One highlight of the sixth-annual Greater St. Cloud Community Pillars Forum was the release of results of the Central Minnesota Community Foundation’s 2015 survey on social capital.
SCSU Survey worked with UpFront Consulting in November to conduct the survey on behalf of the Central Minnesota Community Foundation.
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Social capital is a way of measuring the connections, relationships and trust among different groups of people within the community.
The Social Capital Scale combines 24 items about trust, community and social connections.
Social capital has been associated with many community benefits such as improved relationships among diverse populations, entrepreneurship, community health and educational attainment. The Central Minnesota Community Foundation conducted similar studies in 2004 and 2010.
The 2015 study found that social capital increased in 2010, but it is not as high as it was in 2004.
A higher percentage of respondents said that they have had someone of another race in their home or were in the home of someone of another race. The percentage of respondents who said they trust people from Somalia increased by 17 percent. Trust of African Americans and Latino people also increased, according to the survey.
While trust among people is up, trust in the national government fell among respondents as it did in the 2010 survey. Volunteerism is also down.
Nearly 100 student callers from the SCSU Survey lab participated in conducting the 2015 Social Capital Survey under the supervision and leadership of student directors Megan Kalk and Josefina Abdullah.
Faculty survey directors include St. Cloud State professors: Ann Finan, Jim Cottrill, Steve Frank, Steven Wagner, Sandrine Zerbib and Amanda Hemmesch. UpFront consultants include: Diane Tuff and Murdoch Johnson.
The survey questionnaire was based on a set of similar questions developed by the Saguaro Seminar on Civic Engagement in America, based at Harvard’s Kennedy School. Assessments of social capital using this survey tool have been conducted in many communities around the country.
The telephone survey included responses from 510 residents of Central Minnesota.
The study was sponsored by the Central Minnesota Community Foundation along with its partners — CentraCare Health Foundation, Initiative Foundation, Morgan Family Foundation, St. Cloud State University, St. Cloud Times Media and the United Way of Central Minnesota.
