Transcript Building Civic Capacity, Engagement, and Action

Community Participation,
Civic Capacity & Neighborhood
Identity
Findings from Focus Groups and Written Elicitations
ANDRESS & Associates, LLC
Bridging the Health Gap
April 3, 2008
Commissioned by
The Center for Health Equity,
Louisville Metro Department of Public Health & Wellness
PURPOSE OF COMMISSION
• A social marketing campaign
• Increase the community participation of
West Louisville residents by …………..
– Reducing the barriers and,
– Highlighting the benefits according to
– The specific needs, values, beliefs,
practices and interests of the
residents.
Investigative Framework
1. To improve health and reduce health inequities requires changes in
public policy and the arrangements in society that support inequality.
2. If residents of the City [State, Nation] understand and support policy
goals, change and progress are more likely.
3. To change policies and societal arrangements that support inequality
communities must have the capacity to engage civically.
4. We currently have group differences in the civic capacity of some
communities and sectors, i.e., corporations, high income vs. low
income communities, etc.
5. How does neighborhood identity shape civic capacity?
6. How does neighborhood identity shape policy responses?
7. How do we rectify imbalances in civic participation and civic power?
How Does this Affect
Health?
Policies that Reduce
Availability of
Affordable Quality
Housing
Government
Policies
Policies that Reduce
Availability of
Financial Resources
Stress Associated
With Income and
Housing Insecurity
Direct Material
Effects of Poor
Quality
Housing
Direct Material
Effects of
Income
Health Status:
Increased Morbidity
and Mortality
Strategy and Research
• Part One
– Exploring current “landscape” of public
understanding (focus groups, written elicitations)
• Part Two
– Message development (new “lenses” on the issue
- explanations in particular)
– Message testing - evaluating effectiveness
(online, and in-person
METHODS
• Focus groups
– Six groups
– 2 hours
– Incentive $50
– Videotaped, audio taped, transcript
– Pre-Screened
– Focus Group questionnaire
• Written elicitations
• Looking for shared thinking patterns, e.g.:
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Links between topics
Topics that are not thought about
Ideas that seem important
Differences between how we want people to think and
what they think
FORMAT & SUBJECTS
• 1 group of young adults
– Ages 18-24 African American
• 1 group from Northeast
Christian
– Adults
• 1 group from St. Stephen’s
– Adults
• 1 group of adults from Portland
– White
• 2 groups of adults from W.
Louisville
– African American
– Low income
– Middle income
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Homeowners
Low Income
N.E. Christian
Portland
St. Stephen’s
Youth 18-24
8
7
6
5
6
3
SUBJECTS
• Ages
– 18-24 three
– 30-50 fourteen
– > 50 eighteen
• Gender
– Female 19
– Male 16
• Home ownership
– Own
19
– Homeless
1
– Rent
13
– Unknown
2
• Race
– African American
– White
– Hispanic
25
9
1
SUBJECTS
• Education Levels
– College graduate
– Graduate degree
– High school
– Professional degree
– Some college
– Unknown
6
5
15
1
6
2
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Income
> $75
$50-75
$35-50
$10-15
$15-20
$20-25
$25-35
3
4
6
2
2
4
6
Neighborhood identity:
People, time and place
Douglas Robertson, James Smyth and Ian McIntosh
A study of how neighborhood identity is formed and the implications
this may have for area renewal policies
published by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation.
March 12, 2008
http://www.jrf.org.uk/knowledge/findings/housing/2188.asp
Neighborhood Identity
Research Questions
• How is neighborhood identity formed?
– the implications for policies that seek to improve and enhance
neighborhoods and communities
• Why do revitalization policies often fail in their objectives?
• Do the reputations of communities– 'good' and 'bad' – persist or change
over time?
• How are these reputations established and understood by those from
within and outside particular places and what implications this has for
the identities of neighborhoods and the individuals who live in them?
• Do the most inspirational neighborhoods have a community focus or
sense of community among its residents?
