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THE CONTEXT
KEY TRENDS AND FINDINGS
MAJOR ACCOMPLISHMENTS AND INNOVATIONS 2002 - 2004
REMAINING CHALLENGES
COMPETITION
THE CONTEXT
Civic health refers to civil society - the institutions, relationships, and everyday behaviors that build community for the common good outside of the formal private and public sectors. Civil society encompasses the ways in which individuals and groups connect, engage with ideas and institutions, exhibit leadership, and express their preferences and interests through electoral politics. It reflects the ways in which groups within a community relate to one another. Boston today is "majority-minority" and more than 25% foreign-born. More than 100 ethnicities are represented in Boston's neighborhoods and 140 languages spoken in its homes. Empty nesters and Baby Boomers are among Boston's fastest-growing population segments, as are seniors over 85. Boston also has a large gay and lesbian population. And about 125,000 students - many of them from other nations - are enrolled in Boston's colleges and universities, adding their youth, diversity and dynamism to Boston's civic mosaic.
A strong indicator of a community's civic health is the strength of its "third sector" - voluntary, nonprofit and philanthropic organizations - as a primary vehicle for the expression of democratic values, charitable giving, social justice, access and opportunity. Several thousand active nonprofit organizations constitute Boston's "third sector" - ranging from leadership programs, advocacy organizations and service providers to civic associations, and world-class hospitals, universities and museums. Every Boston neighborhood also has access to a vast public library system through its own staffed and networked library.
An increasing number of initiatives aim to open Boston's mainstream civic culture to immigrants, people of color and young people - and the city has numerous venues for public discourse and the open exchange of diverse viewpoints. Boston's high level of political and civic engagement, from its founding in 1630 to the present, is a reflection of the city's longstanding tradition of civic activism and innovation at every level of civic life - from neighborhood associations to international initiatives. Residents of a state capital in which the world's oldest in-use Constitution still holds sway, Bostonians hold unparalleled opportunities to actively engage in civic and political life and to inspire government and civic institutions to work together to address critical issues.
For an in-depth background and historical context, download a pdf of the Civic Health section of the 2000 Boston Indicators Report.
KEY TRENDS AND FINDINGS
Changing demographics are revitalizing Boston's neighborhoods and increasing its cultural vibrancy. Over the past several decades, Boston has grown in size largely through foreign immigration. Between 1990 and 2000, while Boston added about 14,000 residents overall, more than 59,000 recent immigrants became New Bostonians, helping to make Boston one of the most ethnically diverse cities in the world, with an increasing wealth of ethnicities represented within each major racial group.
The nation's largest age cohort, Baby Boomers - those born between 1946 and 1964 - now hold most of the leadership positions in Greater Boston and have become the de facto stewards of the region. With major new challenges facing the city and the region - from increasing external competition to the loss of local business headquarters to a fragmented civic culture and increasing costs and income inequality - the decisions made by Baby Boomers will set the stage for Greater Boston's prospects in the 21st century.
Greater Boston's civic culture has been identified as fractious, exclusionary and "lacking the collaborative gene." Following a major scan of the region, the report Boston Unbound found that Greater Boston - unlike many of its competitor regions in the US - is hobbled by a competitive, fragmented and parochial civic culture that does not promote collaborative problem-solving, the mentoring and inclusion of new leadership, or the integration of best practices from elsewhere. The authors of the report cite the need for more inclusive civic structures with new and more diverse leadership on issues of critical importance to the city and region as well as for the region's major nonprofit institutions - in particular universities and hospitals - to play a greater civic leadership role.
The loss of major business leaders is stimulating new leadership from Boston's nonprofit sector. With the recent acquisition of FleetBoston Financial by Bank of America and John Hancock Financial Services by Manulife compounded by business losses and consolidation in the 1990s, there is growing agreement about the critical importance of Boston's permanent assets - its universities, hospitals, and cultural institutions - in regional decision-making. Examples of this new civic leadership paradigm are the appointment of the first hospital leader to serve as chairman of the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce and the focus of the current Goldberg Seminar on the role and impact of institutions of higher education in Greater Boston.
While visitors and new residents of all ages and backgrounds can find the city's civic and cultural life difficult to navigate, efforts are underway to make Boston more welcoming. A number of initiatives are designed to make Boston more welcoming to newcomers and to build common ground with the 33% of Boston residents who speak a language other than English at home:
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Since 1998, the Mayor's Office of New Bostonians, a department of city government, offers free immigration consulting clinics, celebrates Boston's diversity through "New Bostonians Community Day," and is launching the "New Bostonians Vote Campaign" to increase civic participation in the immigrant community. The Office also engages in advocacy on priority issues for newcomer immigrants such as in
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