CGI - Common Ground Index

The creation of the Common Ground Index (CGI) is a necessary means of bridging the gap between the resources individuals need most in any given community and those with enough power to organize or provide. In an attempt to hone complex national, communal, and culturally specific challenges, three main sticking points emerged: the trust deficit, the existing lack of reciprocal communities, and the lack of valuation for third spaces as vital public infrastructure. Firstly, the trust deficit is not allowing ‘at-risk’ communities to feel safe to enter mixed company spaces. As queer people, immigrants, disabled people and so many more identities are feeling ever targeted, it can be difficult to trust facilitators and those with authority; beyond this, it is even difficult to trust one’s own communities and neighbors, especially at locations where one must be vulnerable to interact. Secondly, many communities and communal spaces in existence now have been completely gentrified, in that those who run and fund the spaces are not of the community themselves. And when there is a lack of representative leadership and reciprocal interactions within the space, common ground disintegrates and hierarchy leeches in. The third and final primary challenge we seek to address is how these hierarchical powers, which find themselves in every nook and cranny of society, have promoted the narrative that third spaces—funding and tracking them—do not do much for the public good, and this is fundamentally false.

The proposal for the CGI works to combat these challenges using data gathered from existing and emerging communal spaces. Local and national governments globally will be able to use CGI to gain a better understanding of the needs of their people and how to best address those “deficits”. The criteria for the index will be regionally specific. However, cross-culturally it will assess hard data like demographics alongside ‘soft-data’ such as impact as compared to other data points in the area (such as crime, abortion, and illness rates.) and the level of access the area has to related resources (such as reproductive clinics, elder support, and food banks). Self-volunteered success stories, failures, and suggestions will also play an important role in getting feedback because they will allow organizers to be responsive to the immediate needs of their community. The data will be presented through two visual charts. One will be a red to green color-coded rating system assessing how many resources there are and comparing them to how accessible and how often they are utilized. Next, the areas assessed will be scaled from “non-existent” to “excellent”. Additionally, the use of responsive radar mapping will assist in creating an easily interpretable graphic for the public. Beyond the local, the government too can utilize this data as a means for the allocation of funds and subsidies into the communities that need them most.

After its implementation, CGI will serve as an ongoing direct resource for top-down resource investment and for bottom-up mutual aid for many generations to come. Plus, schools and government-funded third spaces could be eligible for grants due to their successful community investment, and private businesses who fund and implement third spaces could be eligible for tax credits. By providing skeptical governments and businesses/investors from the private sector with hard data they can relate to, events and places which seem frivolous on paper are given the legitimacy they deserve. Increasing accessibility to resources, third spaces, and local political involvement have been proven to make for a safer, happier community, neighborhood, town, and country. This betterment leads to financial savings for the governing body, among many other benefits. The Common Ground Index will be successful because it burns both ends of the rope; it works to offer support for grassroots organizations and validation to existing communities, and acts as a bargaining chip to higher powers. This is achieved all while saving the government time and money, and preventing failure in their pursuit of democracy.