Public Policy Shaped by Jacksonville Citizens
Based in Jacksonville, Florida, the nonprofit Jacksonville Community Council Inc. (JCCI) puts citizen-determined priorities on the public agenda by engaging residents in selecting issues to study and by conducting policy research to produce recommendations for addressing important community challenges. But this is only half of the JCCI process. A citizen implementation task force then advocates to public and private organizations to implement recommendations and works for another year to monitor and evaluate implementation actions. Since 1975, JCCI has had a remarkable impact on the community by combining citizen-led policy research with citizen-led advocacy campaigns. Just a few of the many improvements that grew from JCCI recommendations include accreditation of Jacksonville elementary schools, six new health clinics for the poor, a new city planning department, city payments to replace unhealthy failing septic tanks, and an Adopt-a-Business program to support minority businesses. JCCI citizen advocates have influenced the city council and state legislature to pass new laws to enable some of their impressive accomplishments.
How JCCI Helps Citizens Solve Community Problems
JCCI’s rigorous, in-depth study process transforms citizens into important community assets: local public policy experts. The process begins with a JCCI program committee—drawn from a diverse cross-section of the community—soliciting public input to identify potential study topics. They narrow down the choices from a few hundred to one or two approved by the JCCI Board. Then, representative policy study committees made up of volunteers convene to define the problems and identify potential solutions. JCCI staff and a range of experts and stakeholders who meet with the committees assure that volunteers are well grounded in the complexities of the issues through their year of work to produce credible recommendations, which JCCI releases to high-profile coverage by the local media. JCCI’s good reputation and relationships with government and community leaders helps their implementation committees gain access to decision makers. Policymakers benefit from access to a source of credible research and analysis about topical issues of concern to a demographically diverse population in their community, and have an incentive to act on JCCI’s well-publicized recommendations. In some cases, JCCI citizen committees have used data from JCCI’s separate citizen-driven process of quality of life reporting to enhance their policy studies and advocacy.
Citizen Roles in Community Improvement
The JCCI policy study process takes citizens through most of the issue framer role—from agenda setting when they select issues for study, to defining problems and identifying solutions during their studies. They conclude their studies in the role of evaluator of alternatives as they form recommendations for action. Citizens play a strong advocacy role through most of the JCCI implementation process, which they end as evaluators again, when they report on the extent of action taken by community institutions.
Additional Community Improvement Themes
While the JCCI process is not officially linked to accountable organizations and resources, their advocacy efforts have effectively made that link for many policy recommendations, leading to an impressive history of community accomplishments. A key component of JCCI’s citizen-driven, policy study process is ensuring that work groups are representative of the diverse socio-cultural and economic community Jacksonville. JCCI has collaborated over the years with organizations that relate to a wide range of interests, from the business community to minority groups and the poor. That helps JCCI reach out to assure their citizen committees are diverse, including members from minority and low-income groups whose interests are often marginalized in policy debates. JCCI’s inclusive approach gives more weight to its recommendations, and also serves to build the capacity of under-resourced groups to improve their communities as effective policy researchers and advocates.
- See a full List of Examples and Case Studies in Results That Matter
- Go to the Overview of Effective Community Governance or read Chapter 1 of Results That Matter for more on the advanced governance practices of the Effective Community Governance Model and related key community improvement themes.