Just as it has since its inception, the National Civic League continues to serve as a catalyst and convener of nationwide initiatives to meet the difficult challenges facing America's communities.

In addition to maintaining a national network and sharing news of cutting-edge approaches to community problem solving, the National Civic League works directly with communities though the Community Services Program. This program provides professional technical assistance to communities that need help in bringing diverse constituencies together to solve common problems. NCL facilitators help bridge the sometimes serious gap between elected and appointed local government officials and community leaders through an array of services including conflict resolution, strategic planning, program implementation, performance measurement, charter reform, and diversity training.

The New Politics Program recognizes and promotes innovative political reforms implemented across the country at the state and local level. The first project for the New Politics Program was to study local campaign finance reform legislation. From this study, the program developed a menu of model campaign finance reform measures and began working directly in communities to catalyze the discussion for political reform by providing facilitation and education. Since this time, the New Politics Program has expanded the scope of its work and begun to focus on other approaches to increasing citizen engagement in the political process. Recent projects include work on candidate codes of conduct, revision of the National Civic League's Model City Charter, use of technology by local governments, and local government regulation of elected officials through ethics and lobbying legislation.

In the Spring of 2002, because of NCL's success working with comprehensive, collaborative driven, multi-year, multi-stakeholder national demonstrations, The Federal-Community Partnerships program was established. The Federal-Community partnerships program serves as an invaluable resource to communities participating in federal, state, or local partnerships. Acting as an intermediary, FCP is able to provide high quality services to communities, while brokering the often complex relationships that exist within these partnerships. FCP staff is equipped with the skills necessary to build strong relationships, understand theory and translate it to diverse audiences, and recognize the contextual framework in which partnerships operate. FCP accomplishes the broader mission of the National Civic League by facilitating stronger democratic processes between multiple diverse stakeholders through the promotion of stronger collaborative efforts, better service integration, and the essential systems reform groundwork to sustain these processes. Federal-Community Partnerships staff are currently working on two national demonstration projects funded by the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention of the US Dept. of Justice.

Since the release of its first conference proceedings in 1894, the National Civic League has relied on publications as a principal means of outreach and education. Over the years, the NCL Press has published numerous manuals for local governance and administrative reform, including the Model City Charter, the Handbook for Council Members, the Guide for Charter Commissions, the Handbook for Strategic Planning and Visioning, and the Civic Index: Measuring Your Community's Civic Health, and continues to publish and distribute resource materials on a wide variety of topics. In addition, for 90 years, NCL's quarterly journal, the National Civic Review, has provided thoughtful commentary and discussion on issues affecting citizen involvement in government and community problem solving.