Community Participation,

1

• Community Participation,
• Civic Capacity Neighborhood Identity
• Findings from Focus Groups and Written
  Elicitations

ANDRESS Associates, LLC Bridging the Health Gap
April 3, 2008 Commissioned by The Center for
Health Equity, Louisville Metro Department of
Public Health Wellness
2
PURPOSE OF COMMISSION

• A social marketing campaign
• Increase the community participation of West
  Louisville residents by ..
• Reducing the barriers and,
• Highlighting the benefits according to
• The specific needs, values, beliefs, practices
  and interests of the residents.

3
Investigative Framework

• To improve health and reduce health inequities
  requires changes in public policy and the
  arrangements in society that support inequality.
• If residents of the City State, Nation
  understand and support policy goals, change and
  progress are more likely.
• To change policies and societal arrangements that
  support inequality communities must have the
  capacity to engage civically.
• We currently have group differences in the civic
  capacity of some communities and sectors, i.e.,
  corporations, high income vs. low income
  communities, etc.
• How does neighborhood identity shape civic
  capacity?
• How does neighborhood identity shape policy
  responses?
• How do we rectify imbalances in civic
  participation and civic power?

4
How Does this Affect Health?
5
Policies that Reduce Availability of Affordable
Quality Housing
Policies that Reduce Availability of Financial
Resources
Government Policies
Stress Associated With Income and Housing
Insecurity
Direct Material Effects of Income
Direct Material Effects of Poor Quality Housing
Health Status Increased Morbidity and Mortality
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Strategy and Research

• Part One
• Exploring current landscape of public
  understanding (focus groups, written
  elicitations)
• Part Two
• Message development (new lenses on the issue -
  explanations in particular)
• Message testing - evaluating effectiveness
  (online, and in-person

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METHODS

• Focus groups
• Six groups
• 2 hours
• Incentive 50
• Videotaped, audio taped, transcript
• Pre-Screened
• Focus Group questionnaire
• Written elicitations
• Looking for shared thinking patterns, e.g.
• Links between topics
• Topics that are not thought about
• Ideas that seem important
• Differences between how we want people to think
  and what they think

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FORMAT SUBJECTS

• 1 group of young adults
• Ages 18-24 African American
• 1 group from Northeast Christian
• Adults
• 1 group from St. Stephens
• Adults
• 1 group of adults from Portland
• White
• 2 groups of adults from W. Louisville
• African American
• Low income
• Middle income

• Homeowners 8
• Low Income 7
• N.E. Christian 6
• Portland 5
• St. Stephens 6
• Youth 18-24 3

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SUBJECTS

• Home ownership
• Own 19
• Homeless 1
• Rent 13
• Unknown 2
• Race
• African American 25
• White 9
• Hispanic 1

• Ages
• 18-24 three
• 30-50 fourteen
• gt 50 eighteen
• Gender
• Female 19
• Male 16

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SUBJECTS

• Income
• gt 75 3
• 50-75 4
• 35-50 6
• 10-15 2
• 15-20 2
• 20-25 4
• 25-35 6

• Education Levels
• College graduate 6
• Graduate degree 5
• High school 15
• Professional degree 1
• Some college 6
• Unknown 2

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Neighborhood identity People, time and
placeDouglas Robertson, James Smyth and Ian
McIntosh

• A study of how neighborhood identity is formed
  and the implications this may have for area
  renewal policies
• published by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation.
• March 12, 2008
• http//www.jrf.org.uk/knowledge/findings/housing/2
  188.asp

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Neighborhood IdentityResearch Questions

• How is neighborhood identity formed?
• the implications for policies that seek to
  improve and enhance neighborhoods and communities
  
• Why do revitalization policies often fail in
  their objectives?
• Do the reputations of communities 'good' and
  'bad' persist or change over time?
• How are these reputations established and
  understood by those from within and outside
  particular places and what implications this has
  for the identities of neighborhoods and the
  individuals who live in them?
• Do the most inspirational neighborhoods have a
  community focus or sense of community among its
  residents?
• As people get richer, they move into a more
  individualized settings places where community
  is largely absent.
• The social networks and connections of these
  residents link to a much wider social world, not
  merely the local neighborhood.

