Local Government Citizen Academies: Exploratory Study of Academies in the Cincinnati, Ohio Region

With the increased amount of misinformation about local governments and a decline in public trust of political institutions, citizen academies are a tool for local governments to combat these trends. However, there is very little research in the public administration literature on these programs, specifically, how they operate and their goals for academy graduates. This study explores the purpose, program management, and government officials’ desired outcomes of citizen academies in the Cincinnati, Ohio region, through semi-structured interviews with organizers of the academies. Qualitative analysis was conducted and results from the interviews are presented with descriptive statistics. While transparency and better resident/government relations were the initial goal for setting up the academies, most local governments had the desired outcome of training residents to become advocates in the community in order to combat misinformation and distrust.