More about the Small Town America Civic Volunteer Award

Decline in Civic Volunteerism is a Growing Crisis in Small Town America

Every day, engaged citizens across America are volunteering their time and talents to support local organizations and municipalities. They do this without an expectation of a reward or recognition. This is particularly true in smaller communities and rural counties, where volunteerism has not only been welcomed, but has been essential to the delivery of key public services.

Today, however, “small town America” is facing a significant decline in the availability of civic volunteers to serve as local government board/committee member, firefighters, EMT personnel, library, parks and recreation support teams, and more. This emerging crisis threatens the very fabric of grassroots local government.

A National Program to Spotlight the Problem, Recognize Extraordinary Civic Volunteers

The Small Town America Civic Volunteer Award is was launched in 2020 to raise awareness of these major challenges, and recognize local “heroes” from across the country for their extraordinary service and creative efforts to retain and recruit public service volunteers in localities of 25,000 people or less. STACVA is being sponsored by CivicPlus.

“Over the past 20 years working with local governments, we have seen first-hand that the most successful cities, towns and counties are powered by passionate people who want to make a difference in the place they call home,” said CivicPlus CEO Brian Rempe.  “We are hoping to accomplish two critical goals with this initiative: bring attention to the need for more civic volunteerism, and recognize those who have found solutions to declining participation and are building powerful community networks focused on civic engagement”, Rempe added.