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Neighborhood IdentityFindings

• Neighborhood identity is established at a very
  early stage of each neighborhood's history, and
  is resilient to change.
• Identities are underpinned by social class and
  status which is sometimes based on historic
  male employment patterns as well as physical
  characteristics, including housing style, type
  and tenure.
• External perceptions of a neighborhood's identity
  were often stronger and more of a caricature than
  those held by people who lived there.
• Family networks, friends and neighbors were given
  differing degrees of importance in people's
  notions of what created a sense of community.
  However, their presence helped sustain a sense of
  community and people's own sense of involvement
  within that community.
• Community was constructed through familiar,
  everyday social interactions within various
  localized settings, which were often enough to
  give people a powerful sense of attachment and
  belonging.
• In each neighborhood, respondents interviewed for
  the study suggested notions of community were
  declining in response to ever-increasing
  individualism.

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There is evidence of internal differentiation in
each neighborhood

• Moderator Does everybody live in west
  Louisville, or does someone live outside of west
  Louisville?
• Kf Shively.
• Moderator Is that part of west Louisville?
• Kf I feel like it is.
• Km I'm considered west Louisville.
• Moderator Okay, good.
• Kf It's not in the zip code. I put yes on here.
• Moderator But west Louisville has several
  different zip codes.
• Kf They do.
• Moderator P. what are you thinking?
• Kf You're going by neighborhoods, right?
• Moderator Yeah.
• Kf Okay, this is the Portland neighborhood.
• Km When you say west Louisville, it encompasses
  everything west of 16th Street and I would say
  from at least Broadway north.
• Km Maybe farther south than Broadway.
• Moderator Yeah.

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There is evidence of internal differentiation in
each neighborhood .

• Kf I thought it was Market.
• Km That's Portland. Portland, I consider 16th
  to 35th, Market Street to the river.
• Kf Right.
• Km But those boundaries are in question.
• Moderator So the comments that you made
  earlier, were they specific to Portland or to
  west Louisville?
• Km West Louisville mine was.
• Kf For me it's to west Louisville.
• Moderator Okay.
• Kf But I'm saying there is -- like you brought
  up the boundaries or somebody did.
• Kf Well, west Louisville is home to me and part
  of Portland, to me, is west Louisville. So I'm
  claiming loyalty and ownership for both, but
  since I worked in Portland, I live so close to
  Portland I have a sense of being part of both.
• Km I went to school at Shawnee.
• Kf Did you?
• Km So I have the same feeling -- 43rd and
  Market.
• Kf And I worked at J.B. Atkinson . . .
• Kf . . .and a lot of parents and a lot of the
  children going to Portland Plaza and been there
  with some of the people there, so I feel close to
  many people there as well. But I know there are
  people in the Portland area that feel more
  loyalty to Portland and don't feel themselves
  necessarily a part of the bigger part of west
  Louisville.

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Neighborhood identity is established at a very
early stage of each neighborhood's history, and
is resilient to change.

• Kf Some consider the quality of the
  homes. They base it on what they've seen in the
  past, as far as what the houses and apartments or
  whatever used to look like and the way they used
  to be treated.
• Moderator P. how do you feel about Portland?
• Kf I've only been here 5 years. I married into
  Portland.
• Moderator Somewhere else in Louisville before
  that?
• Kf Yes, over on the east side.
• Kf It's a big change.
• Moderator . in what way?
• Kf Economically, services -- on and on and on..
• Kf Just totally the look.
• Moderator . . .more, less, better, worse,
  higher, lower?
• Kf Lower.
• Moderator Okay. Fewer service.
• Kf I hate to say slam.
• Km It's not a slam it's honesty. That's just
  being honest.
• Kf That's true.
• Moderator So fewer services.
• Kf It's cleaner over on the other side too.
• Km It seems to matter more to the city officials
  that the east end is. .
• Kf Clean.

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Neighborhood identity is established at a very
early stage of each neighborhood's history, and
is resilient to change.

