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

The survey and focus groups show that there may be a substantial pool of potential volunteers who want to be more involved in community activities and issues, including a significant share of people who are not currently involved in community issues and activities but would like to be involved. A desire for increased involvement is particularly prevalent among Hispanics and young people. Given demographic trends, this provides encouraging news for organizations and groups that require a steady stream of new volunteer participants. Key findings on the untapped reservoir include the following:

• Contrary to conventional wisdom, Americans do not want to withdraw further from community life. A quarter of Americans (27%) are currently involved in community activities and issues, and would like to be more involved, a quarter (28%) are involved and are satisfied with their level of involvement, and a fifth (19%) are not currently involved, but would like to be. In all, just under half of all Americans (46%) say they would like to be more involved in their communities, including nearly a fifth (18%) who say they would like to be much more involved.
  In contrast, fewer than one in twenty (4%) say they want to be less involved.
  
• Generational patterns in desire for community involvement run counter to conventional wisdom and suggest that America may be entering an era of increased rather than decreased community involvement. Younger adults are not significantly more disengaged from civic life than most of their older counterparts and show a greater desire for additional involvement than older Americans. A majority (51%) of people under 30 would like to be more involved, including a fifth (21%) who are not currently involved. In all, a fifth (21%) of all adults under the age of 45 and an equal share of 45 to 64 year olds (20%) are not currently involved in their communities but say they would like to be involved. The desire for increased involvement drops among seniors age 65 or older - just 32% would like to be more involved, including 14% who are not currently involved.
  
• As the U.S. becomes increasingly multi-racial and multi-cultural, a desire for increased involvement among African-Americans, Hispanics, and Asian-Americans provides additional good news about the future of community involvement. African-Americans (53%), Hispanics (58%), and Asian-Americans (50%) are more enthusiastic than whites (43%) about increasing their level of community involvement, including 21% of African-Americans and Hispanics and 23% of Asian-Americans who are not currently involved in community activities and issues but would like to be more involved. Just 19% of whites are not currently involved, but would like to be.
  
• Targets for organizations that want to increase involvement are of two types - those who are currently involved and want to be more involved (27% of the population) and those who are not currently involved, but desire involvement (19% of the population). The demographic composition of the two target groups is shown in Table Three below. The first target group - which tends to feel that they can make a difference in solving community problems but also feels very pressed for time - includes younger college educated people, people with kids over age 6, people with annual incomes over $40,000, and people who have lived in their community for 6 years or more.

The second target group - which tends to have lower levels of confidence in their ability to make a difference in solving problems, lower levels of trust, and includes irregular voters - is more male than female, has some college education but not a college degree, includes African-American men and Asian-American women, dads, parents with children under 7, and tends to be more secular than religious.

Table Three: The Demographic Composition of the Untapped Reservoir

Group One: People who are currently involved In community activities & want to be more involved tend to be ...	Group 2: People who are not currently involved in community activities & want to be more involved tend to be...
Women	Men
Under 45	Under 45
College graduates	Some college, no degree
Hispanics	African-American men
Unmarried under 45	Married under 45
Parents of kids over age 6	Parents of kids age 6 and under
Mothers	Fathers
Working women	Homemakers
In households with yearly incomes over $40,000	Renters
Attenders of religious services at least weekly	Very infrequent attenders of religious services
Group 1 is 27% of the population. Group 2 is 19% of the population. The other 54% of the population either wants their level of involvement to stay the same (49%) or to be reduced (4%) or say they don't know how involved they would like to be (1%).

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