• As people get richer, they move into a more individualized settings:
places where community is largely absent.
– The social networks and connections of these residents link to
a much wider social world, not merely the local neighborhood.
Neighborhood Identity
Findings
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Neighborhood identity is established at a very early stage of each neighborhood's history,
and is resilient to change.
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Identities are underpinned by social class and status – which is sometimes based on
historic male employment patterns – as well as physical characteristics, including housing
style, type and tenure.
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External perceptions of a neighborhood's identity were often stronger and more of a
caricature than those held by people who lived there.
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Family networks, friends and neighbors were given differing degrees of importance in
people's notions of what created a sense of community. However, their presence helped
sustain a sense of community and people's own sense of involvement within that
community.
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Community was constructed through familiar, everyday social interactions within various
localized settings, which were often enough to give people a powerful sense of
attachment and belonging.
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In each neighborhood, respondents interviewed for the study suggested notions of
community were declining in response to ever-increasing individualism.
There is evidence of internal
differentiation in each neighborhood
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Moderator: Does everybody live in west Louisville, or does someone live
outside of west Louisville?
Kf
Shively.
Moderator: Is that part of west Louisville?
Kf
I feel like it is.
Km
I'm considered west Louisville.
Moderator: Okay, good.
Kf
It's not in the zip code. I put yes on here.
Moderator: But west Louisville has several different zip codes.
Kf
They do.
Moderator:
P. what are you thinking?
Kf
You're going by neighborhoods, right?
Moderator: Yeah.
Kf
Okay, this is the Portland neighborhood.
Km
When you say west Louisville, it encompasses everything west
of 16th Street and I would say from at least Broadway north.
Km
Maybe farther south than Broadway.
Moderator: Yeah.
There is evidence of internal differentiation
in each neighborhood ………………….
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Kf
Km
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Kf
Km
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I thought it was Market.
That's Portland. Portland, I consider 16th to 35th, Market Street to the
river.
Right.
But those boundaries are in question.
Moderator: So the comments that you made earlier, were they specific to Portland or to
west Louisville?
Km
West Louisville mine was.
Kf
For me it's to west Louisville.
Moderator: Okay.
Kf
But I'm saying there is -- like you brought up the boundaries or
somebody did.
Kf
Well, west Louisville is home to me and part of Portland, to me, is west
Louisville. So I'm claiming loyalty and ownership for both, but since I
worked in Portland, I live so close to Portland I have a sense of being
part of both.
Km
I went to school at Shawnee.
Kf
Did you?
Km
So I have the same feeling -- 43rd and Market.
Kf
And I worked at J.B. Atkinson . . .
Kf
. . .and a lot of parents and a lot of the children going to Portland Plaza
and been there with some of the people there, so I feel close to many people there
as well. But I know there are people in the Portland area that feel more loyalty to
Portland and don't feel themselves necessarily a part of the bigger part of west
Louisville.
Neighborhood identity is established at a
very early stage of each neighborhood's
history, and is resilient to change.
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Kf
Some consider the quality of the homes. They base it on what
they've seen in the past, as far as what the houses and apartments or
whatever used to look like and the way they used to be treated.
Moderator: P. how do you feel about Portland?
Kf
I've only been here 5 years. I married into Portland.
Moderator: Somewhere else in Louisville before that?
Kf
Yes, over on the east side.
Kf
It's a big change.
Moderator:
…………. in what way?
Kf
Economically, services -- on and on and on..
Kf
Just totally the look.
Moderator: . . .more, less, better, worse, higher, lower?
Kf
Lower.
Moderator: Okay. Fewer service.
Kf
I hate to say slam.
Km
It's not a slam; it's honesty. That's just being honest.
Kf
That's true.
Moderator: So fewer services.
Kf
It's cleaner over on the other side too.
Km
It seems to matter more to the city officials that the east end is. .
Kf
Clean.
Neighborhood identity is established at a very
early stage of each neighborhood's history, and
is resilient to change.