• Moderator Do you think the people in Portland
  see themselves as a tightly knit community
  separate from west Louisville?
• Kf Yes.
• Kf I think so.
• Kf I think so.
• Moderator Why is that?
• Kf I think it has something to do with the
  history.
• Kf It was its own township.
• Kf Because it was here before Louisville.
• Kf Right.

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Neighborhood identity is established at a very
early stage

• Kf And it has a strong historical -- I mean
  because of a strong history of being the town
  that grew up on the river and it was here first.
  And if you look into its history, I think it
  maintains that it is a town in itself. That's
  some of what I think it's about.
• Kf I think the original name was Portland town
  or Portland township.
• Kf It was it's own place.
• Km It was a township.
• Kf Right. It was its own. . .
• Km It was annexed in 1802 by the city of
  Louisville.
• Kf Right.
• Kf And the people I've come to know and the
  families I've come to know have a certain pride
  about that and a sense of loyalty about that.
  They have a museum and everything. . .
• Kf Newspaper.
• Kf Yes, their own newspaper.
• Km It's the oldest neighborhood newspaper in the
  country.

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Let's start out with a really simple question
about what you like about west Louisville. What
do you find attractive about it. Simply why do
you live and stay here?

• Identities are underpinned by physical
  characteristics, including housing style, type
  and tenure.
• Family networks, friends and neighbors were given
  differing degrees of importance in people's
  notions of what created a sense of community.
• But their presence helps sustain a sense of
  community and people's own sense of involvement
  within that community.
• Community was constructed through familiar,
  everyday social interactions within various
  localized settings, which were often enough to
  give people a powerful sense of attachment and
  belonging.

20
Physical characteristics, including housing
style, type and tenure, Family networks, friends
and neighbors, Community was constructed
through familiar, everyday social interactions

• Kf I like the homes. It's the older homes, the
  style. It's a lot of character in west
  Louisville. .. It's what I remember as a child
  growing up .
• Kf I mean it's a beautiful area. I love the big
  homes in this area. I love the yard, the land
  around it. The bus routes are beautiful. You
  walk out the door and bang, you're on a bus .
  That's it. Everything else is well convenient to
  me.
• Km Being born here, growing up in west
  Louisville, met a girl in west Louisville.
  Raised my kids in west Louisville.

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Physical characteristics, including housing
style, type and tenure, Family networks, friends
and neighbors, Community was constructed
through familiar, everyday social interactions

• Kf I told you I live(d) in Fern Creek. It's just
  so different out there. I went to visit a friend
  and we sat down and started talking. It was
  daylight when I went over. I stayed a long, long
  time. When I got home, my apartment had been
  closed up my lights was off. I had a bird in
  the cage outside. He was in there. One of my
  neighbors watches everything. They felt that I
  had fallen down because they knocked on my door
  to tell me it's time to take the bird in because
  it was getting kind of cool. Then because I
  didn't answer, they called the police. The
  police were at my house to see if I had fallen or
  anything had happened. They took care of my
  house. They shut the doors they turned off the
  lights, and took the bird in and put it in. That
  wouldn't have happened in the west end.
• Kf What I'm trying to say like in Fern Creek --
  in the west end people are closer knit. They
  talk to each other they communicate with each
  other. In Fern Creek, they're not going to come
  to your house and sit every day and watch TV and
  inaudible this and that. You know they are
  going to speak to you on the way in, speak to you
  on the way out. But if anything goes wrong, they
  know who belongs in your household. They know
  and that's the way they take care of you. But in
  the west end, it's like everybody is a family.
  You can come to my house I can go to your house.
  We take care of each other like that, but
  they're not -- as far as if I was sick or
  something, maybe somebody would say well, her
  boyfriend be there pretty soon. Well just wait.
  Don't go in there. They wouldn't have came like
  they did right johnny on the spot to see what's
  going on.

