I don't know if you've seen the Government Assessment Portal (GAP) Newsletter yet, but I'd like to draw it to your attention because of the creative ways people are measuring government performance.
Articles in the newsletter include:
I'm a little late bringing you the update to this earlier article. However, better late than never -- and the data are interesting.
From The National Conference on Citizenship:
The National Conference on Citizenship's 2007 Annual Conference on October 4, 2007 released the nation's second Civic Health Index. The principal findings are based on a comprehensive national survey conducted by Harris Interactive and various government data sources.
Our new survey and data collected by the government suggest that there has been no recovery in 2007. In fact, there is evidence of further decline in some indicators, such as trust in other people and levels of charitable contributions. We also know that some of the few hopeful signs we saw emerge after 9/11 and that continued for a number of years, such as a wave of volunteering particularly among young people, have now fallen back to earlier levels. Our civic stocks are low, which is unusual in a time of war.
A closer look, however, gives us a foundation from which to build. This year's report identifies three important points that complicate the story of decline and may stimulate constructive ideas for how to move forward to improve our civic life.
Learn about these signs of hope and more inside this year's Civic Health Index.
The Corporation for National & Community Service has released its Volunteering in America: 2007 State Trends and Rankings in Civic Life (PDF document). The report "gives a detailed breakdown of America’s volunteering demographics, habits, and patterns by state and region. The 2007 report also provides the agency’s first-ever ranking of levels of civic engagement by state through a new Civic Life Index."
You'll want to look closely at the data sets around both volunteering and the other measures of civic participation and civic engagement. The site reports:
The section’s maps and tables include state level volunteer rates, volunteering rate changes, volunteer retention rate, and an index of civic life that includes voting, working within the community, and civic infrastructure. Volunteering among key demographic groups, such as older adults, Baby Boomers, young adults and college students, is also ranked. The volunteer rankings are based on three years of data in order to increase the reliability of the estimates and ensure more accurate comparisons across states.
For those who used to rely on the studies and surveys from Independent Sector to measure volunteer rates, this is a welcome addition to the data sources available. Independent Sector is still the primary source for the calculated dollar value of volunteer time, which is a useful number to use in your local community to calculate total dollar value of the volunteer services provided in the community. Independent Sector also links to other relevant studies on aspects such as philanthropic giving and the Bureau of Labor Statistics' volunteer rate estimates (PDF document).
If you have other data sources for volunteerism and civic engagement, please pass them on.
In 2001, the National Civic League invited Baltimore, Maryland; Charleston, South Carolina; Jacksonville, Florida; and Yampa Valley, Colorado, to participate in a project to enhance and measure the civic health of communities. The hope was to develop and track over time quantifiable indicators of civic vitality. Since I'm in Jacksonville, this is when I started to pay attention to civic indicators.
The results were mixed. Jacksonville developed a civic indicators report that outlined current and prospective indicators, and then incorporated some of those indicators into its annual Quality of Life Progress Report. Yampa Valley continues to track civic indicators as a separate section of its Community Indicators Project. The National Civic League published a handbook, which is no longer available on its website (unless I just didn't see it -- correct me if I'm wrong, please.)
Recently, however, two initiatives are raising the level of conversation much higher, and it's time all communities paid attention. The National Conference on Citizenship released its first national Civic Health Index at its annual conference in September 2006. And the Colorado Civic Canopy in February 2007 held a fascinating discussion on civic indicators that shows the art and science of measuring the civic health of a community is coming a long way.
Robert Putnam's work has added richness to this discussion as well, as has the work of a number of other folks I'm forgetting right now but I'm sure some of you will remind me of.
Data sets for your community are available here. Are you measuring the civic health of your community? Do you know someone who is? Can you share that information as we move the conversation forward?
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