[Community Highlights] [Success Stories] [Press Release] [Future Plans]

Jack Hopkins, president/CEO of the Kalamazoo Community Foundation, made these observations about the survey results:
"Kalamazoo County does tend to be a tightly knit community, so one might expect that we would score highest in the area of Informal Socializing (132). We were particularly interested to learn that the community also scored high in the area of Diversity of Friendships (111). The survey indicates that although Kalamazoo is facing the challenges associated with the increase of racial, ethnic and other minorities, there is a level of understanding about the community's growing diversity. Kalamazoo County's lowest score - Conventional Politics (89) - indicates a need to investigate more fully if individuals feel they are actively engaged in local, state and national political processes. Kalamazoo's scores are not significantly different than national scores on questions such as "Voted in the 1996 presidential election?" or "Trusts national government" Nevertheless, it is an area where improvement may be necessary."

What will the Kalamazoo Community Foundation do with the survey information?
Dave Gardiner, vice president of programs, Kalamazoo Community Foundation, explains the Foundation's plans this way, "We participated in this survey to provide our community with a tool to understand its social capital strengths and areas for improvement. Dr. Putnam's social capital theories combined with the positive results of social capital-building projects we've seen at work here in Kalamazoo County indicated to us that the concept was worth exploring in greater depth.

"Specifically, the Foundation recently established Community Engagement and Youth Development as one of its four community investment priorities. The Foundation will accept grant proposals in April and October for programs that proactively engage citizens in an inclusive decision-making process, promote the concept of helping one's neighbors or provide youths with leadership and learning opportunities. In addition, a series of Community Forums will be scheduled this spring to begin the social capital dialogue among leaders in the arts, business, education, government and religious communities.

"This survey is just scratching the surface of the issue and was meant to help us establish benchmarks on various dimensions of social capital. In all likelihood, we will join with Dr. Putnam when he repeats the survey in a few years to see if we've improved our scores," says Gardiner.