What is Civic Ecology?

1. What is Civic Ecology? Civic ecology is a way of understanding how communities deal with the effects of economic, environmental, and social problems and what these community members think about these problems. Civic ecology can be used to help community members and scientists understand how individuals use and interact with the local biological organisms and cultural diversity. Civic ecology can help us work together as scientists and community members to address some of the problems, such as mosquitoes and pests, in your community in Baltimore. (Sera 2014)

2. What can Civic Ecology do for my community? Encouraging these relationships can give communities the ability to improve their local wealth (environmental, economic, and cultural), resilience, and to take control of designing and managing their future. Paring civic ecology with community members and the components that are already a part of the community can help make a better, more enjoyable community for everyone. (Sera 2014)

3. The benefits of Civic Ecology There are many benefits to communities that use civic ecology, including: 1. Community members are in control of their community and the future of that community. 2. Communities experience higher ecological, economic, and social wealth. 3. Community resilience increases, so more businesses stay in your community and create more jobs and wealth for the community. 4. Community members feel like they belong and are a part of that community. (Sera 2014)

4. So, how does it work? What is the process of civic ecology? To begin the process of creating a civic ecology, a community must ask itself five essential questions: 1. Where are we now? 2. Where do we want to be in 10, 20, 50 years and beyond? 3. How do we get to where we want to be? 4. How do we know if we are getting there? 5. Who wants to help answer these questions?

5. Human Relations Three elements of effective learning conversations: -Identify the gifts and passions of the residents in a neighborhood. -Ask the residents to become involved and share their gifts based on their passions. -Connect, people with the same passions to act collectively. Four principles of effective learning conversations: -Ask questions, do not give answers. -Ask “What can you contribute?” not “What do you need?” -Invite next steps, ask people to become involved. -To grow the circle, always ask “Who else do you know that I should speak to?”

6. These questions can be answered by completing the following C.I.V.I.C. tasks: Convening, Investigating, Visioning, Implementing, and Charting Progress

7. What does convening mean? Convening: Convene a Civic Ecology working group consisting of stakeholders from all sectors of the community: businesses, non-profits, institutions, governance, citizens, and activists. These stakeholders must be willing to put in the time and effort necessary to see the process through and most importantly, work together on behalf of the community. The group must be trained in systems thinking in order to see their community and its future in a different way: as a web of interrelated systems and flows.

8. What does investigating mean? Investigating: In this task, the working group investigates what presently works, what does not work, what systems exist, and what the community needs. This assessment identifies problems and their root causes, as well as leverage points to effect change.

9. What does visioning mean? Visioning: As the first step in a process called “backcasting”, the community asks where it wants to be in 10, 20, 50 years and beyond. The outcome of this visioning can take a variety of forms but must always build upon the community’s shared core values.

10. What does implementing mean? Implementing: Led by the Civic Ecology working group, the community creates community-scaled systems to help realize its vision- and thus ‘backcasts’ from vision of the future. Some systems may be new, others enhancements of existing systems that seem to be working. In either case, the systems must bring identified assets to bear in satisfying identified needs. The group must also acknowledge barriers, assign responsibilities, and delineate specific tasks and timeframes for implementation.

11. What does charting progress mean? Charting Progress: In this final, but never-ending task, the working group and community create a series of indicators that, when measured over time, will help the community assess progress towards realizing its vision. Periodic assessments and adjustments ensure that Civic Ecology is truly a learning ecology that can promote urban resilience.

12. What is urban resilience? Urban resilience is defined as the “capability to prepare for, respond to, and recover from significant multi-hazard threats with minimum damage to public safety and health, the economy, and security” of a given urban area.

13. Community Mapping Goal: Community Mapping is method to visually link data about the community to the physical locations within the community. The goal of community mapping is to support development and change (economic and social) at a community level. PhotoVoice is a method that uses photography as a means of identifying social and cultural practices and experiences of individuals and communities (Wang & Burris, 1997). PhotoVoice can be used as a participatory research method to document the perceptions of local environmental hazards and pest sources and the potential impact on health among residents in West Baltimore, Maryland.

14. Community Mapping…a suggestion  Draw a map and identify positive and negative elements around your home. Prioritize what negative elements need to be addressed. Bring your map to community discussions to help establish common strengths, which can help provide community pride and confidence to tackle common negative issues. Use photographs to make issues real.

15. How does understanding my civic ecology help me? 1.Help develop community and pride in one’s place 2.Help direct resources to areas of need. To address #2, especially in the area of pest control, join our mosquito citizen science program!

16. Mosquitoes and Me? Many organizations and government groups have labeled the Asian Tiger Mosquito as a problem that requires action, but the government and communities do not have a good understanding of the problem. To make things worse, the very elements that can worsen the mosquito problem (e.g., trash, abandoned spaces) are also related to other pests, such as rats and to neighborhood problems such as crime.

17. Human Relations: Questions to ask. Divide the rest of these questions up between your survey participants to ask in addition to your mosquito questions: -What 2 gifts, talents, or skills do you have that make you a valuable friend? -What 2 skills make you especially good at your paid or volunteer work? -What talent do you have that not many people know about? -What are your capabilities or skills you are willing to contribute to this community? -What do you care about? -What issues or concerns do you want to contribute your gifts towards? -What associations and institutions do you have a strong relationship with? -Where do you think mosquitoes are found in your community? -How many different types of mosquitoes do you think there are in your neighborhood? Human Relations Survey To ask all individuals: 1. Have mosquitoes affected your everyday life? If so, how? 2. Have you thought about how you can contribute to mosquito control? 3. Have mosquitoes changed your quality of life at all? Positively or negatively? 4. Who else do you think I should talk to? In addition, answer these questions yourself: 1. Have mosquitoes affected your everyday life? If so, how? 2. Have you thought about how you can contribute to mosquito control? 3. Have mosquitoes changed your quality of life at all? Positively or negatively? 4. What 2 gifts, talents, or skills do you have that make you a valuable family member or friend? 5.What associations and institutions do you have a strong relationship with? 6. What do you care about?