In keeping citizens involved working with community indicators since 1985, JCCI has provided many opportunities for citizen learning. Similarly, Sustainable Seattle has sustained volunteer activities by citizens since 1991, providing many opportunities for learning along the way. Sustainable Seattle tries to promote community learning about sustainability issues in several ways already mentioned above, including helping neighborhood groups develop sustainability tools they can use in neighborhood planning, and helping schools develop curricula for teaching students about community sustainability. Of the communities we have noted as examples in this paper, Phoenix, Prince William County, and Tucson have hosted these training programs for some of their citizens. Phoenix and Tucson have indicated that citizen training in the ICMA project helped spur further citizen participation in identifying issues and themes expected to lead to citizen-influenced performance indicators.
Committees participate effectively in development of the QLIs.
The University of Dayton is continuing to work with the Priority Boards to develop uses of the QLIs. In June 1997, citizens of both Dayton and Montclair were brought together in a special weekend training session organized by Rutgers, with the participation of the University of Dayton. Each year, NLI alumni sessions are also held, giving graduates of previous NLIs an opportunity to update their knowledge, as well as network with peers active in other sections of the City. Recently, when there was a high demand for diversity training, ONI organized a cooperative program with a local non-profit organization, and has made it widely available to citizen groups. In another example of developing citizen participation capacity, citizens in Arlington, Texas, received training from the University of Texas at Arlington in how to run their own focus groups.