22
Physical characteristics, including housing
style, type and tenure, Family networks, friends
and neighbors, Community was constructed
through familiar, everyday social interactions

• Moderator That must mean you like it a lot. Can
  you say why?
• Km That's all I know.
• Km . . .and church is west Louisville.
• Kf You can't find a better place. I know with my
  daughter, they lived out in Chamber Lane, way
  out Jefferson inaudible way out there. When
  they go on vacation I will go out there and
  watch the kids. Yet, I'd have to come into work
  every day. I hated it. The traffic, getting
  back and forth ...
• Km I think there is probably a certain
  degree of socialization, too, because as A. was
  saying it is the comfort. I obviously turn to
  birds of a feather, you know. If you live in
  the west end he lives in the west end. They
  look like me. I want to be where other people
  look like me.

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Identities are underpinned by social class and
status which is sometimes based on historic
male employment patterns physical characteristics

• Moderator Anybody else about why people won't
  come out and participate?
• Km I'd like to offer that if you are going to
  have participation, you need strong support
  within. -- I'm not being chauvinistic but you
  have to have strong males in your community who
  have some representation over and beyond not just
  living in a community -- where they're going to
  come and speak out. Because people will look and
  say okay, here's men and women, not just women,
  not just children but you've got a collection.
  You've got men and women, which is a strong
  representation, and from that you can build. The
  situation in west Louisville is, and I found this
  through canvassing during election -- and I
  talked with a number of men. They couldn't vote.
  They said brother, I wish I could vote, but I'm
  a convicted felon. So without having proper
  statistics I can see a number of men in west
  Louisville have records, or they may have
  something else. They may want to keep a low
  profile.

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Identities are underpinned by social class and
status which is sometimes based on historic
male employment patterns physical characteristics

• Km Sometimes the members of the community can't
  help what happens. Where I grew up -- since that
  time, since I've been away all the industries
  have moved out, and the complete town has
  deteriorated to the point that I don't want to go
  there. It makes me sick to see that nice house I
  lived in with the gutters falling down and
  unpainted, and the roof is still the same roof it
  was 65 years ago. The industries all moved out
  and the people there really had no say about if
  they wanted us to continue to live there. White
  male

25
External perceptions of a neighborhood's identity
were often stronger and more of a caricature than
those held by people who lived there.

• Moderator What do you think people who are
  outside of west Louisville think about this
  part of this city?
• Kf I think they think it is violent, because I
  have some friends that are Haitians. They drive
  cabs and they are scared to come down here to
  west Louisville.
• Kf I don't see where it is no worser than
  anywhere else.
• Km .if something happens in Shively, but you
  say you live in west Louisville -- but if
  something happens out in Shively, they are going
  to say west Louisville. If something happens
  over in Portland, they are going to say west
  Louisville. If something happens at Jewish
  Hospital, that area up there, they are going to
  say west Louisville. That far up is east end.
• Km I think it goes back to the fact, Custer
  would have been great if the Indians told the
  story. But it depends on what . . .
• Kf Who is telling the story.
• Kf We're not represented to the media. We're
  not really represented.

26
Neighborhood Identity Policy

• Kf Planes flying over west Louisville and we had
  the greatest turn out when we had a neighborhood
  meeting about it. We had the greatest turn out
  of all the places that they went in Louisville
  and we still did that. So you feel just like
  when you have an interstate or a freeway, that
  the lower income neighborhoods no matter what
  they say, they're going to do what they're going
  to do. But the rich suburban neighborhoods, if
  they raise up a stink, then yeah they'll go
  around them and leave them alone.
• Km People feel because it's the west end it
  ain't going to change because it's where we live
  at they already have stereotyped us as where all
  the crime is. It ain't going to change. Even if
  I participate, ain't nothing going to happen.
  I do remember about a year or two ago when there
  was a big issue about pot holes in the city and
  getting them fixed. They were showing how the
  mayor was fixing pot holes, but he was fixing
  them out in the county. There was nothing down
  here getting fixed. It's still the same.
• Kf Cleaning the streets when there is all that
  snow. Snowbound. Couldn't even get out.
• Km Make it look like there is something big
  happening, but again it's the west end. It
  doesn't matter. The pot holes down there ain't
  the same.