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Moderator: Do you think the people in Portland see themselves as a tightly knit
community separate from west Louisville?
Kf
Yes.
Kf
I think so.
Kf
I think so.
Moderator: Why is that?
Kf
I think it has something to do with the history.
Kf
It was its own township.
Kf
Because it was here before Louisville.
Kf
Right.
Neighborhood identity is established at a
very early stage
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Kf
And it has a strong historical -- I mean because of a strong
history of being the town that grew up on the river and it was here first.
And if you look into its history, I think it maintains that it is a town in
itself. That's some of what I think it's about.
Kf
I think the original name was Portland town or Portland
township.
Kf
It was it's own place.
Km
It was a township.
Kf
Right. It was its own. . .
Km
It was annexed in 1802 by the city of Louisville.
Kf
Right.
Kf
And the people I've come to know and the families I've
come to know have a certain pride about that and a sense of loyalty
about that. They have a museum and everything. . .
Kf
Newspaper.
Kf
Yes, their own newspaper.
Km
It's the oldest neighborhood newspaper in the country.
Let's start out with a really simple question about
what you like about west Louisville. What do you
find attractive about it. Simply why do you live and
stay here?
• Identities are underpinned by physical characteristics,
including housing style, type and tenure.
• Family networks, friends and neighbors were given
differing degrees of importance in people's notions of what
created a sense of community.
– But their presence helps sustain a sense of
community and people's own sense of involvement
within that community.
• Community was constructed through familiar, everyday
social interactions within various localized settings, which
were often enough to give people a powerful sense of
attachment and belonging.
Physical characteristics, including housing style, type and
tenure, Family networks, friends and neighbors,
Community was constructed through familiar, everyday social
interactions
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Kf
I like the homes. It's the older homes, the style. It's a lot of
character in west Louisville. ….. It's what I remember as a child
growing up …….
Kf
I mean it's a beautiful area. I love the big homes in this area.
I love the yard, the land around it. The bus routes are beautiful. You
walk out the door and bang, you're on a bus ………. That's it.
Everything else is well convenient to me.
Km
Being born here, growing up in west Louisville, met a girl in
west Louisville. Raised my kids in west Louisville.
Physical characteristics, including housing style, type and
tenure, Family networks, friends and neighbors,
Community was constructed through familiar, everyday social
interactions
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Kf
I told you I live(d) in Fern Creek. It's just so different out there. I went to visit a
friend and we sat down and started talking. It was daylight when I went over. I
stayed a long, long time. When I got home, my apartment had been closed up; my
lights was off. I had a bird in the cage outside. He was in there. One of my
neighbors watches everything. They felt that I had fallen down because they
knocked on my door to tell me it's time to take the bird in because it was getting kind
of cool. Then because I didn't answer, they called the police. The police were at my
house to see if I had fallen or anything had happened. They took care of my house.
They shut the doors; they turned off the lights, and took the bird in and put it in. That
wouldn't have happened in the west end.
Kf
What I'm trying to say like in Fern Creek -- in the west end people are closer
knit. They talk to each other; they communicate with each other. In Fern Creek,
they're not going to come to your house and sit every day and watch TV and
[inaudible] this and that. You know they are going to speak to you on the way in,
speak to you on the way out. But if anything goes wrong, they know who belongs in
your household. They know and that's the way they take care of you. But in the
west end, it's like everybody is a family. You can come to my house; I can go to your
house. We take care of each other like that, but they're not -- as far as if I was sick
or something, maybe somebody would say well, her boyfriend be there pretty soon.
Well just wait. Don't go in there. They wouldn't have came like they did right johnny
on the spot to see what's going on.
Physical characteristics, including housing style, type and
tenure, Family networks, friends and neighbors,
Community was constructed through familiar, everyday social
interactions
• Moderator: That must mean you like it a lot. Can you say why?
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Km
That's all I know.
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Km
. . .and church is west Louisville.
