Releasing the state’s first Civic Health Index, the Vermont Secretary of State is hoping residents will use the report to increase citizen involvement.
The Vermont Civic Health Index assesses strengths and needed improvements in a number of areas: volunteerism and donating, political, community and social interaction, cultural access, and media and government trust.
Director of Civic and Voter Management at the Secretary of State’s office Robyn Palmer says Vermont is the 36th state to complete such a report.
“We thought that it would be really important to do it as a baseline to understand where we’re doing well in terms of civic engagement, where we have room to improve,” explained Palmer. “And just in my first two years in this job we’ve seen the incredible devastation of flooding across the state. Everyone’s coming off of the COVID pandemic. And so we’re especially interested in civic health and the way that it connects with community resiliency and trying to make sure that we can make key improvements.”
Palmer added that early conversations focused on how the state would define civic health.
“The definition of civic health put forth by the National Conference on Citizenship is the way communities are organized to define and address public problems,” Palmer noted. “And so, six domains are what we started with. And the other thing we realized, we wanted to make sure that there was an emphasis on youth voice.”
University of Vermont Center for Rural Studies State Data Center Coordinator & Research Project Specialist Michael Moser assisted with the YMCA based survey.
“Having over 2,500 students from across the state of Vermont respond to that survey is really, really, really powerful. We have such high rates of youth participation in organizations and such infrastructure that is built within the public education sphere already, it’s important that we build upon that strength and enable that strength to be forwarded on when youth leave the public education system and enter into everyday life as citizens in the state of Vermont,” Moser said.
Moser emphasized it’s important to engage young people on how to improve their civic engagement.
“Engaging youth in town governance I think is really essential. But I think it needs to be more than just having a representative. Our youth needs to have a voice that is actually voting and is actually participating in decision making processes. And that comes from listening to the youth and hearing what they want,” explained Moser. “They want to be more than just an advisor or just have a representative voice. They actually want to be heard and incorporated into those conversations. Are they younger than some of the other members of committees and boards? Of course. Are they less experienced? Of course. Does that invalidate their experiences and their ideas? I don’t think it should.”
Consultant and writer Susan Clark focuses on community engagement and is co-author of “Slow Democracy.” Volunteerism emerged as a strength for the state in the Civic Health Index, ranking fifth nationally for informal helping. Clark notes the data is encouraging but it’s an area that needs work.
“We need to make that easier. We need to do a better job of communicating volunteer opportunities. We need to create and make sure that we show volunteer opportunities that you don’t need an advanced degree or special skills for. How much can we make volunteer opportunities social opportunities? We can make volunteerism and communities more sustainable and also make our lives happier,” Clark said.
The Civic Health Index found that Vermont ranks second nationally for attending public meetings and engaging in political, social or local issues.
