Community Issues and Social Capital

1. Community Issues and Social Capital Frank Clearfield Director Social Sciences Institute

2. Presentation Outline 1. Provide an Overview of NRCS Social Science Institute 2. Review Community Trends and the Concept of Social Capital 3. Review SSI’s Web Based Tools

3. 1. Social Sciences Institute

4. Interdisciplinary • Sociologist • Economist • Anthropologist • Environmental Psychologist • Community Planner

5. SSI Applied Products and Activities • 24 Technical Reports • 36 Fact Sheets -- People, Partnership and Community Series • 8 Web-Based Products • 34 Leader-in-You Training Tapes • 2 Training Courses • 14 Surveys

6. Technology Transfer in FY-03 • SSI reached about 300,000 people • 52,000 web visitors • 340,000 web hits • 30,000 unique web visitors • 47,700 documents downloaded Google

7. 2. Community Trends and Social Capital

8. Definitions of Economic, Human, & Social Capital • Economic - land, labor, natural resources, & production • Human - skills, talent and education of people • Social - bonds of trust between people in communities

9. Changes in Social Capital • Political • Civic • Religious • Workplace • Social • Volunteering

10. Political Participation Number per million people in organization

11. Voting Turnout

12. Activity Served on a committee for some local organization attended a public meeting on town or school affairs Relative change 1973-74 to 1993-94 -39% -35% Civic Trends Source: Roper Social and Political Trends surveys, 1973-1994

13. Civic Club Meetings

14. PTA membership(% of families with children under 18)

15. Church Membership & Attendance members

16. Participation in Work • Union membership is down to 14 percent in 1998, from a high of 33 percent in 1952 • Average membership in 8 national professional associations showed increases from the 1930’s to the 1960’s, followed by decreases to the present

17. Social Visits

18. Volunteering & Participation in Community Projects

19. What has caused the downturn in social capital? • Generation change • Pressures of time & money • Family structure (working women) • Mobility and sprawl • Technology and mass media • DVDs, VCRs, TV, video games, computers (Internet access, e-mail) • Alienation from politics • Fear of _______

20. 3. Web Based Tools Estimating Social Capital

21. Technical Note: Adding Up Social Capital: An Investment in Communities • Web Based Tool, Go to http://www.ssi.nrcs.usda.gov/ click on interactive tools

22. Building Social Capital • Identify & Recruit Community Leaders • Develop Partnerships • Establish Networks • Inclusiveness • Understand Small Group Behavior • Understand Community Power

23. Other Interactive Tools • Evaluating Locally Led Process • Leadership Assessment Tool

24. Locally Led Evaluationand Training Package • CD and web version tool that examines behavioral aspects of the locally led planning process • Repeatable • Provides an overall score & also scores for 9 areas • Training module for each of these 9 areas

25. Tool to Assess Leadership Skills

26. General Assumptions about Leadership • We are not all leaders, nor do we all need to be • Some people are better at some things than others • Team members play different roles • There are situational leaders • There are multiple dimensions of leadership

27. Leadership Dimensions • Drive • Emotional Intelligence • Building Trust • Conceptual Thinking • Systems Thinking

28. Leadership Assessment Instrument • Rates the user on five dimensions • Provides hyperlinks • Articles • Leader-in-You Tapes • Fact Sheets

29. Summary • Reviewed SSI work • Examined community trends • Looked at potential opportunities -- social capital, locally led evaluation, and the leadership assessment instrument

30. Product Requests • Call 1-888-526-3227 x 2 • Web site: http://www.ssi.nrcs.usda.gov/ • Order from Product Catalog • clearf@ncat.edu or 336-334-7058