Report Recommends New Ways Charities and Others Can Build Social Ties

By DEBRA E. BLUM

The United States needs a civic renaissance, says a new report by a Harvard University group examining the social ties that link people together.

To improve citizen engagement, public spiritedness, trust, compassion, even personal health, the report says, Americans need to become more involved in social and political activities. To that end, the report says:

• Schools should require students to perform community service.
• Companies should encourage employees to form office-based chapters of national organizations, such as the American Red Cross.
• Grant makers and government agencies should give more money to arts projects, including public murals, that involve and honor whole neighborhoods.
• Government and civic leaders should rein in suburban sprawl, allowing for more carefully planned development that encourages what the report calls “casual interactions among pedestrians and stronger neighborhood cohesion.”

The recommendations are just a few contained in the report, “bettertogether”, from the Saguaro Seminar, a Harvard-sponsored project that brought together 33 people — religious leaders, academics, and charity officials, among others — over the last three years to discuss ways for Americans to better connect with one another.

The project was led by Robert Putnam, a Harvard University professor who has been leading a high-profile crusade to increase those connections, which he calls social capital (The Chronicle, October 5).

The report says that “the national stockpile of social capital has been seriously depleted over the past 30 years.” And, it says, as more and more Americans withdraw from communal life — by failing to participate in such activities as voting and attending dinner parties — the consequences for the country are dire.

“Without strong habits of social and political participation,” the report says, the United States risks “losing the very norms, networks, and institutions of civic life that have made us the most emulated and respected nation in history.”

To reverse the trend, the report suggests ways to improve social capital in different aspects of life, including work, politics, the arts, religion, and youth activities. It also lists 79 things people can do on their own to build social capital, such as attend a town meeting, donate blood, or join the board of a local charity.

The report also features examples of efforts already under way by charities, foundations, or government agencies that advance the kind of civic engagement the Saguaro Seminar supports. For instance, the report points to the work of a Kentucky nonprofit group, called the Prichard Committee, that trains parents across the state to be leaders in their children’s schools.

Free copies of the report are available on the Internet at http://www.bettertogether.org. For more information about the Saguaro Seminar, see the group’s Web site at http://www.ksg.harvard.edu/saguaro/index.html.