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Social
Capital Community Benchmark Survey [Community Highlights] [Survey Highlights (78K PDF)] [Press Release]
New Survey Finds Diversity Presents Both Challenges and Opportunities for Social and Civic Engagement in Los Angeles County A research coalition of three dozen foundations-including the California
Community Foundation in Los Angeles-today released results of a nine-month
study that finds both strengths and deficiencies in the ways Americans
engage one another and participate in civic life. The survey is the largest-ever of civic engagement in America. From July through November 2000, respondents to the survey answered more than 130 questions about their levels of social connectedness and civic engagement, including socializing with neighbors and friends, voting habits, memberships in groups and religious organizations, volunteering and donations to charity, and political activism. The Los Angeles survey found that: The survey was designed by the Saguaro (pronounced "SWAHR-oh") Seminar and Harvard University professor Robert Putnam, whose book Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community, proclaimed that America's "social capital," the value of social networks and the trust they engender, is in dangerous decline. Putnam sees weakened civic ties as having a pronounced negative impact on everything from the quality of education, to community safety, to economic development. The Social Capital Community Benchmark Survey builds on Putnam's work and is the first survey to compare levels of social capital at national and local levels. The California Community Foundation has a long-term commitment to identify the needs of the Los Angeles community and maximize charitable resources to fulfill those needs. Survey research like the Social Capital Community Benchmark Survey is a primary tool the foundation uses to assess community well being. The survey builds on other efforts by the California Community Foundation in this area, including an annual study, now in its fifth year, of giving and volunteering patterns in Los Angeles County. The California Community Foundation has asked scholars at the University of Southern California's Center on Philanthropy and Public Policy to conduct an in-depth analysis of the Social Capital Community Benchmark Survey data. This detailed review will take several more months. "Diversity is our strength and our challenge," said Jack Shakely, president of the California Community Foundation. "The data provided by the Social Capital Community Benchmark Survey is an important tool in assessing our community's needs and opportunities. We look forward to sharing the results of the in-depth study with others who, like the California Community Foundation, are interested in building social capital in Los Angeles." Eleanor Brown, Professor of Economics at Pomona College and Faculty Fellow at USC's Center on Philanthropy and Public Policy, added, "Ethnically diverse communities like Los Angeles share other characteristics that account for some of the challenges to building social capital, such as enormous size, and having a disproportionately large number of recent arrivals. New residents take time to put down roots, to build trust, to establish all the ties that make up social capital. It is important to keep these influences in mind, especially in looking at the Los Angeles data, and not to attribute their effects to ethnic diversity per se." Key findings comparing social capital in Los Angeles and nationwide appear on the following pages and on the California Community Foundation's Web site at http://www.calfund.org. For detailed information about the survey and the broader social capital study of which it is a part, visit the survey Web site: http://www.cfsv.org/communitysurvey. Among the key findings of the Los Angeles and national surveys are these: Los Angeles is less trusting than the nation as a whole. When asked, "Generally speaking, would you say that most people can be trusted or that you can't be too careful in dealing with people?" 36 percent of Angelenos say that people can be trusted; 55 percent say you can't be too careful; and 9 percent say that it depends. This profile is a less trusting one than the national profile, in which 47 percent say people can be trusted, 46 percent say you can't be too careful, and 7 percent say that it depends. People in Los Angeles are significantly less trusting of people in specific social situations, such as their neighbors, of people with whom they work, of people at their place of worship, and of their local police:
While it is clear that Los Angeles scores relatively low on measures of trust, it is equally clear that the low scores are due in part to the relatively high incidence of newcomers in Los Angeles, who are less trusting than persons who have been here a while. L.A. has a third more newcomers (people who have lived here less than five years) than the national average. Based on survey results, it is estimated that, among people who have lived in L.A. for less than five years, only 29 percent feel that people can generally be trusted. But for people who have lived here five years or more, the percentage jumps to 46 percent. The longer people live in L.A., the more they trust other members of their community. When it comes to involvement in faith-based groups and charitable activity, Los Angeles shows strength. People in Los Angeles are no more or less likely than the rest of the country to say they have a religious identity. In both samples, 87 percent gave a religious preference. Among Angelenos who have a religious preference, 38 percent say they attend church at least weekly, and another 30 percent attend at least once or twice a month. Angelenos are also as likely as other Americans to agree with the statement, "Religion is very important in my life," a statement agreed with by 82 percent of the population. Angelenos volunteer as often as Americans nationwide do, and these volunteers give their time to the same sorts of causes:
About half the population in L.A. volunteered at some point during the twelve months prior to the survey. Fifteen percent volunteered more frequently than once a month. When asked about charitable donations, 70 percent of Angelenos said that they made donations to religious organizations or causes, compared with 75 percent nationwide. Fifty-nine percent of the L.A. respondents gave money to nonreligious charities, compared with 69 percent nationwide. Los Angeles shows big differences among socioeconomic groups in levels of social capital. In Los Angeles, social capital is far more closely linked to measures of privilege than in the rest of the country. Several measures of social trust and engagement are more strongly associated with income, race and ethnicity, and especially education, in Los Angeles than in the nation as a whole. Angelenos who have a four-year college degree have a greater level of trust than those with lower levels of education. Trust of coworkers and neighbors increases throughout the education scale, especially for those with education beyond a high school degree. People with more education vote more as well: In the previous presidential election, one in three high school graduates voted, three out of four college graduates, and nine out of ten people with education beyond a college degree. In Los Angeles, not finishing high school is also associated with a diminished social life. The "Schmooz," index, as its called in the larger survey, measures how often one socializes with friends at home and in public places, with coworkers outside of work, with family, and how often one plays cards or board games. On every single one of these dimensions, the level of interaction roughly doubles from people with no high school degree to people for whom a high school degree is the highest level of education. The total pool of respondents included 26,200 people in 40 distinct communities across the country and an additional national random sample of 3,000 individuals. The local community samples, which ranged in size from 500 to 1,500 respondents, were sponsored largely by community foundations, and a few private foundations. Established in 1915, the California Community Foundation is one of the 13 largest community foundations in the United States, with assets of $530 million. In the 1999-2000 fiscal year, the foundation awarded more than $113 million in grants to hundreds of Los Angeles County nonprofit organizations. The community foundation is one of the largest and most active philanthropic organizations in Southern California. EDITOR'S NOTE: FOR INFORMATION ON NATIONAL SURVEY RESULTS AND ACCESS
TO PROF. ROBERT PUTNAM, PLEASE CONTACT LISA MAGNINO OR HELEN SZABLYA AT
FENTON COMMUNICATIONS IN WASHINGTON: (202) 822-5200.
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