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Kf
You can't find a better place. I know with my daughter,
they lived out in Chamber Lane, way out Jefferson [inaudible]
way out there. When they go on vacation I will go out there
and watch the kids. Yet, I'd have to come into work every day.
I hated it. The traffic, getting back and forth ………………...
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Km
I think there is probably a certain degree of
socialization, too, because as A. was saying it is the comfort.
I obviously turn to birds of a feather, you know. If you live in
the west end; he lives in the west end. They look like me. I
want to be where other people look like me.
Identities are underpinned by social class and status –
which is sometimes based on historic male
employment patterns –physical characteristics
• Moderator: Anybody else about why people won't come out and
participate?
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Km
I'd like to offer that if you are going to have participation,
you need strong support within. -- I'm not being chauvinistic but you
have to have strong males in your community who have some
representation over and beyond not just living in a community -- where
they're going to come and speak out. Because people will look and say
okay, here's men and women, not just women, not just children but
you've got a collection. You've got men and women, which is a strong
representation, and from that you can build. The situation in west
Louisville is, and I found this through canvassing during election -- and I
talked with a number of men. They couldn't vote. They said brother, I
wish I could vote, but I'm a convicted felon. So without having proper
statistics I can see a number of men in west Louisville have records, or
they may have something else. They may want to keep a low profile.
Identities are underpinned by social class and status –
which is sometimes based on historic male
employment patterns –physical characteristics
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Km
Sometimes the members of the community
can't help what happens. Where I grew up -- since
that time, since I've been away all the industries have
moved out, and the complete town has deteriorated
to the point that I don't want to go there. It makes me
sick to see that nice house I lived in with the gutters
falling down and unpainted, and the roof is still the
same roof it was 65 years ago. The industries all
moved out and the people there really had no say
about if they wanted us to continue to live there.
White male
External perceptions of a neighborhood's identity were often
stronger and more of a caricature than those held by people
who lived there.
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Moderator:
about
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Kf
I think they think it is violent, because I have some friends that
are Haitians. They
drive cabs and they are scared to come down here to
west Louisville.
Kf
I don't see where it is no “worser” than anywhere else.
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What do you think people who are outside of west Louisville think
this part of this city?
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Km
………….if something happens in Shively, but you say you live in
west Louisville -- but if something happens out in Shively, they are going to say
west Louisville. If something happens over in Portland, they are going to say
west Louisville. If something happens at Jewish Hospital, that area up there,
they are going to say west Louisville. That far up is east end.
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Km
I think it goes back to the fact, Custer would have been great if
the Indians told the story. But it depends on what . . .
Kf
Who is telling the story.
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Kf
We're not represented to the media. We're not really
represented.
Neighborhood Identity & Policy
• Kf
Planes flying over west Louisville and we had the greatest
turn out when we had a neighborhood meeting about it. We had the
greatest turn out of all the places that they went in Louisville and we still
did that. So you feel just like when you have an interstate or a freeway,
that the lower income neighborhoods no matter what they say, they're
going to do what they're going to do. But the rich suburban
neighborhoods, if they raise up a stink, then yeah they'll go around
them and leave them alone.
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Km
People feel because it's the west end it ain't going to
change because it's where we live at they already have stereotyped us
as where all the crime is. It ain't going to change. Even if I participate,
ain't nothing going to happen. … I do remember about a year or two
ago when there was a big issue about pot holes in the city and getting
them fixed. They were showing how the mayor was fixing pot holes,
but he was fixing them out in the county. There was nothing down here
getting fixed. It's still the same.
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Kf
Cleaning the streets when there is all that snow.
Snowbound. Couldn't even get out.
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Km
Make it look like there is something big happening, but
again it's the west end. It doesn't matter. The pot holes down there
ain't the same.
Goals Civic Engagement
– Mobilize residents to become civically
engaged
• Identify issues
• Examine issues
• Ask questions
• Organize
• Take action
• Be responsible for what they can control
Our Desire: Community
Participation
Community
Participation
Increased capacity to:
1. Make choices;
2. Transform those choices into desired
actions and outcomes;
3. Build individual and collective assets;
4. Improve the efficiency and fairness of the
organizational and institutional context
that controls the use of these assets;(4)
5. Participate in, negotiate with, influence,
control, and hold accountable institutions
that affect their lives (5).
