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Community and Local Government Dashboard Template

City of Fort Collins Community Performance Measurement Dashboard home page with the city manager's welcome and outcomes list

Community and local government dashboard templates allow local governments to share their performance and progress with residents.

Community and local government dashboard templates offer a framework for local governments to share the progress of their strategic plan with residents and other stakeholders. In doing so, these government dashboards increase transparency and open the lines of communication between governments and the communities they serve.

City and county dashboards often highlight their strategic goals and allow residents to drill down to learn more about the initiatives the city is undertaking to reach these goals. These dashboards often also display metrics that track the government's progress toward achieving its goals. ClearPoint's dashboards allow viewers to select their preferred language when viewing the dashboard, making it even more accessible.In the example below from the City of Fort Collins community dashboard, the City lists its seven outcomes, from Neighborhood and Community Vitality to High Performing Government. Residents can click into each outcome, such as Safe Community shown below, to see the measures linked to it.

Goal Overview

Fort Collins Safe Community Performance Metrics page listing each measure with an explanation, actual, target and quarterly result

Within Safe Community, residents see each measure with a plain-language explanation, the actual, the target and a color-coded result for the latest quarter. Average Response Time to Police Priority 1 Calls, for example, explains which calls count as Priority 1 and when the clock starts and stops.

Drilling Down on Measure Details

Germantown fire loss measure with a yearly chart against target and Description, Analysis and Impact notes

Some dashboards give each measure a detail page. On the City of Germantown’s fire protection page, residents see a chart of each measure against its target by calendar year, then a description of how the measure is calculated, an analysis of what the numbers reflect and a note on how much impact the City has on the result. Beyond the quantitative progress, residents understand why the measure is tracked and how it affects them. This qualitative context creates more informed residents.

Scorecard Overview

The Fort Collins dashboard home page works as the scorecard at a glance: every outcome is listed with its latest quarter and a color-coded result, the date it was last updated, and links to reports, budget information and a feedback form.

Key Elements for Community and Local Government Dashboard Templates

A summary of the community or local government’s key strategic goals and measures: A summary of the community or local government’s key strategic goals and measures provides a high-level overview of the organization’s strategic plan. This gives residents a snapshot of the status of different initiatives within the community.
An update on the community’s progress toward goals: An update on the community’s progress toward goals is necessary to keep the strategic plan moving forward. It is crucial that local governments continue to assess their goals throughout the process, adapt, and make changes where needed. Furthermore, local governments want their residents and other stakeholders to be continually updated through the execution of their strategic plan.
Visual status updates on the community or local government’s ongoing initiatives: Visual status updates are a useful tool to display data easily and efficiently to your stakeholders. Most residents prefer to view visual updates on the progress of initiatives, rather than a long report. Due to this, using visuals helps to increase engagement and participation from your stakeholders throughout the implementation of your strategic plan.

Intended Audience

This dashboard is intended to be viewed by residents of your local government. Residents can utilize this dashboard to remain informed on the progress of their local government’s strategic plan. This gives them the ability make educated decisions regarding different initiatives and enables them to have more of a voice within their local government.