10 November 2009 Contact: Perry Richardson
Miami University – Office of Communications 513/785-3221 office
513/330-4035 mobile
www.ham.muohio.edu

THE 2009 OHIO CIVIC HEALTH INDEX REPORT:
Civic Engagement in Hard Economic Times

HAMILTON, Ohio – The on-going economic recession is limiting the range and depth of Ohioans’ civic engagement according to a report released today by Miami University Hamilton’s Center for Civic Engagement and the National Conference on Citizenship (NCoC) based in Washington, DC. The Ohio findings are in line with NCoC’s national study released in August. “At the national level and in Ohio, the economic crisis has triggered civic foreclosure,” said Kristen Cambell, program director of NCoC.
Ohio's Civic Health Index Report was released at the 2009 Ohio Civic Health Symposium held at the Statehouse in Columbus and shows 80% of Ohioans surveyed say they have cut back on time spent volunteering, participating in groups, and performing other civic activities in their communities during the past year while the economy was shrinking. “This does not mean that four-fifths of our citizens have stopped participating; it means they are participating less, and thus our civic capacity has declined,” said Miami University professor of political science Clyde Brown. “The depressed economy is reshaping civic engagement in Ohio.”
The report finds that Ohioans have been hard hit by the current recession.
• 40% of Ohio households had trouble affording essentials, such as food or medicine, compared to 31% of national households
• 30 % of Ohio households had suffered a job loss by one of its members compared to 20% of national households
• 14% of Ohio households reported mortgage problems or had lost a home to foreclosure compared to 7% of national households
Miami University researchers analyzed data collected in May 2009 from two innovative online samples, one composed of 421 Ohioans and another of 3,889 respondents from around the country. The Ohio sample has a margin of error of plus or minus 5 percentage points; the national sample, plus or minus 2.5 percentage points.
With one exception past NCoC surveys have found that civic engagement usually increases during economic downturns. “The current deep recession is different,” said Kathleen Knight Abowitz, professor of educational leadership at Miami University. “2009 is like the severe recession of 1981-1983 when meeting attendance and volunteering fell while the unemployment rate reached double digits.”
In light of the hard economic times, the researchers investigated and discovered more personal forms of engagement. Half of Ohioans surveyed said they had given food or money to a relative or non-relative in the past year. Sixteen percent of respondents had allowed a relative to live with them (11% a non-relative) during the same time period.
The Miami University research team was encouraged by certain findings, such as younger generations volunteering more than older generations, older generations shifting more to private forms of helping, low-income and less-educated individuals serving in less traditional, more personal ways, and African-Americans generously helping others with food, shelter, and money, while voicing optimism about the willingness of others to help those in need.
The survey found reasons for optimism and concern. Ohioans support proposals for civic renewal while voicing profound skepticism about public institutions and private sector economic actors:
• Respondents are willing to help others during the economic slump by buying American products (71%), giving more food (69%) and more money (40%), and volunteering more (37%)
• Respondent support policy initiatives to institutionalize civic engagement, such as college tuition money in exchange for a year of national or community service (82%), service learning courses in high school (75%), and national deliberations on important public issues (71%).
• Confidence in Congress (4%), the Executive Branch (4%), major companies (5%), and banks and financial institutions (6%) among those surveyed is extremely low.
• Small businesses (36%), the science community (25%), and organized religion (19%) received the most positive response among those surveyed.
According to the report, Ohio ranks 24th among the 50 states and the District of Columbia in its 2009 civic health index score. The index is complied from data on volunteering, collaborative problem solving, voting, and participation in local government. Ohio is near the middle of the list on each of these indicators and maintained the same relative state ranking it had in 2008.
This is the second annual report on Ohio’s civic health conducted by Miami University in conjunction with the NCoC.
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