CONCLUSION 1: Each act of community engagement generates another.

“In the true spirit of America, people from all walks of life contribute to our society's rich tapestry. In 2008, African Americans led the way in voting, Caucasians in group membership and volunteering, Latinos were strong in neighborly activities, multiracial citizens were the most politically active, women volunteered more than men, and those who served our country in uniform rose above the rest in many categories of civic engagement.”
––2010 America's Civic Health Assessment: Executive Summary 1

There are many kinds of civic participation and service, formal and informal. From voting and volunteering to exchanging tools with neighbors and attending arts and cultural events—all of these activities build and strengthen our community. We must recognize, count, and celebrate the diverse ways Seattleites engage and contribute. It all helps; it all adds up; it is all mutually reinforcing.

The more community service is recognized, the more it builds. There is a positive relationship between citizens' sense of empowerment and their willingness to contribute. Citizens who volunteer or belong to a group are more likely to engage in political action and stay in contact with friends. When we nurture any single means of civic participation, we boost them all.

CONCLUSION 2: Greater Seattle's national leadership in civic engagement stems from many assets. Chief among them is our residents' high degree of educational attainment.

This report documents greater Seattle's national leadership in civic participation and community service. The prosperity of our region, its entrepreneurial spirit, strong arts community, philanthropic prowess, and shared environmental ethic are all contributing factors. But the single most important predictor of this success is the educational attainment of our residents: 53.8% of adults in the City of Seattle have a college degree, the highest in the nation and 20 percentage points above the national average of 33%. 2

As the graphs demonstrate, Americans with more education dominate civic engagement. Every metric of community participation and service—with the notable exception of exchanging favors with neighbors—correlates positively with educational attainment. (Figure 11A and 11B)

CONCLUSION 3: The way to sustain and expand our civic leadership is to support educational access and success for all our residents from early childhood through college graduation. Special emphasis should be placed on the teaching of civic skills.

America's 2010 Civic Health Index concludes that because educational attainment is the greatest predictor of future engagement, all efforts should be undertaken to foster a culture of college completion, not just access. It further recommends a stronger focus be placed on the teaching of American history and civic learning. 3

Not only does educational attainment predict civic engagement, the reverse is true, too. The more civic connection and experience youths have, the more confidence and commitment they gain and the more academic success they achieve. Philanthropy for Active Civic Engagement (PACE), a collaborative of national foundations, reports that “Involvement in service brings extraordinary learning to participants; and can improve school performance, sharpen skills, and increase employment opportunities … . Service must be reframed as an opportunity to develop content area knowledge, as well as professional, social, and personal skills.” 4

CONCLUSION 4: Existing disparities and underinvestment in educational quality undermine our civic fabric. To maintain greater Seattle's civic vitality, these dangerous decits must be remediated with particular attention to low–income and minority youth and new immigrants.

“The future of our city demands that our high–school graduation and competency rates signicantly improve. Our economy, our democracy, the peace and safety of our neighborhoods all require it.” ––Seattle City Council President Richard Conlin and
Seattle City Council Member Tim Burgess, “Seattle Must Get Serious About Education Reform,” The Seattle Times , August 5, 2010

Among adults who have gone to college, 17.4% take on leadership roles in Seattle's groups and community organizations; only 2% of those who never attended college do so. Educational attainment yields more engaged citizens and vice versa. This recipe for civic vitality is as compelling as it is simple. Yet even as this report documents greater Seattle's national leadership in citizen engagement, we risk losing that stature because of chronic underfunding and great disparities in the quality of our schools.

In King County, only 71% of students—and less than 50% of African American and Latino students—graduate from high school with their peers. Only about 40% attend college, and the rates of college enrollment for Latino, Native American and African American students are much lower. 5 Washington ranks 37th among the states in awarding bachelor degrees and 39th in graduate degrees as a percentage of our young–adult population. Exacerbating these inequities, in February 2010, King County District Court found that Washington State isn't living up to its constitutional mandate to provide adequate funding for its public schools. 6

Residents of greater Seattle already devote their primary contributions in volunteering and philanthropy to support education and children. We must harness this public commitment and the other considerable assets recorded in this Civic Health Index report to reverse this trend. Our strengths in political action, group leadership, internet connectedness, and non–electoral participation must be focused on restoring educational equity and excellence for all our children.

Our economic prosperity and the future of our civic vitality depend on it.

RECOMMENDATIONS
1. Ensure that civic vitality is measured as a key indicator of our community's health in the Puget Sound Regional Council's regional DNA report, in The Seattle Foundation's Healthy Community Report, and in all other similar analyses of our community's comprehensive vitality.

2. Create messaging that integrates and recognizes all the ways we can serve our communities including volunteerism, philanthropy, and advocacy.

3. Celebrate our national leadership in citizen engagement. Success breeds success.

4. Learn more about educational disparities and strategic recommendations for their remediation, review The Seattle Foundation's Healthy Community Report. issuu.com/seattlefoundation/docs/tsf_healthcom_web?mode=a_p. Support the Foundation's current initiative to bring Teach for America to Seattle in 2011. www.seattlefoundation.org/givingcenter/initiatives/Pages/TeachforAmerica.aspx

5. In whatever ways you engage in community, devote resources to supporting equity and excellence in public education.

6. Support experiential learning of civic skills and community service for youth.

7. Encourage philanthropy to increase its investment in civic education, civic capacity building, and leadership development.

8. Advocate for education reform and the urgency of adequate funding for public education and early learning programming.

9. Support community initiatives to remediate inequities and support community service, including the City of Seattle's Race and Social Justice initiative and Mayoral Service Plan.