From Working Together: Community Involvement in America A Summary of Recent Research Findings from a project commissioned by The League of Women Voters and conducted by Lake Snell Perry & Associates and The Tarrance Group

As noted above, one's personal sense of efficacy is the strongest attitudinal predictor of participation. The more people feel like they can make a difference in solving problems, the more likely they are to be involved in community activities and issues. Structurally, time and information are the major barriers that people must overcome if they are to become more involved. Key findings include:

• Efficacy - the feeling that one can make a difference solving problems - is strongly related to involvement in community activities and issues. In a statistical model that predicts involvement, strong feelings of efficacy are statistically related to higher levels of involvement, even when other demographic factors that are associated with high levels of involvement are statistically controlled.

People who believe they can make a great deal of difference solving problems are three times more likely to be involved in community issues and activities than people who do not believe they can make any difference (73% versus 24%), and are much more likely to desire increased community involvement (55% versus 36%). Table Four outlines this relationship.

Indeed, high levels of efficacy seem to be enough to overcome time-related barriers - relatively equal proportions of efficacious and inefficacious people say that time is a big or moderate barrier in increasing their involvement, yet those who believe they can make a difference tend to be involved in their communities and desire more involvement. The people who feel most efficacious include college-educated women, older college graduates, working women and people who have lived in their community for between six and 19

• In the focus groups, a sense of empowerment in dealing with local issues and an awareness about how politicians and other authorities can or should help solve problems separated many of the engaged from the disengaged. Participants who were engaged in community activities tended to feel problems can be solved if people work together. They were more willing to call the police about neighborhood problems or work with their neighbors to solve problems themselves. People in the engaged groups were also more likely to know about actions taken (or opportunities to take action that were missed) by members of the city council, the governor or other politicians, or simply to mention discussing politics with friends or co-workers. In contrast, without a developed sense of efficacy, many disengaged people said they would not become involved unless someone asks for their participation and leads the way. Said one woman in Chicago, "I don't feel like I've got the knowledge, the information, or the skills to go out and recruit a group of people and do the research," (Disengaged white woman, Chicago). Additionally, few mentioned asking political leaders for help with community problems or indicated that they talked to anyone about politics.
• With Americans working longer hours than ever before - and often in two-income families - it should be of little surprise that time is the biggest structural barrier to increased participation. In all, time is a barrier to involvement for two-thirds (67%) of the population. The time required to get involved is a barrier in two distinct ways: the perception that getting involved means making a regular time commitment is a barrier for more than six in ten people (63%); and the sense that getting involved requires setting aside big blocks of time is a barrier for an equal share (61%). As one man in Philadelphia said, "I mean I can get involved for a week, but then if it goes longer than that...I can't guarantee I'll be there...." (Disengaged white man, Philadelphia).

Wanting to spend extra time with friends and family is a barrier for just over half (52%). Focus group participants expressed the sense that community involvement is perceived as almost anti-family. As one woman said, "Both parents working, the free time, you want to spend it with your kid. I mean you're not going to abandon them for somebody else," (Disengaged Latina woman, Chicago). Both women and men participants talked about wanting to spend more time with their children and families. Volunteering is often presented as something that takes away from family time, rather than as something families can do together. One man in Philadelphia explained, "If I'm going to do this, then I'm missing out on something with my kids.... They're only going to be little once so when they're teenagers and don't want to be around me then I'll have the time to do the other stuff," (Engaged white man, Philadelphia). Another man spoke of doing volunteer activities with his child, "I'm killing two birds with one stone. I'm volunteering and I'm with my daughter," (Disengaged white man, Philadelphia).

• Information about groups and their activities is the second biggest barrier to involvement. Getting enough information to know whether or not a project is worthy of involvement is a barrier for just under half (47%), as is worrying about whether groups can be trusted (39%). Fewer (36%) say knowing how to get involved in something they care about is a barrier to involvement. In the focus groups, participants implied that they would want perfect information about the organization, the project goal, and the requirements of involvement in order to participate before involvement. Questions raised by participants when they were asked what their reaction would be if someone asked them to volunteer included thoughts like, "I hope they are on the right track and legitimate."
  
• A lesser barrier may be people's self-perception and self-esteem - they do not see themselves as leaders or activists. While this perceptual issue is a barrier for just over a third of all adults (36%), not being a leader or activist is a barrier for four in ten (42%) of those who are not currently involved but want to be. In the focus groups, disengaged participants in several groups said they would want a "fearless leader" with organizational skills, plans, knowledge, enthusiasm, honesty and a good attitude. This group also places relatively more importance than adults overall on not knowing anyone else involved in the activity (35%) and disliking politics (33%).
  
• In the focus groups, disengaged participants describe community involvement as the great unknown, leading to fears of over-commitment as well as to fears of failure and letting down the group. As one man said, "Once you put your foot in the door, it's like you're the man involved with the community group. Then you're saying - you're making that commitment. And I don't want to make that," (Disengaged white man, Philadelphia). Several mentioned the fear that they would become involved and then have to quit and let people down. As one man in Oakland said, "My fear is once I get into it and grooving with it, something is going to come up.... And if I'm out there on the field with them and I get a chance to get another job and I have to cut them loose, then they got to go," (Disengaged African-American man, Oakland).

Others voiced the fear that no one else would come to volunteer and they would be left to do all the work alone. One woman explained her hesitation:

I know sometimes I want to volunteer.... Like we just had black history month and the kids were given this and they wanted some parents to come. But then you may be the only parent who shows up so sometimes it seems like you don't want to do it because you will get handed everything to do. (Disengaged African-American woman, Chicago)

In the survey, not wanting to disappoint others (35%), not knowing anyone else involved, and not wanting to depend on others (34%) all fall into a third tier of obstacles to involvement for voters who are not currently involved in their community but would like to be.

• Other attitudinal obstacles are true barriers to participation for only about a quarter of the population. As detailed in the chart on page 15, obstacles like not knowing anyone else who will be there, not having useful skills, being afraid that the activity will fail, not wanting to have people depend on them and previous disappointing volunteer experiences are not significant barriers to involvement, relative to time and information. Even lack of childcare, which is a barrier for nearly half of all parents (49%), is a barrier for a smaller share of parents than are making a regular or significant time commitment and wanting to spend extra time with friends or family.
  

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