Great schools, affordable health care and safe streets all help create strong communities. But is there something deeper that draws people to a city – that makes them want to put down roots and build a life?
The Knight Foundation funded a three-year study titled Soul of the Community, conducted by Gallup in 28 municipalities across the United States to determine the factors that attach residents to their communities and the role of community attachment in an area’s economic growth and well-being. The study focuses on the emotional side of the connection between residents and their communities.
The results of the study identify new approaches to help create transformational change and new possibilities for continued community progress. Community leaders can use the study’s findings to maximize community strengths and address challenge areas to improve community attachment and potentially increase local economic growth.
The study closely examined the following factors to determine which ones drive community attachment the most:
- Basic services – community infrastructure
- Local economy
- Safety
- Leadership and elected officials
- Aesthetics – physical beauty, green spaces, etc.
- Education systems
- Social offerings – opportunities for social interaction and citizen caring
- Openness – how welcoming the community is to different people
- Civic involvement – residents’ commitment to their community through voting or volunteerism
- Social capital – social networks between residents
Social offerings, openness and aesthetics were found to be the most related to community attachment in all the 26 communities studied. The other factors played a role as well, to varying degrees. See more about this study at https://knightfoundation.org/sotc/.
We Like Watertown 