Frameworks

The thinking underneath the practices — models, worksheets, and ways of seeing a neighborhood. 26 in this collection.

• Framework

  Amplifying Unheard Voices (civic media pattern)

  Surface and center voices left out of public narrative.

• Framework

  Building Civic Muscle (civic media pattern)

  Practice the skills and habits of civic participation.

• Framework

  Community Lore

• Framework

  Creating Shared Understanding (civic media pattern)

  Bring people together to make sense across difference.

• Framework

  Deepening Understanding of Place (civic media pattern)

  Intensive attention to a specific place changes how people see everything.

• Framework

  Design for Care, Not Enforcement

  Every 'report a problem' tool can become 'report a neighbor.' The design line that keeps neighborhood tech on the right side: point it at…

• Framework

  High Agency in Community Building

• Framework

  Impact Tracker

  Track whether your civic media recipe is actually meeting the community's needs.

• Framework

  Learn from the Graveyard

  The Civic Tech Field Guide keeps a cemetery of dead projects, and hyperlocal tech fills a whole row. The patterns behind the headstones…

• Framework

  Making Power Visible (civic media pattern)

  Reveal what power is doing so communities can hold it accountable.

• Framework

  Microgrant Organizer Toolkit

  With Neighbors' nine-stage guide to designing and running a neighborhood microgrant program, from reflecting on your local context through…

• Framework

  Minimal Viable Structure

• Framework

  Mobilizing Collective Response (civic media pattern)

  Organize people to act together, especially under pressure.

• Framework

  People, Power, Change

  The Ganz organizing framework in miniature: organizing starts with people (not issues), understands power as interests × resources, and…

• Framework

  Preserving Community Knowledge (civic media pattern)

  Capture and steward lived experience and local memory.

• Framework

  Recipe Builder

  Get real about what you can actually do: assemble your team, inventory resources, and right-size your scope.

• Framework

  Reimagining Public Resources (civic media pattern)

  Turn underused public assets into civic information and connection.

• Framework

  Remix at Neighborhood Scale

  The thesis of this shelf: civic tech doesn't have to be built for your neighborhood to work in your neighborhood. Global open-source…

• Framework

  Six Lessons from Neighborhood Civic Tech

  Cross-cutting lessons from the documented wins: phone-first beats app-first, paper is part of the stack, pay local stewards, small apps…

• Framework

  Structural Thinking About Connection

• Framework

  The 5 Cs of Community

• Framework

  The Abundant Community

• Framework

  The Six Questions

  The arc of organizing at neighborhood scale, as six questions a group of neighbors can actually ask each other — from 'who are my people?'…

• Framework

  To, For, With, By

  Cormac Russell's four modes of change: things done TO communities, FOR them, WITH them, and BY them. Community power lives in 'by' — and…

• Framework

  Topic Index

• Framework

  What Does Your Community Need?

  Identify which civic need (agency, belonging, or well-being) is most urgent in your community, and what assets already exist to build on.