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Goals Civic Engagement

• Mobilize residents to become civically engaged
• Identify issues
• Examine issues
• Ask questions
• Organize
• Take action
• Be responsible for what they can control

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Our Desire Community Participation

• Increased capacity to
• Make choices
• Transform those choices into desired actions and
  outcomes
• Build individual and collective assets
• Improve the efficiency and fairness of the
  organizational and institutional context that
  controls the use of these assets(4)
• Participate in, negotiate with, influence,
  control, and hold accountable institutions that
  affect their lives (5).

Community Participation
4) What is empowerment? The World Bank, 2005,
(http//web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/TOPICS/E
XTPOVERTY/EXTEMPOWERMENT/0, content accessed 30
November 2005). 5) Narayan D. Empowerment and
poverty reduction a sourcebook. Washington,
World Bank, 2002.
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Actual Interpretation Community Participation
People assume a different meaning Acts of Charity
Community Participation
DO IT OURSELVES
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A Limited Lens
Community Participation
Church Repayment-Giving Back Community
Service Do It Ourselves
Kf Working together and using each other for
support instead of having to go outside of our
area.We can come together. Kf ..keeping the
streets cleaned together and looking out for the
senior citizens. Make sure nobody goes hungry
in your area. Stuff like that. Kf They
volunteer in little soup kitchens that they have
around here. Give the church members a little
break. Check in on other people. Check in on
other people who live alone. Km Mine is really
more about church participation. If it wasnt
for my church, I dont think Id probably do too
much socializing. Km I do pretty much what my
father used to do. He was a career Army man and
when he was in the community he was a father to a
lot of boys who didnt have fathers. He insisted
on people doing the right thing.
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A Limited Lens
Community Participation
Do it Yourself Church Giving Back Community
Service
Kf Really looking to see what the needs are and
the others around you. Kf And then doing what
you can to help your neighbor. I think we're
just all quick to go well, somebody should do
something about that. Kf Well, the only thing I
think is that my participation as far as
community would be through the church. Kf My
community we do have a block watch and we meet
every first Thursday of each month and it does
entail what goes around in our surrounding area
and beyond..we are our own eyes because the
policemen cant see and do everything.. if we
see crime we report it. You can remain
anonymous. Km The issue that would make me
turn out is getting more control over these
police officers, especially the white ones.
Note Issue vs. Service
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A Limited Lens
Community Participation
Do it Yourself Community Service Church Give
Back
Kf Being on Portland Now doing other
activities your neighborhood house, library, the
Portland festival, on and on and on. Kf I see
community involvement where you have people
connecting with other people, networking,
internet connecting and just helping each other
to fulfill the needs of the community Km It's
just doing it, you know, and holding ourselves
accountable. If everyone is accountable for
their own family and their own well-being, it
serves to provide a strong base. We're just not
accountable as a whole. If you don't want to
raise you kids, you can just drop them off at the
neighborhood house, or you can drop them off at
one of these social services... Kf My
community participation looks like nothing, but
it was spent in lots of years in the classroom
and working with children that were non-readers,
and working as a volunteer at Plymouth Community
House.
33
Opportunities
Community Participation
Civic Activism
Q Is there a difference between acts of charity
and assistance and organizing to address an
issue? Km I'd say it's the same. Km I would
say the same. You're active. Km If you asked me
what an activist was I would say it would be an
initiator as opposed to a follower. Km Community
participation, if I asked you to vote and you
vote, you participated. If you're an activist,
you'd probably ask me to vote. You initiate it.

