The 2009 America’s Civic Health Index found that with our financial and business institutions in uncertain standing, our stocks were not our only societal asset on the decline, so was our public trust.

The CHI found trust in government and other key institutions at new lows with only 6 percent of Americans saying they have a “great deal of confidence” in Congress, the Executive Branch, banks, and financial institutions. The only institution with lower ratings was “major companies” at 5 percent.

Twenty-six percent of CHI respondents said they trust the government in Washington to do what is right, a finding echoed by a recent Pew Research study, which got a 22 percent favorable response for the same question.

“Of course, there is always a strange discrepancy here: Americans say that Congress is terrible, but most Americans think highly (or at least more highly) of their OWN representative,” says Thomas Sander of the Saguaro Seminar on his Social Capital blog. Sander cites a recent New York Times poll that showed nearly half of Americans (46 percent) approved of the job of their representative.

President Obama has sought to rebuild public trust by engaging individuals everywhere as partners with and active participants in government processes. Administration offices such as the Offices of Public Engagement and Civic Participation seek to collaborate with individuals and institutions to inform policy, and open government directives aim to foster transparency and accountability in government processes and from elected officials.

From town hall meetings to community rallies, online petitions to policy forums, citizen-driven movements are being organized across the country in protest and support of government policy and spending. So what does that mean is the role of trust (or its absence) in catalyzing this action?

NCoC seeks to explore this further at the 2010 Annual Conference, “BIG Citizenship: Citizens as Catalysts and Innovators. But what do you think: Is it due to a lack of trust in government that citizens are taking processes into their own hands? Or must a basic element of trust exist for one to even feel empowered enough to begin the process of political engagement?