Community Involvement
Community involvement is a broad indicator of civic health. There are many ways for Hoosiers to participate in their communities. Some of the ways to engage in civic life include joining an organization, volunteering and social connectedness that comes from spending time with family and neighbors.

Group Associations
On average, Hoosiers are more likely than other Americans to be part of a civic or service organization, participate in a school group and attend church. Indiana ranked 21st among states in the number of people who belong to religious, neighborhood, school, sports and other types of groups in their communities, at a rate of 36.2% in 2010. Nationally, 33.3% of people belong to one or more groups.(1) Twenty percent of Hoosiers participate in religious congregations above and beyond attending services, 14.1% are members of a school group, 9.7% are members of a service organization and 7.2% are members of sporting or recreational groups. Furthermore, 9.1% of people in Indiana take a leadership role in an organization by serving as an officer or serving on a committee.

Volunteering
In addition to being members of an organization, many Hoosiers donate their time and talents to a wide array of organizations throughout the state. Volunteers provide services in many areas including hospitals, religious organizations, schools, homeless shelters and food banks.(2) Indiana ranked 32nd among the states in volunteering in 2010, with a volunteering rate of 26.1%. An estimated 1,290,000 Hoosiers volunteered in 2010. This is a volunteer rate of 26.1% which closely mirrors the 26.3% national volunteering rate in 2010.

Social Connectivity
Indiana ranked 17th in the number of people who said that they eat dinner with their family a few times a week or more, a rate of 90.1%. The national estimate for this indicator was 88.1% in 2010.

This combined with the number of Hoosiers involved with a community organization suggests that Hoosiers are committed to working with each other to improve their communities. There are, however, other indicators that suggest there is room for improvement in the way that Hoosiers conduct civic business. While Hoosiers are involved in community organizations, Indiana ranked 45th in working with neighbors to solve community problems in 2010, at a rate of 6.5%. Nationwide, 8.1% of Americans worked with neighbors in 2010 to solve community problems.

While Hoosiers are actively engaged with one another on a regular basis, that involvement does not always translate into community problem solving. One reason might be that in Indiana the rate of people who talk about politics with friends and family at least a few times a week was 21.6%, four percentage points lower than the national average.