34
Opportunities
Civic Activism
Community Participation
Kf I think it's ongoing with the -- it's
ongoing. You're constantly doing it. But if you
are just participating, it is just because
something is flying through right now and you're
going to do it and go on about your way. Versus
this is what you breathe this is what you live
for this is something that you truly . .
. Kf Have a passion. Kf Exactly. Have a
passion for. Kf I think it is a cross between
both. Km It sounds like to me that in one sense
people are being given things or being offered
things are being helped. In another sense,
people are helping themselves. They're taking
some type of incentive to stand up and create
their own type of structure or representation.
That's what I see from that. Conservative
African-American woman, age 44
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Opportunities
Community Participation
Civic Activism
Km Activism, I think, is something that is
pro-active. Going forward to do something rather
than just participating. We all are
participating here but are there any activists
here? Activism is an act of doing something a
little above and beyond. Kf I think it's more
like doing something about what you are talking
about. People can talk but it's not going to
work. inaudible go hit on his door. Kf Acting
out. Kf I don't think you can be called an
activist unless you are engaging the political
system. You have to engage them and so I believe
--- community participation, I think, is the big
umbrella and under that is activism where the
people who are really political go to
town. Km Yes. Activism means -- coming from a
philosophical base, I believe that we ought to
have good schools. I believe we ought to have
garbage pickup on a regular basis and alleys
ought to be clean. An activist like the ACORN
organization, they're an activist organization.
They challenge the establishment and they take
action steps to get things done. That's
activism. Just like in the 60s when everybody was
protesting and moving the system toward a certain
goal. That's activism. Community participation
is Block Watch and keeping the neighborhood
clean, and benign stuff that is good for
everybody.
36
Do It Yourself- Community Service Where does it
come from?

• American emphasis on Individualism, Personal
  Responsibility
• Asking Government to perform be accountable- is
  equated with depending on government.
• My thing with community participation is most of
  us don't. I mean most of us don't serve our
  neighbor or serve the people in the our
  community. If we would do that, we wouldn't need
  as many government policies and regulations to
  take care of that. We're all created to serve
  one another and if we did that, we wouldn't need
  -- I think we've created a society of people
  looking for the government or somebody else to
  take care of their needs, instead of coming
  together as a community and doing that within.
  Older white male
• We can't just sit around waiting for government
  to solve some of these intractable social
  problems that we've had for years. Government has
  a role to play. It is time for all of us to live
  up more fully to the concept of citizenship. And
  for those of us who as citizens of this nation
  have been blessed with treasure, and wealth, and
  good position, and comfortable homes, and all the
  blessings of this land, to be a good citizen, to
  be a big citizen, requires you to do more in the
  way of sharing with those who are in need. So
  that a family that has three wonderful children
  ought to try to see if they could find three
  hours a week to share that life with a kid in
  need who doesn't have a mentor, who doesn't get
  to play in Little League and do the other things
  that we take for granted. Somebody in that family
  who might go tutor a school on an afternoon off
  from a job, and we're encouraging corporations to
  give them that afternoon off. And so that's what
  we mean by big citizenship. Colin Powell

37
Do It Yourself- Community Service Where does it
come from?

• Km I've been 7 or 8 times to New Orleans since
  Katrina hit, and the communities that the people
  in that community that get active and actively
  pursue building their community back are back and
  flourishing well. The people that are just
  sitting back on their laurels waiting for
  somebody to take care of it for them, are still
  in the same shape, pretty much, as when the
  hurricane hit. And it's the same thing in our
  area. I don't care what part of the city you go
  to, people that are actively participating and
  getting out there -- somebody will come along
  beside them and they'll make an effort, in my
  opinion. That's just my opinion. And I see that
  in about everything that I try to do.
• Moderator Okay. What's the difference between
  communities that are active, they participate and
  communities that don't?
• Kf I think when you have a community that cares,
  the people are observant of what is going on
  around and noticing things whereas if you've got
  a community that just kind of stays to themselves
  and doesn't care about what their neighbor is
  doing. If you've got a neighbor that can't just
  something as simple as paint the outside of their
  house, then their house starts not looking as
  nice. And if you've got a community that cares,
  people can chip in and help.

38
Right Choices in the News

• Media tells the story through choice of
  stories, language, images, etc
• Rugged independence stories
• Disasters
• Katrina vs. California Fires
• GetKarma.org
• The universal system of checks and balances- what
  goes around comes around..
• The Ad Council launched the Get Good Karma
  campaign in April 2007 with the Federal Voting
  Assistance Program.
• Targets 18-24 year olds- the largest non voting
  segment in the U.S.
• Help your neighbor, country, world
• Smallest efforts can have far reaching
  effects-volunteering, registering to vote

39
Opportunities

• Approaches with the potential to bring about a
  shift in thinking..
• Civic Engagement
• Civic Organizing
• Civic Activism
• Civic Accountability

