainstream and social media. We need to remember the value of listening to other people’s stories and understanding how their experiences shape their perspectives. The real work of civic engagement can only happen when we understand where everyone else is coming from and can talk deeply — with honesty and trust — about how to tackle problems and help our communities thrive together.
Join the Lexington Lyceum, the Lexington Observer, moderator Cameron Hickey, and panelists Kunal Botla, Rep. Michelle Ciccolo, Sara Sheikh, and Kim Vandiver to talk about how the many ways we engage with each other and the Town help build a healthier, more resilient community.
June 18, 2026, 7 – 8:45 pm at the Lexington Community Center. Register here.