4) What is empowerment? The World Bank, 2005,
(http://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/TOPICS/EXTPOVERTY/EXTEMPOWERM
ENT/0, content accessed 30 November 2005).
5) Narayan D. Empowerment and poverty reduction: a sourcebook. Washington, World Bank,
2002.
Actual Interpretation: Community
Participation
People assume a different meaning: Acts of Charity
CHURCH
Community
Participation
COMMUNITY
SERVCE
REPAYMENTGIVE BACK
DO IT OURSELVES
A Limited Lens
Community
Participation
Church
Repayment-Giving Back
Community Service
Do It Ourselves
Kf: Working together and using each other for support instead of having to go
outside of our area…….We can come together…….
Kf: ..keeping the streets cleaned together and looking out for the senior citizens.
Make sure nobody goes hungry in your area. Stuff like that.
Kf: They volunteer in little soup kitchens that they have around here. Give the
church members a little break. Check in on other people. Check in on other
people who live alone.
Km: Mine is really more about church participation. If it wasn’t for my church, I
don’t think I’d probably do too much socializing.
Km: I do pretty much what my father used to do. He was a career Army man and
when he was in the community he was a father to a lot of boys who didn’t have
fathers. He insisted on people doing the right thing.
A Limited Lens
Community
Participation
Do it Yourself
Church
Giving Back
Community Service
Kf: Really looking to see what the needs are and the others around you.
Kf And then doing what you can to help your neighbor. I think we're just all quick
to go well, somebody should do something about that.
Kf Well, the only thing I think is that my participation as far as community would
be through the church.
Kf:
My community we do have a block watch and we meet every first
Thursday of each month and it does entail what goes around in our
surrounding area and beyond……..we are our own eyes because the
policemen can’t see and do everything…….. if we see crime we report it.
You can remain anonymous.
Km:
The issue that would make me turn out is getting more control over
these police officers, especially the white ones.
Note: Issue vs. Service
A Limited Lens
Community
Participation
Do it Yourself
Community Service
Church
Give Back
Kf:
Being on Portland Now; doing other activities: your neighborhood house,
library, the Portland festival, on and on and on.
Kf
I see community involvement where you have people connecting with
other people, networking, internet connecting and just helping each other to
fulfill the needs of the community……………
Km
It's just doing it, you know, and holding ourselves accountable. If
everyone is accountable for their own family and their own well-being, it
serves to provide a strong base. We're just not accountable as a whole. If
you don't want to raise you kids, you can just drop them off at the
neighborhood house, or you can drop them off at one of these social
services…...
Kf
My community participation looks like nothing, but it was spent in lots of
years in the classroom and working with children that were non-readers, and
working as a volunteer at Plymouth Community House.
Opportunities
Community
Participation
Civic Activism
Q: Is there a difference between acts of charity and assistance and
organizing to address an issue?
Km
I'd say it's the same.
Km I would say the same. You're active.
Km If you asked me what an activist was I would say it would be
an initiator as opposed to a follower.
Km Community participation, if I asked you to vote and you vote,
you participated. If you're an activist, you'd probably ask me to
vote. You initiate it.
Opportunities
Community
Participation
Civic Activism
Kf
I think it's ongoing with the -- it's ongoing. You're constantly doing it.
But if you are just participating, it is just because something is flying
through right now and you're going to do it and go on about your way.
Versus this is what you breathe; this is what you live for; this is something
that you truly . . .
Kf
Have a passion.
Kf
Exactly. Have a passion for.
Kf
I think it is a cross between both.
Km It sounds like to me that in one sense people are being given things
or being offered things are being helped. In another sense, people are
helping themselves. They're taking some type of incentive to stand up and
create their own type of structure or representation. That's what I see from
that.