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Recommendations So Far

• Dont over do community participation frame
• Need an ongoing effort both the campaign and
  opportunities for action
• Need a new message
• Civics.
• Self interest
• Passion
• Demonstrate victories with the civic activism

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Recommendations So Far

• Target different groups differently
• Youth-
• Start early-grade school
• Fear of standing out
• External audiences- history policy connection
• Adults internal
• Spokespeople--Local, recognizable not necessarily
  well known
• Different communications methods
• Texting, my space, internet
• Billboards

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Next Steps

• Test New Narratives
• Create Campaign
• Evaluate
• Message Development
• Message Testing

43
ANDRESS Associates, LLC Bridging the Health
Gap www.bridgingthehealthgap.com
44
Focus Group Questions

• What do you like most about W. Louisville and
  why?
• What do you like least about w. Louisville and
  why?
• What do you think people outside W. Louisville
  think about this part of town and why do they
  think that?
• What do you think community participation means?
• Is advocacy different from community
  participation?
• Is activism different or the same?
• What do people who participate in their community
  do? Probe examples a block watch, voting,
  attending a school meeting, trash pick-up.
• Have you ever been asked to get involved in the
  community? By whom and for what?
• Can participating make a difference? How? Any
  examples? probing internalized racism and
  powerlessness
• Why do you think people participate in their
  community? What kinds of people participate in
  their community? Describe their characteristics.
• Have you ever decided to participate or not to
  participate in some community action? Why did you
  participate or not participate?
• When you look back on the times you decided not
  to participate in a community issue, activity,
  meeting, or project what were the consequences?
• What would make you participate in a community
  effort? Probe systems such as neighborhood
  meetings, church based meetings, government or
  university projects Is it who does the inviting
  and relationships?, locations, what days and the
  time of day convenience?, certain issues like
  violence, liquor stores, etc self- interests.
• How is community participation different or the
  same for people in west Louisville in comparison
  to other parts of the city or county? Why?
• Who would make good spokespeople for a campaign
  to increase community participation in west
  Louisville? Who would people pay attention to
  and believe?

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Building Civic Capacity, Engagement, and Action
46
Civic Capacity Building

• Strengthens the ability of community
  organizations and groups
• Build their knowledge, structures, systems,
  people and skills so they are better able to
  define and achieve their objectives
• Training, education, resource identification and
  resource building, organizational and personal
  development
• Promotes sustainability and strengthens internal
  and external -bridging and linking social capital

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MEASURING CIVIC CAPACITY

• Political Efficacy
• Social Cohesion
• Social Capital
• Collective Self Efficacy

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(No Transcript)
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What are We Dealing With?

• Many of the inequalities in health- are due to
  inequalities in the social conditions in which
  people live and work.
• Valentine, et. al, PloS Medicine 2006 3(6)
  e106. TH commission on the Social Determinants of
  Health
• Tackling these conditions- social determinants
  health- underlying causes of poor health can
  contribute to improving health and health equity.
  

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Central Questions?

• Why are you civically active?
• Why are you not civically active?
• What is your view of west Louisville?
• What issues concern you?
• Parameters for this discussion
• Local economy
• Neighborhoods
• Your family
• Jobs, wages
• Educational opportunities

51
What Ideas or Theories Do We Want To Explore?

• What are their views of West Louisville?
• What Issues concern them?
• Why do they participate or not participate?

52
Why Do Individuals Elect Not To Participate?

• Because They Cant
• Legal restrictions
• Intimidation, fear, road blocks
• System makes participation/voting difficult
• Internalized powerlessness or racism
• Because They Dont Want to
• Will this do any good?
• Is this effective in achieving economic or
  non-economic benefits?
• Self-interest
• Is there a perceived benefit?
• Can I trust the people in power?
• Attitude influences participation
• Because Nobody Asked
• Mobilization Theory- participation is based on
  contextual cues and political opportunities in
  the environment of the individual- media
  messages, campaign spending, conversations with
  friends/neighbors, etc.
• Participation influences political attitude,
  efficacy, and sophistication
• Mobilization mediates the effects of SES and
  attitudes on participation.
• Mobilization accounts for approximately half of
  the decline in voter turnout since 1960.

