Community and Neighborhood Involvement Center

The Community and Neighborhood Involvement Center includes six Civic Life's civic engagement programs and partners with our seven neighborhood district coalitions, a growing set of community partner organizations, and 95 Neighborhood Associations.

We are guided by the Five Year Plan to Increase Community Involvement organized around three interdependent community involvement goals:

• Increasing the number and diversity of people involved in their communities
• Strengthening community capacity
• Increasing community impact on public decisions

Our programs and partner organizations help Portlanders to:

• Get involved in local governance, and provide training with other support to do it
• Identify strategies for increasing and equalizing the power, voice, and influence of Portland's many and various communities
• Overcome common barriers to participation and expand accessibility in our City
• Support effective communication to keep the community informed about issues and opportunities for involvement
• Foster social ties and a sense of community identity
• Build the community’s capacity to take action to move forward its priorities
• Foster networking and collaboration between our partner organizations and other community organizations
• Make public policy decision-making more responsive and accountable to community input
  

The Community & Neighborhood Involvement Center (CNIC) includes the following programs:

• Disability Program - Connecting, supporting and encouraging collaborative civic engagement between the people of the disability community, neighborhoods and city government.
• Diversity and Civic Leadership Program - Building capacity for community-based organizations serving communities of color, immigrants and refugees in order to increase constituent participation in the civic governance of the City.
• Neighborhood Program - Enhancing the livability of neighborhoods through community participation by providing organizing support, leadership development, and technical assistance to Portland's 95 Neighborhood Associations and seven District Coalitions.
• New Portlanders Program - integrating immigrants and refugees.
• Public Involvement Best Practices Program - Strengthening partnership between community and government resulting in the best decisions for all of Portland through support for the Public Involvement Advisory Council.
• Youth Program - Working with the Multnomah County Youth Commission to help get the youth of our community involved in local government decision and policy making.