Opportunities
Community Participation
Civic Activism
Km Activism, I think, is something that is pro-active. Going forward to do
something rather than just participating. We all are participating here but are
there any activists here? Activism is an act of doing something a little above and
beyond.
Kf
I think it's more like doing something about what you are talking about.
People can talk but it's not going to work. [inaudible] go hit on his door.
Kf
Acting out.
Kf
I don't think you can be called an activist unless you are engaging the
political system. You have to engage them and so I believe --- community
participation, I think, is the big umbrella and under that is activism where the
people who are really political go to town.
Km Yes. Activism means -- coming from a philosophical base, I believe that
we ought to have good schools. I believe we ought to have garbage pickup on a
regular basis and alleys ought to be clean. An activist like the ACORN
organization, they're an activist organization. They challenge the establishment
and they take action steps to get things done. That's activism. Just like in the
60s when everybody was protesting and moving the system toward a certain
goal. That's activism. Community participation is Block Watch and keeping the
neighborhood clean, and benign stuff that is good for everybody.
Do It Yourself- Community Service
Where does it come from?
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American emphasis on Individualism, Personal Responsibility
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Asking Government to perform –be accountable- is equated with “depending” on
government.
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My thing with community participation is most of us don't. I mean most of us don't
serve our neighbor or serve the people in the our community. If we would do that, we
wouldn't need as many government policies and regulations to take care of that.
We're all created to serve one another and if we did that, we wouldn't need -- I think
we've created a society of people looking for the government or somebody else to
take care of their needs, instead of coming together as a community and doing that
within”.
Older white male
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– We can't just sit around waiting for government to solve some of these intractable
social problems that we've had for years. Government has a role to play. It is time for
all of us to live up more fully to the concept of citizenship. And for those of us who as
citizens of this nation have been blessed with treasure, and wealth, and good position,
and comfortable homes, and all the blessings of this land, to be a good citizen, to be a
big citizen, requires you to do more in the way of sharing with those who are in need.
So that a family that has three wonderful children ought to try to see if they could find
three hours a week to share that life with a kid in need who doesn't have a mentor,
who doesn't get to play in Little League and do the other things that we take for
granted. Somebody in that family who might go tutor a school on an afternoon off
from a job, and we're encouraging corporations to give them that afternoon off. And so
that's what we mean by big citizenship. Colin Powell
Do It Yourself- Community Service
Where does it come from?
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Km
I've been 7 or 8 times to New Orleans since Katrina hit, and the
communities that the people in that community that get active and actively pursue
building their community back are back and flourishing well. The people that are
just sitting back on their laurels waiting for somebody to take care of it for them, are
still in the same shape, pretty much, as when the hurricane hit. And it's the same
thing in our area. I don't care what part of the city you go to, people that are
actively participating and getting out there -- somebody will come along beside
them and they'll make an effort, in my opinion. That's just my opinion. And I see
that in about everything that I try to do.
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Moderator:
Okay. What's the difference between communities that are active,
they participate and communities that don't?
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Kf
I think when you have a community that cares, the people are
observant of what is going on around and noticing things; whereas if you've got a
community that just kind of stays to themselves and doesn't care about what their
neighbor is doing. If you've got a neighbor that can't just something as simple as
paint the outside of their house, then their house starts not looking as nice. And if
you've got a community that cares, people can chip in and help.
“Right Choices” in the News
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Media “tells the story” through choice of stories, language, images, etc
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Rugged independence stories
– Disasters
– Katrina vs. California Fires
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GetKarma.org
– The universal system of checks and balances- what goes around
comes around…..
– The Ad Council launched the “Get Good Karma” campaign in April
2007 with the Federal Voting Assistance Program.
– Targets 18-24 year olds- the largest non voting segment in the U.S.
• Help your neighbor, country, world
• Smallest efforts can have far reaching effects-volunteering,
registering to vote
Opportunities
Approaches with the potential to bring about a shift
in thinking………..
