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This issue introduces the key components of the new Civic Index and provides information on how communities can use it to ask the important questions they need to answer in their quest for positive community development. NCL President Christopher T. Gates demonstrates how the Civic Index is a valuable tool for communities to use to evaluate where they stand within the new realities of citizen democracy and to determine their strengths and weaknesses. Contributors outline the three stages of the Civic Index process: the initiating stage, the stakeholder stage, and the implementation stage and discuss how each community can adapt the index to fulfill its specific needs. As a tool for self-evaluation, the Civic Index is a community's first powerful step toward building its capacity to deal with critical issues.

David A. Bloom, research associate in the National Civic League's Community Assistance Team, also provides a glimpse into a two-year study of community change across the United States. His article poses questions and presents models that clarify the processes of change and that examine closely the variables influencing and shaping those processes.

With case studies from the field that include an in-depth look at the 1999 All-America City Awards and a comprehensive analysis of the four years of hard work and social capital development efforts in Newark, New Jersey's Enterprise Community, this issue is a practical guidebook and inspirational account on the positive outcomes of community change.