Building community capacity requires the community to provide opportunities for citizen involvement and participation in planning and decision-making.

• Government-managed planning activities incorporate citizen involvement and participation opportunities.

Work in collaboration with local officials and government professionals to evaluate the quality and effectiveness of citizen involvement opportunities. These should include: Assure participation opportunities. Involve citizens in gathering and analyzing data. Build on locally existing skills and resources and scale actions appropriately to community resources and skills. Provide authentic opportunities where participation leads to results and where participants can identify how their efforts made a difference. Respect, encourage and reward local initiative. Evaluate and report accomplishments.