•Civic Engagement
•Civic Organizing
•Civic Activism
•Civic Accountability
Recommendations So Far
• Don’t over do community participation frame
• Need an ongoing effort –both the campaign and
opportunities for action
• Need a new message
– Civics………….
– Self interest
– Passion
– Demonstrate victories with the civic activism
Recommendations So Far
• Target different groups differently
– Youth-
• Start early-grade school
• Fear of standing out
– External audiences- history & policy connection
– Adults internal
• Spokespeople--Local, recognizable not necessarily
well known
– Different communications methods
• Texting, my space, internet
• Billboards
Next Steps
Test New Narratives
Create Campaign
Evaluate
Message Development
Message Testing
ANDRESS & Associates, LLC
Bridging the Health Gap
www.bridgingthehealthgap.com
Focus Group Questions
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What do you like most about W. Louisville and why?
What do you like least about w. Louisville and why?
What do you think people outside W. Louisville think about this part of town and why do they
think that?
What do you think community participation means?
Is advocacy different from community participation?
Is activism different or the same?
What do people who participate in their community do? Probe examples: a block watch,
voting, attending a school meeting, trash pick-up.
Have you ever been asked to get involved in the community? By whom and for what?
Can participating make a difference? How? Any examples? [probing internalized racism and
powerlessness]
Why do you think people participate in their community? What kinds of people participate in
their community? Describe their characteristics.
Have you ever decided to participate or not to participate in some community action? Why did
you participate or not participate?
When you look back on the times you decided not to participate in a community issue, activity,
meeting, or project what were the consequences?
What would make you participate in a community effort? Probe systems such as
neighborhood meetings, church based meetings, government or university projects [Is it who
does the inviting and relationships?], locations, what days and the time of day [convenience?],
certain issues like violence, liquor stores, etc [self- interests].
How is community participation different or the same for people in west Louisville in
comparison to other parts of the city or county? Why?
Who would make good spokespeople for a campaign to increase community participation in
west Louisville? Who would people pay attention to and believe?
Building Civic Capacity,
Engagement, and Action
Civic Capacity Building
 Strengthens the ability of community
organizations and groups
– Build their knowledge, structures, systems,
people and skills so they are better able to
define and achieve their objectives
 Training, education, resource identification
and resource building, organizational and
personal development
 Promotes sustainability and strengthens
internal and external -bridging and linking
social capital
MEASURING CIVIC
CAPACITY
•
•
•
•
Political Efficacy
Social Cohesion
Social Capital
Collective Self Efficacy
What are We Dealing With?
• Many of the inequalities in health- are due to
inequalities in the social conditions in which
people live and work.
–
Valentine, et. al, PloS Medicine 2006; 3(6): e106. TH commission on the Social Determinants of Health
• Tackling these conditions- social determinants
health- underlying causes of poor health can
contribute to improving health and health equity.
Central Questions?
•
•
•
•
Why are you civically active?
Why are you not civically active?
What is your view of west Louisville?
What issues concern you?
– Parameters for this discussion
• Local economy
• Neighborhoods
• Your family
• Jobs, wages
• Educational opportunities
What Ideas or Theories
Do We Want To Explore?
What are their views of West Louisville?
What Issues concern them?
Why do they participate or not
participate?
Why Do Individuals Elect Not
To Participate?
 Because They Can’t……
– Legal restrictions
• Intimidation, fear, road blocks
– System makes participation/voting difficult
• Internalized powerlessness or racism
 Because They Don’t Want to…
– Will this do any good?
• Is this effective in achieving economic or non-economic benefits?
• Self-interest
• Is there a perceived benefit?
– Can I trust the people in power?
– Attitude influences participation
 Because Nobody Asked
– Mobilization Theory- participation is based on contextual cues and political
opportunities in the environment of the individual- media messages,
campaign spending, conversations with friends/neighbors, etc.
– Participation influences political attitude, efficacy, and sophistication
–
–
Mobilization mediates the effects of SES and attitudes on participation.
