Batten Survey Results Slideshow (21 Pgs)

A regional Civic Capital Assessment

Thank you, Jane P. Batten

The citizen leader who made this possible

Hampton Roads Civic Engagement Summit 2009

Batten Surveys


Purpose Democracy Matters

Citizens have responsibilities

Public officials have responsibilities

Communities are collectively responsible

What should we be doing? Working together to define our future Quality of Life

What will this get us? Regions with healthy civic capital – are more Economically Competitive

This project aimed to measure the present state of our civic health


Methodology To assess the civic health of Hampton Roads we looked at:

Civic values

Civic skills

Civic infrastructure

Representative survey of 1,997 adult residents across the sixteen cities and counties of Hampton Roads – The Batten Civic Health Survey

Focused interviews with four dozen regional civic leaders and elected officials – The Batten Interviews

Focused interviews with a dozen engaged youth – WHRO Center for Regional Citizenship


Assessing Our Region

Three Big Questions:

Are Citizens – elected officials, public servants, civic activists, and citizens generally – interested, willing, and ready for civic engagement?

Is the Information needed for civic engagement accessible, communicated and sought out?

Is there a good decision making Process in place? Do all the parties know what to do and when to do it?


Citizens

Interest in participating …citizens say

Strong majority are somewhat or very interested in working with others to solve regional issues

Very interested

26%

Somewhat

interested

43%

Not very

interested

18%

Not at all

interested

11%

Don't know

2%


Citizens

Participating…citizens say: Citizens are actively involved in their communities across a wide

spectrum of areas, but charity and religious participation stand out

Citizens take a wide variety of political actions Citizens are civically engage in a wide variety of ways, but

“discussion” and donations to charity and service stand out


Citizens

70

52

38

36

35

30

29

27

23

17

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100

Religion

Charity

Athletic/recrea

tion

Support

groups

Education

Arts & culture

Social

Public affairs

Work-related

Civic &

service clubs

% Participation - Last Twelve Months


Citizens

92

70

40

35

29

20

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100

Voted in any election

Visited municipal web site or TV channel

Showed support for candidate/issue

Contacted local govt to express opinion

Expressed opinion using online media

Attended local government meeting



Citizens

82

77

38

37

37

34

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100

Discussed issues with neighbors

Donated to charity/service

Worked with others to solve problems

Discussed issues with strangers

Attended neigborhood meeting

Donated to local politics cause



Citizens

Citizen’s Role…civic leaders say citizens should …

Educate themselves on the issues

Participate when invited

Let their views be known

Educate themselves

Participate (e.g. attend forums, online discussions)

Take action (e.g. letters to editor, email local and regional govt. and groups)

Create a regional advocacy group

Demand better civic engagement


Information

Information…citizens say:

Almost two-thirds follow news about local government and public affairs somewhat or very closely

Very closely on all

issues

26%

Somewhat closely

on all issues

37%

Mostly those of my

city/county

12%

Mostly those

affecting my life

and work

12%Don't pay

attention to

govt/public affairs

news

13%


Information

Information…citizens say:

Information is found in a wide variety of sources…but almost 40% say there is no reliable source or don’t know if there is a reliable source for information

13

26

13

1

1

1

2

4

6

6

11

17

0 5 10 15 20 25 30

Don't know if there are reliable sources

There are no reliable sources

Other/Don't know

Church/Bible/God

Civic groups

Radio

Personal contacts

Internet

Media (unspecified)

Government

Television

Newspaper

% Mentions


Information

Information…youth say:

Youth say internet is an easy source of information, but are skeptical of its reliability

Youth emphasize responsibility of individual in researching topic from multiple sources


Process

Yes

36%No

62%

Don't know

2%

Process…citizens say:

Two-thirds of citizens do not feel that their local government invites citizen input


ProcessProcess…citizens say:

Citizens have a moderate level of trust in local municipal employees, school boards, and television news, but are more tentative towards local newspapers and elected officials

5.63

5.65

5.84

6.11

6.34

6.50

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Elected state

representatives

Local elected

representatives

Local daily

newspaper

Local school board

Local television

news

Local government

employees

Low Trust High Trust


ProcessProcess…in open-ended

question citizens say:

Citizen say top regional priorities are economy, transportation, and education

6

23

1

1

1

1

2

2

4

10

21

28

0 5 10 15 20 25 30

Don't know

Other

Growth/sprawl

Healthcare

Racial reconciliation

Environment

Military jobs

Taxes

Crime

Education

Transportation

Economy

% Mentions


Process

Process…in open ended question civic leaders say:

Civic leaders say top regional issues are transportation, regionalism, the economy

Most Important Hampton Roads Regional Issues

TransportationRegionalismEconomyEducationInfrastructureCivic EngagementCompetivenessQuality of LifeEnvironmentWaterMilitary PresencePublic HealthTrust


Process

Process…youth say:

Youth say top regional issues are transportation, education, the economy

One engaged youth said transportation was the problem that could “unify” Hampton Roads…


What We FindThis study points to the following:

Disconnectedness…citizens say they don’t feel invited, civic leaders want citizens to participate more…

Paradoxes…we seem to agree on the major issues, and we seem to want to solve our regional problems - but we know that because of this study - what we lack is a means by which we come together as a region to work on these problems, together…

Opportunities…the civic capital of Hampton Roads is plentiful…our job is cultivate it


What We Hope For

We hope to begin a regional conversation about where we are, where we want to be, and what will be required to get there


Closing Thoughts, from our Youth

Batten Survey Results Slideshow (21 Pgs)

Documents

Transcript of Batten Survey Results Slideshow (21 Pgs)