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March 1, 2001
Contact: Meredith Jones or Elizabeth Banwell (1-877-700-6800)
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

LEWISTON-AUBURN RANKS HIGH
IN PUBLIC TRUST, CIVIC INVOLVEMENT

National Survey of "Social Capital"
Illustrates Progress, Challenges

LEWISTON - Residents of the Lewiston-Auburn area trust their local leaders and are more actively engaged in civic affairs than people in other parts of the country. But the community does less well than its counterparts in group involvement, racial diversity among friendships, and involvement with youth organizations.

These are some of the results of the largest-ever survey on the civic engagement of Americans, the first step toward a multi-year effort to rebuild community bonds. Sponsored by the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University in partnership with a consortium of 36 community and private foundations, the survey measures everything from levels of giving blood, to hanging out with friends, to participating in various groups and associations, to the diversity of our friendships.

Studies have found that "social capital" - how much residents trust others, socialize with others, and join with others in both formal and informal groups - predict the quality of community life and residents' happiness far better than levels of community education or income.

The Maine Community Foundation, which sponsored the Lewiston-Auburn survey in partnership with the Lewiston-Auburn College of USM, will use the data to direct its efforts and shape its programs to strengthen community bonds and improve civic involvement.

"The residents of Lewiston-Auburn have a lot to be proud of," said Henry L.P. Schmelzer, president and chief executive officer of the Maine Community Foundation. "The survey shows that L-A citizens rank higher than expected when compared with similar communities, especially in the areas of social and racial trust, participation in electoral politics and informal socializing.

"But the survey also indicates the challenges that Lewiston-Auburn faces," he continued. "People in Lewiston-Auburn don't participate in neighborhood or civic groups, particularly those involving youth, as frequently as people in other parts of the country. While higher than other New England states, Lewiston-Auburn is also lower in faith-based involvement and charitable donations than other communities in the country."

At a news conference today announcing the survey results, Gov. Angus King said an active, involved community is the only way to guarantee an active and responsive government.

"But the survey also shows that government can't do everything," King said. "Encouraging more people to get involved in their local community is a better way to improve our schools, strengthen our economy, make our streets safer and our families healthier than almost anything we can do from Augusta and certainly from Washington. I hope this survey will show people the value of getting involved, and help our elected officials come up with creative ways to encourage people to reconnect with their communities."

Other highlights from the survey:

· Civic Involvement: Lewiston-Auburn ranks higher than the national average in every category of civic involvement, including the percentage of people registered to vote (88% in L-A, vs. 80% nationally), newspaper readership (60% vs. 47%) and the ability to name both U.S. Senators (40% in L-A compared to only 19% nationally).

· Trust: Citizens of Lewiston-Auburn display a high level of trust when compared with communities across the country, including interracial trust (91% in L-A compared to 79% nationally), co-worker trust (87% vs. 84%) and trust of the local media (61% vs. 58%).

· Tolerance: Lewiston-Auburn is more tolerant than other communities included in the survey. Its citizens have a higher degree of interracial trust than its national counterparts (91% in L-A, compared to 79% nationally, supports immigrant rights (57% vs. 52%), and believes public libraries should not censor materials (76% to 70%).

· Volunteering: While Lewiston-Auburn ranks high nationally in volunteering to assist the poor and elderly, it ranks much lower in the number of its citizens who volunteer in neighborhood or civic groups, parents and neighborhood associations, and youth organizations.

· Diversity: Lewiston-Auburn ranks higher than the national average in several categories, including the number of people who say their friends include homosexuals, manual laborers and welfare recipients. A lower than average number of respondents said their friends included Latino/Hispanics, Asians or African Americans.

· Faith and Charity: Lewiston-Auburn ranks lower than the national average in the number of people regularly attending church services (47% in Lewiston-Auburn, vs. 70% nationally) and church membership (56% vs. 65%). L-A is also lower than the national average in donating to charity (57% vs. 67%). However, New England historically is lower than the nation, on average.

The Social Capital Community Benchmark Survey of nearly 30,000 people across the country grew out of research by Professor Robert Putnam, author of Bowling Alone: Collapse and Revival of the American Community and principal investigator of the Saguaro Seminar: Civic Engagement in America, a project at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. He began his research several years ago when he discovered that while the number of people engaged in bowling for recreation is increasing, the number of bowling leagues and teams is on the decline. Putnam believes that increasing social capital in communities can help raise education levels, personal income, even lower crime rates.

"At a time when President Bush began his presidency by asking us to be 'citizens, not spectators' and to serve our nation 'beginning with your neighbor,' the Survey shows that we have opportunities to work towards those goals through a variety of community civic experiments," said Putnam. "At the same time, quite apart from increasing the level of civic engagement in American communities, we need to attend to its social distribution. In some communities, the bank president, the bank teller, and the bank janitor all turn out for community activities, but in other communities only the president does."