CoreTrust as a Civic Learning Tool: Community Capital for Inclusive Digital Governance

This paper explores CoreTrust as a civic learning tool that helps practitioners and educators make sense of complex community data through a community capital lens. The study examines how CoreTrust can turn existing data into a shared basis for discussion and decision-making. We drew on an ongoing pilot in Casa Grande, Arizona, using a qualitative design informed by participatory action research. Data includes planning documents, platform artifacts, and feedback from practitioners and educators. Findings indicate that CoreTrust supports a shift from vague notions of community “needs” to spatially grounded reasoning about trade-offs across sustainability assets. The pilot also shows how practitioner feedback shapes design iterations and prepares the platform’s deliberative components for future citizen use.