Mobilization accounts for approximately half of the decline in voter turnout since
1960.
Sidney Verba, Kay L. Schlozman, Henry Brady and Norman Nie, “Resources and Political Participation,” paper prepared for the
1991 annual meetings of the American Political Science Association
Expected Outcomes
 A report:
How people in west Louisville think about civic
participation [in comparison to…..]
A look at the issues that concern them
How they think about west Louisville
Recommended messages and activities
Preliminary ideas for a communication strategy
Preliminary ideas for evaluation
Be prepared to grow, change, and make midcourse
corrections based on our observations.
Recruitment
How & Who?
• 1 group of young adults
– Ages 18-24 African American
• 1 group of adults from Portland
– White
• 2 groups of adults from W. Louisville
– African American
– Low income
– Middle income
Deliberation
• An exchange of views
– What is my position and experience on this?
• Jointly digesting and reflecting on information, facts
• Dialogue
– Reflect on common good
– Offer reasons why others should change their
minds
• May be unable to find a common position
• Only if worldviews are incompatible
• And reasonable
THEORY
Old Theory
SES Model
Attitudes
Behavior
Resources-time, money, skills
Political Action
New Theory and Ideas
Mobilization Model
•The quality and type of participation affects another kind of participation
•SES still affects action & behaviors but we now know that ….
Participation
Mobilization
Political Attitudes & Efficacy
•Mobilization mediates the effects of SES and attitudes on participation.
•Mobilization accounts for approximately half of the decline in voter turnout since
1960.
THEORY (cont’d)
Participation
Deliberative
Discussions
Civic
Engagement
Agency
A Voice
Both externally and internally driven
Attitudes, resources – time, money skills- mobilization,
informal political discussion, etc.
Not simply voting –consider context,
kinds of actions, over what period of time
and constraints….may be organizing,
mobilizing for collective action…
Leighley, J. Attitudes, Opportunities and Incentives: A Field Essay on Political Participation, Political Research Quarterly, Vol. 48, No. 1 Mar.
1995, 181-209.
Building Civic Capacity
 Teach and demonstrate the importance of democratic
practices at the community level
 Premise: people--citizens of their own communities, can and
must be the driving force and the principal agents of change
for social justice and democratic practices
 Method:
– Format: Issue-driven
– Basis: Social change discourse & deliberation
– Community Dialogues- meetings, selected readings, deliberation,
critical thinking, scenario driven role-playing
 Evaluation- longitudinal, data-driven, with a control group
[maybe] to measure social change practices, actions, and
participation
Civic Capacity Building
 Community competence
–
Confront its own problems
 Strengthens the ability of community
organizations and groups
–
Build their knowledge, structures,
systems, people and skills so they are
better able to define and achieve their
objectives
 Training, education, resource identification
and resource building, organizational and
personal development
 Promotes sustainability and strengthens
social capital
Social Capital As a Process
Towards Community Practice
 Connections among individuals, other
communities, the government
– Intercommunity
– Intra-community
– structural
– cognitive
 One person may possess social capital
but it doesn’t take place unless there is
more than one person.
 Channels of communication with a
large number of people both inside and
outside a community.
Connect the Dots
Down Stream--------------------------Up Stream
Diabetes
Obesity
Lung Cancer
Infant Mortality
A Message
Behavioral Risk Factors
Lifestyle
Do We Care About
What They Care About?
Relationships
Public Policy Process
Self-Interests
Structural Change
Rational Public Policy Process
 Problem Identification
 Gain Agenda Status
 Policy Formulation, adoption, funding
 Policy Implementation
 Policy Evaluation Adjustment, Termination
Goals, Objectives & Theory
 To increase civic engagement – collective action and
mobilization- at the community level through the use of
dialogue, deliberation, and action.
• Redefine the factors that determine civic
participation- attitudes, SES.
• Broaden the outcomes of civic
engagement beyond simply voting.
• Motivate citizens to engage in dialogue,
group will-making and collective action
resulting in social change.