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Historic Survey Measures Social Connections and Civic Involvement in Silicon Valley [Community Highlights] [Press Release] [Survey Highlights] [Report] Embargoed for Release
until 12:01 a.m. PST March 1, 2001 Peninsula Community Foundation and Community Foundation Silicon Valley have joined with the Saguaro Seminar at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University and colleagues in 40 communities around the country to measure how connected residents are to family, friends, neighbors and civic institutions on a local and national level. "The Social Capital Benchmark Survey represents the most comprehensive effort in history to measure the degree of 'social glue' that binds us together as communities," said Peter Hero, president of Community Foundation Silicon Valley. The survey measures everything from levels of giving blood, to hanging out with friends; from participating in various groups and associations to levels of trust; from participation in group arts and group sports to the diversity of friendship patterns. "We hope that the survey results stimulate discussion about where the fabric of our community appears strong and where it may need bolstering," said Sterling Speirn, Peninsula Community Foundation president. James L. Koch, director of the Center for Science, Technology, and Society (www.scu.edu/sts) and professor of management at Santa Clara University, served as academic advisor for the Social Capital Benchmark Survey. His report, "Building Community: Social Connections and Civic Involvement in Silicon Valley," which outlines preliminary findings revealed in the survey will be presented Tuesday, March 6 at a community forum at SCU. "This study is all about us. Wonderfully rich soil exists here in Silicon Valley for building a world class community, but some of the collective action challenges that we face will only be solved if we are able to develop new institutional and collaborative mechanisms to augment the traditional underpinnings of social cohesion, " said Jim Koch. " I am hopeful that this study will be a catalyst for such developments". Challenges indicated by the survey results include building community in a place where business and technology networks are strong, but the personal ties that bind us to each other and to our community are weak. Social capital is unevenly distributed across education and income in the Peninsula/Silicon Valley region. College-educated residents were more involved in formal organizations (37 percent with medium/high levels of involvement vs. 16 percent for those with high-school education or less) and had much higher levels of 'social trust' (44 percent were "high" vs. 14 percent for those with high-school education or less). Locally, residents
with household incomes of less than $30,000 participated in less informal
socializing than those with household incomes of $75,000 or more (18 percent
vs. 31 percent), had a less diverse network of friends (24 percent vs.
64 percent), and had a lower incidence of formal group ties (15 percent
vs. 36 percent). Similarly, connections increased as household income
increased. The survey shows that 45 percent of local residents say there are obstacles that keep them from getting involved in the community (vs. 47 percent nationally). Of these residents, 56 percent say "a demanding work schedule or inadequate child care" is a very important obstacle (vs. 47 percent nationally). While our social
ties and community engagement are weak, we tend to trust each other-including
people from other ethnic or life-style backgrounds. Overall social trust
and inter-racial trust are higher here than in comparable communities.
Peninsula and Silicon Valley residents have more diverse friendships by
ethnicity and gender than the national average. 70 percent of residents
have Hispanic-American friends vs. 49 percent nationally and 67 percent
have Asian-American friends vs. 34 percent nationally, while 57 percent
have African-American friends vs. 61 percent nationally. Residents report
having a friend of a different race over or visiting their home 14.3 times
in the past year vs. 11 times in the rest of the country. 47 percent of
local residents have a gay friend, compared with 35 percent nationally.
Even allowing for this diversity, friendships are less likely to cross
income or education lines. The Social Capital
Community Benchmark Survey was designed by the Saguaro Seminar: Civic
Engagement in America, a project at the John F. Kennedy School of Government
at Harvard University. The principal investigator on this project was
Prof. Robert D. Putnam, author of Bowling Alone: Collapse and Revival
of the American The national survey
of 3,000 respondents in 29 states was sponsored by the Kennedy School
at Harvard University and is the largest scientific investigation of civic
National and local results are available on the Internet at www.cfsv.org/communitysurvey. The survey data, codebook, and survey instrument itself will be made available to researchers through the Roper Center & Institute for Social Inquiry in Storrs, Connecticut, as soon as possible after the release of the survey results. Peninsula Community Foundation and Community Foundation Silicon Valley will host a community forum on Tuesday, March 6, from 7 - 9 a.m. at Santa Clara University's Benson Memorial Center to discuss the findings of the Social Capital Benchmark Survey and determine how the region can work together to build social capital. The program will include presentations by Mary Bitterman, President and CEO of KQED and Omowale Satterwhite, founder and executive director of the Community Development Institute in East Palo Alto. For more information on the Social Capital Benchmark Survey or to schedule interviews, contact: Debbie Ford-Scriba Michelle McGurk Kelly Shenefiel VIDEO NEWS RELEASE
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