What does community engagement look like when it's working well? A recent in-depth report from the Knight Foundation and the National League of Cities examines community initiatives that "foster a sense of attachment, expand access to information and resources, and create opportunities for citizens to play more active roles in setting priorities, addressing issues, and planning the longer-term sustainability of their communities."

Bright Spots in Community Engagement focuses on successful community engagement efforts in 14 U.S. cities: Akron, Ohio; Austin, Tex.; Boston; Charlotte, N.C.; Chicago; Decatur, Ga.; Detroit; Hampton, Va.; Hartford, Conn.; Macon, Ga.; Philadelphia; Richmond, Va.; San Jose, Calif.; and St. Paul, Minn. It includes in-depth case studes on Detroit, Philadelphia, Chicago, and Austin.

While the report did not specifically look at hyperlocal community news projects, it does offer many lessons and examples that could benefit such efforts.

Where did the most people get engaged? Decatur managed to involve 10% of its population, "not in superficial ways such as opinion surveys but in intensive small-group discussions of public issues." Also, Chicago's 49th Ward held a participatory budgeting process that also engaged a very high percentage of residents. And Austin attracted more than 25,000 participants in a variety of engagement opportunities.

In Boston, immigrant outreach efforts have led to hundreds of free immigration-related legal consultations per year, improved participation in the 2010 Census, thousands of new voters, and an "English for New Bostonians" program that has a $1.3 million budget and more than a thousand participants annually.

Does community engagement work? "In some cases, such as Philadelphia's Delaware River campaign and the Central Corridor Strategy in St. Paul, the initiative seemed to break through a policy logjam among highly entrenched groups. In others, the input of large numbers of citizens seemed to have a notable impact on policy, either in an advisory capacity ('I Value' in Hampton) or because local officials had invited residents to actually make the policy decisions (Chicago's 49th Ward). In still other cities, initiatives had successfully generated volunteer efforts to solve public problems, or fostered problem-solving collaborations between citizens and public employees."

Several of the projects highlighted in the report received funding through various programs of the Knight Foundation.

Technology

"Philadelphia does not lack for political leadership, but what once was absent were effective technology tools to bring those public officials together with private and non-profit civic leaders for meaningful community engagement. Today, a high-tech 'civic fusion' is taking place, funded by several key foundations and companies building online communities to expand community participation. …Yet online outreach can only go so far in reaching citizens who lack the means or the capabilities to engage in this way."

Crossroads Charlotte uses innovative digital storytelling techniques to convey four possible futures for the city, each highlighting different current issues and challenges. Community members to these stories -- and responses are also solicited from local poets and other notables. This project also participates in local events, and the site helps residents take action.

And in Hampton, "Instant polling technology was used to convene and obtain immediate input from 400-500 community members about core city services in terms of performance and investment and the need for further investment. The result was community buy-in (60-70% community support) for a set of service cuts and tax increases that the city implemented as a result of the process."

The social media game Macon Money. According to the game description, this game "bridges the gap between the racially and economically separated residents of Macon, Ga. through gameplay that encourages these two opposing groups to get together, collaborate and earn money that they can put back into their neighborhoods at qualified local businesses."

Reach and diversity

"The political leaders of Chicago's 49th Ward, which boasts a thoroughly diversified mix of Americans of different racial and ethnic backgrounds, are working through these same political engagement hurdles the old-fashioned way -- beating the pavement to boost citizen participation. Joe Moore, an Alderman in the 49th Ward, is drawing more and more of his constituents into a so-called 'participatory budgeting' process, in which community members themselves decide how to spend a significant portion of the ward's annual budget. 'The people now who are really involved and engaged in the leadership process and community groups are not the usual suspects,' Moore explains. 'Overwhelmingly, the people involved in this process are new people.'"

The report also noted that Boston, St. Paul, and Hampton had particular success in engaging historically "hard-to-reach" populations, such as low-income communities. "The work in St. Paul in particular stands out in this regard, but other cities targeted other groups of citizens, such as young people (for which Hampton has a well-deserved reputation), and recent immigrants (Boston is the leading example.)"

Outreach

Austin held "special events to attract youth and young families and small gatherings called Meetings-in-a-Box, where table leaders distributed fact sheets and gathered feedback from residents. During Speak Week, an event designed to complement the traditional community forum, informational meetings were held in 30 -40 locations around the city. …A key outreach strategy was to go to where people were already gathering, such as PTA meetings, civic clubs and recreational outings."

And in Richmond, The Times-Dispatch offers a "Public Square" series of periodic community conversations held throughout the year on a variety of issues. …Live broadcasts, video and podcasts are made available on the Times-Dispatch website."

Education

In Hartford, the Parent Leadership Training Institute is "a 20-week civic leadership curriculum that invests in parents as champions for their children and active participants in the policy and process debates that affect them. The course includes classes, field activities and an independent community project."

Sustainability

"Very few of these initiatives had been sustained over a long period of time; most focused on a particular issue or decision and were not intended to provide long-term engagement opportunities. …One effort that was intended to last, the 'Strong Neighborhoods' network in San Jose, has been partially dismantled after the state recently defunded the city's Redevelopment Authority."

Infrastructure and leadership

In Boston, the Mayor's Office of New Bostonians is "a unique entity that convenes city officials and staff, businesses, foundations and the community in partnerships to engage new immigrants. The office has a 14-year track record of leveraging significant resources to provide immigrants with better access to city leaders and improved services from government. It also provides an important platform for celebrating the contribution of immigrants to the economy and culture of the city."

Repurposing facilities is another approach. "A strategy evident in Akron, Ohio and St. Paul., Minn. (not completely new, perhaps, but unusual in contemporary community engagement) was the redevelopment and use of public buildings as hubs for engagement. In Akron the city's public schools were used as Community Learning Center hubs for a cluster of civic engagement work in education, workforce development, and community outreach. In St. Paul, the city's district council meeting rooms were used to engage citizens in the civic planning of a central corridor development strategy linking the city with nearby Minneapolis."

But fragmentation is a challenge: "While most of these cities had experienced more than one engagement initiative, a recurring observation was that there often seemed to be very little connection across different efforts. Most efforts seemed to be owned exclusively by a single institution, such as local government, a school system, or a community organizing group. In many cities, the leaders, funders and organizers of different projects did not seem to have even spoken with one another, let alone learned from one another or worked together. So while many of these communities have had successful experiences with community engagement, the work seems to have emerged in a disjointed, piecemeal way -- with each project prompted by a single compelling issue or controversy."

And in Detroit, successful engagement efforts "have almost exclusively been spurred by private and philanthropic efforts, with limited to no assistance from city government. Although there is an ongoing sense that everyone is trying contribute to the revitalization of the community, the city is lacking a coordinating entity that approaches engagement systematically, with respect to all citizens in the community."