Ohioans have very strong relationships and build strong communities through group membership. These communities provide support for neighbors, encourage civic associations, rebuild community centers, and provide the foundation for individuals during challenging economic times. Nearly 40% of Ohioans are involved with one or more groups, and 25.6% have attended a group meeting in the last year. Ohio ranks 16th in the rate of people eighteen and older who belong to religious, neighborhood, school, or sports groups in their communities. Group membership creates strong social bonds throughout the community, and group membership and afliation have long been an important tradition of the American life and value system. Social networks are the foundation of communities, businesses, and friendships. Measuring the impact of social networks is difcult, particularly as they rely on electronic networks and face–to–face contacts in increasingly complex ways.

The disparity between those who participate in groups and those who do not reveals a deep divide in Ohio communities: Nationally, greater participation in the civil society is highly predictive of civic behaviors. This makes sense, as formal membership, and especially taking a leadership role generally provides people with ample opportunities to serve the community and work with others. Ohio follows this clear trend: About four out of ve leaders volunteer while a little more than one in ten non–participants do so. Having a group afliation alone is also related to higher volunteering rates in Ohio. Leaders are more likely to work with neighbors to improve the community than others. This shows a deep divide in community involvement between those who have a group afliation and those who do not.

Higher income means higher engagement. Group membership and social connectedness correlate positively with family income –– in joining groups, attending meetings, taking part in non–electoral activities, and talking politics. The only place where this is not true is at the dinner table: some people in higher income brackets are slightly less likely to eat together than those with lower family incomes. Group membership is only one important aspect of civic engagement. Social connections and willingness to work with neighbors are also important indicators of thriving communities and overall wellbeing. Civic engagement begins at the dinner table.

Ohioans are strong in regard to social connectedness. These indicators measure the informal interactions that can make a community feel like a nice place to live or seem like a safe environment for a family. These actions often lead to more formal types of civic participation. Last year, we reported that despite difcult economic times, Ohioans continued helping friends, neighbors, and family, using informal social connections to meet their needs. These social connections also lay the foundation for civic engagement as we pull out of the recession and come together in new and old networks, in new and old organizations, to solve new and old problems.

Social connectedness happens informally throughout communities and ties people together at the most basic levels, but Ohioans are also important political players at the local, state, and national levels in more formal ways. Political engagement serves as an avenue to understanding what people believe about their world, how they believe life ought to be, and what kind of expectations they have for the future. Political behaviors and engagement are particularly important to civic life and to communities everywhere.

Many Ohioans talk about politics, but some lack basic political knowledge. Political discussion and participation are civic engagement activities that relate to people's ability to make decisions in the public sphere and gather knowledge for elections. While 77.5% of Ohioans talk about politics with family or friends more than once a month, only 59.1% could correctly identify that the Supreme Court rules whether a law is constitutional or not. Political information not only allows us to navigate an increasingly challenging political landscape, but it is also an essential component of the American democracy. M. X. Delli Carpini and S. Keeter (1989) nd that “the assumption that political knowledge, political power, and socioeconomic power are inextricably linked in the real world is fundamental … Knowledge is both an important political resource in its own right and a facilitator of other forms of political and thus, socioeconomic power.” 17 Citizens must recognize the links between political knowledge and socio–economic capital. Lacking essential political and civic knowledge means Ohioans may not be able to address concerns adequately or vote in ways that match their interests.

Voting is the most common form of political participation, and Ohio ranks 25th in the nation with 64.8% of the population voting in the 2004 and 2008 Presidential Elections. Voting is an important political behavior because it allows individuals to directly and formally participate in the electoral system and because it has relatively low costs associated with the behavior. These low costs include taking relatively little time and effort to participate and essentially no financial contribution. While voting behavior is important, it is not the only way for citizens to be politically engaged, nor is it always the most effective. More than a quarter (29.5%) of Ohioans were active in 2008 in one or more non–electoral political activities, such as participating in party events, raising money, and advocating for policy change.

Ohio's civic participation has several implications. First, women appear to make the connections of civic life at the local level. Although they hold political office less frequently than men and are considered less frequently by party ofcials to run for office, women are central to Ohio's organizations and groups. 18 Second, unemployment affects neighborhoods and communities beyond foreclosures and financial strains. As individuals leave the workforce, they also leave civic organizations, clubs, and groups. However, those unemployed individuals are more likely to talk to neighbors than employed counterparts and talk with neighbors more frequently about politics. Forming civic groups around those informal behaviors and socially connected aspects of daily life is one way to reengage individuals who feel disconnected due to loss of employment. Finally, we nd a strong relationship between family income and all civic and political engagement behaviors although most of the causal relationships are difcult to identify. It is likely that families with higher incomes also have higher education levels. (Higher levels of education are also related to higher levels of civic and political participation.) The relationship is also likely cyclical. As individuals better understand civic and social relationships, they are more capable of taking advantage of economic opportunities. They can lobby for tax incentives that benet their particular situation, or speak to local city council members about zoning restrictions that may be changed in their favor. They learn that systems do change for those who learn how to navigate the complex structures that make up bureaucracies. These particular citizens have the political knowledge and resources to act in constructive ways. All Ohioans can and should have the same opportunities and access to political and civic knowledge and to relationship–building skills.

Civic participation encourages citizens to make change on a local and statewide level. They learn about their communities, their neighbors, and politics. They engage with each other, and they engage as families at the dinner table. What is most important about these ndings is that Ohioans are engaging in very different ways based on their economic and social situations. Collectively, there is much to be done to remedy the discrepancies of access to political and civic knowledge as well as group leadership. Job creation, group leadership and membership, and economic development are intimately intertwined with the civic health of Ohio's communities and the future success of its citizens.