Sidney Verba, Kay L. Schlozman, Henry Brady and
Norman Nie, Resources and Political
Participation, paper prepared for the 1991
annual meetings of the American Political Science
Association
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Expected Outcomes

• A report
• How people in west Louisville think about civic
  participation in comparison to..
• A look at the issues that concern them
• How they think about west Louisville  
• Recommended messages and activities
• Preliminary ideas for a communication strategy
• Preliminary ideas for evaluation
• Be prepared to grow, change, and make midcourse
  corrections based on our observations. 

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RecruitmentHow Who?

• 1 group of young adults
• Ages 18-24 African American
• 1 group of adults from Portland
• White
• 2 groups of adults from W. Louisville
• African American
• Low income
• Middle income

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Deliberation

• An exchange of views
• What is my position and experience on this?
• Jointly digesting and reflecting on information,
  facts
• Dialogue
• Reflect on common good
• Offer reasons why others should change their
  minds
• May be unable to find a common position
• Only if worldviews are incompatible
• And reasonable

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THEORY
Old Theory SES Model
Attitudes
Behavior
Political Action
Resources-time, money, skills
New Theory and Ideas Mobilization Model

• The quality and type of participation affects
  another kind of participation

• SES still affects action behaviors but we now
  know that .

Participation
Political Attitudes Efficacy
Mobilization

• Mobilization mediates the effects of SES and
  attitudes on participation.

• Mobilization accounts for approximately half of
  the decline in voter turnout since 1960.

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THEORY (contd)
Deliberative Discussions
Civic Engagement
Participation
A Voice
Agency
Both externally and internally driven
Attitudes, resources time, money skills-
mobilization, informal political discussion,
etc.
Not simply voting consider context, kinds of
actions, over what period of time and
constraints.may be organizing, mobilizing for
collective action
Leighley, J. Attitudes, Opportunities and
Incentives A Field Essay on Political
Participation, Political Research Quarterly, Vol.
48, No. 1 Mar. 1995, 181-209.
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Building Civic Capacity

• Teach and demonstrate the importance of
  democratic practices at the community level
• Premise people--citizens of their own
  communities, can and must be the driving force
  and the principal agents of change for social
  justice and democratic practices
• Method
• Format Issue-driven
• Basis Social change discourse deliberation
• Community Dialogues- meetings, selected readings,
  deliberation, critical thinking, scenario driven
  role-playing
• Evaluation- longitudinal, data-driven, with a
  control group maybe to measure social change
  practices, actions, and participation

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Civic Capacity Building

• Community competence
• Confront its own problems
• Strengthens the ability of community
  organizations and groups
• Build their knowledge, structures, systems,
  people and skills so they are better able to
  define and achieve their objectives
• Training, education, resource identification and
  resource building, organizational and personal
  development
• Promotes sustainability and strengthens social
  capital

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Social Capital As a Process Towards Community
Practice

• Connections among individuals, other communities,
  the government
• Intercommunity
• Intra-community
• structural
• cognitive
• One person may possess social capital but it
  doesnt take place unless there is more than one
  person.
• Channels of communication with a large number of
  people both inside and outside a community.

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Connect the Dots
Down Stream--------------------------Up Stream
Do We Care About What They Care About?
Diabetes Obesity Lung Cancer Infant Mortality
Relationships
A Message Behavioral Risk Factors Lifestyle
Self-Interests
Public Policy Process
Structural Change
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Rational Public Policy Process

• Problem Identification
• Gain Agenda Status
• Policy Formulation, adoption, funding
• Policy Implementation
• Policy Evaluation Adjustment, Termination

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Goals, Objectives Theory

• To increase civic engagement collective action
  and mobilization- at the community level through
  the use of dialogue, deliberation, and action.
• Redefine the factors that determine civic
  participation- attitudes, SES.
• Broaden the outcomes of civic engagement beyond
  simply voting.
• Motivate citizens to engage in dialogue, group
  will-making and collective action resulting in
  social change.