Buried in the Des Moines leaders’ 100-page Capital Crossroads strategic vision plan is a little word that can make a big difference when it comes to building and improving a community: Civility.

Without it, America’s Founding Fathers would not have been able to come to any conclusions or action, said Scott Raecker, executive director with Character Counts in Iowa. Unfortunately, modern political discourse often lacks civility. “At some point, and it was helped along by the 24/7 media cycle – especially during political campaigns – (civility) got lost,” he said.

But even before the five-year vision plan was compiled, Character Counts in Iowa, the Community Foundation of Greater Des Moines, the Interfaith Alliance of Iowa and Drake University joined two years ago to kick-start a civility campaign, Raeker said. The groups hosted a series of speakers to build awareness and community support, he said.

Now, with Capital Crossroads behind them, they are enlisting the help of Drake University students to help them formulate a plan and set a tone for how Central Iowans should work with one another.

About 40 seniors studying public relations will work on the project during the fall and spring semesters, Raecker said. During the fall, the students will conduct research and hold focus groups, and the spring semester will be used to formulate a plan of action and present their findings to the four partnering organizations, giving details on concrete marketing and programming initiatives. “We know very solid research will come out of this and a clear direction will come out,” Raecker said.

He said limited funds motivated the groups to use Drake students, but having young people involved is also important.

Raecker said the consulting firm that put together the plan noted that Greater Des Moines understands how the decline in civil discourse can negatively affect change. Additionally, the fact that a civility initiative is listed alongside developing leaders and increasing diversity in the vision plan’s section on Social Capital shows how important it is, he said.

“We have to have conversations that can be difficult, but we still need to solve them,” he said. “We won’t move forward without civility.”