First utilized in the 2010 New York Civic Health Index, the STRID index is a conceptual framework for understanding civic health as a composite of social qualities embedded in communities. Figure 1 on page 7 illustrates the index’s five interrelated yet distinct aspects of a healthy community — trust, addressing social needs, remaining informed, taking action, and socially connecting to one another. The STRID Index allows for the understanding of civic health data through a conceptual framework that is useful for policy makers and community members. In short, in an ideal healthy community people would:

(S) Be very socially connected in a variety of ways to other members of the community,

(T) Trust other members of the community and social institutions,

(R) Actively participate in shared responsibility for addressing pressing social issues such as poverty, hunger, homelessness, etc.,

(I) Be informed about the issues, events and news in their community and region, and

(D) Perform civic duties such as voting, attending community meetings and events.

Each of the five components of the STRID Index is measured independently. Though each one represents an important specific part of the social life of healthy communities, all five are interrelated as multipliers of each other. For example, in communities that are very socially active, one would expect there to be more trust among community members. Likewise, in communities in which people do not remain informed, one would expect participation in civic responsibilities to decrease. This interrelationship is particularly important for policymakers to understand as they seek to incentivize higher rates of public participation to build civic health. Working to increase the level of trust that community members have in one another, in major social institutions and in the government can be approached, for example, through any of the other four indicators. Increasing the availability of information, increasing social connections, and increasing the level of participation in community activities can all yield higher levels of trust overall.



Table 1 below illustrates the year-over-year consistency in STRID Index scores. While it may appear that New Yorkers have had a slight increase in social activities and a slight downward trend in trust, these year-over-year differences are attributable to changes in the methodology for measuring the (S) and (T) scores.

STRID scores are determined using 26 individual indicators grouped in the categories of Social, Trust, Responsibility, Information and Duty. Attributing a value to each respondent’s answer to each question, the STRID score is a percent of the possible in which a 100 would indicate that ALL respondents engage in the activity, for example, volunteering or having friends to their home, at the optimum level of frequency. Conversely, a zero would indicate that no respondents engage in the activity at any level of frequency. STRID scores are useful for demonstrating the comparative level of involvement of New Yorkers in the five aspects of civic health, identifying where potential enhancement can occur, and measuring change in those areas of civic health year-to-year.



(All STRID scores are computed from data collected by the 2010 and 2011 CPIS.)

Finally, through SRI’s partnership with the State Commission on National and Community Service, the 2011 New York Civic Health Index has a special focus on volunteering in New York. Through the use of SRI data collected in collaboration with the New York Commission, this year’s report comments in detail on the volunteering habits of New Yorkers. It should be noted that the volunteer rate for New York obtained from CPS data differs drastically from the data from SRI’s Community Participation and Involvement Survey. The CPS found only 21.4% of New Yorkers volunteered in 2010, ranking New York 47th out of all states and the District of Columbia. On the other hand, 66% of respondents to the Community Participation and Involvement Survey said they volunteered at least once over the past 12 months. The 2011 Civic Health Index thus includes further discussion and investigation of this data.

Policy makers and other stakeholders in New York should again celebrate the relatively high levels of social connectedness and trust and continue to support the mechanisms that keep New Yorkers informed. They should also tap into the strong feelings of responsibility for the common good found among New Yorkers to mobilize higher levels of active engagement to address community needs. Finally, policy makers and other stakeholders should work to develop New Yorkers’ sense of civic duty beyond merely registering to vote and voting to include participation in community meetings and other aspects of participatory democracy.