Six key findings from our new Action Over Dialogue report
The Trust for Civic Life’s first survey of over 500 rural community members reveals that, when it comes to building more trust, agency and belonging, not all types of civic engagement are equal
Action Over Dialogue
In fall 2024, the Trust partnered with SNF Agora Institute at Johns Hopkins University and Trust Civic Hub grantees to conduct its first community survey of hundreds of local leaders and community members in eight rural areas. The goal was to gain a deeper understanding of how civic life, community connections, and social trust are cultivated locally.
In a newly released report, Action Over Dialogue: The Case for Prioritizing Local Civic Engagement, the Trust expands on six key findings from the survey. Offering rare insights from parts of the U.S. where researchers often don’t have the access or opportunity to measure, the report offers a glimpse at what is possible if greater funding goes into fueling local, action-based civic opportunities in rural areas.
One of the most striking themes from the survey was how tightly feelings of social trust, agency, and belonging were linked to taking action in one’s community. Meanwhile, dialogue alone had very little correlation to those same three sentiments.
Despite a national narrative that suggests the country’s divisions are too vast to bridge, survey participants confirmed that, in communities, people are open to believing in each other and local institutions enough to collaborate, solve problems, and act together.
Six Key Insights
The survey of 584 local leaders and residents in eight U.S. rural communities explored respondents’ perspectives and experiences around several core dimensions of civic life. Six insights emerged:
Key Finding 1: Trust is built locally
The “where” matters when it comes to building trust. Across every region surveyed, people consistently expressed high levels of trust in local institutions, such as schools, churches, and community businesses, and low levels of trust in national institutions, such as Congress and corporations.
Key Finding 2: Rural communities are not one-size-fits-all
Local context influences who community members trust. When responses were broken down by individual grantee communities, there were significant variations in which institutions each community trusted or did not trust. The unique context of a community—like local pride, culture, history, and unique divisions—appeared to factor into trust levels.
Key Finding 3: Action over dialogue
Not all forms of civic participation are equal. Taking action with other community members was closely tied to feelings of social trust, agency, and belonging. Meanwhile, dialogue alone appeared to have very little correlation to these three traits.
Key Finding 4: Informal participation has positive impact
Both formal and informal civic activities were connected to positive outcomes. Civic action was tied to feelings of trust, agency and belonging, regardless of whether the participation was formal or informal. As long as the participation involved a person taking action with or for another community member, the formality of that participation had little bearing on these three sentiments.
Key Finding 5: Education does not decide who leads
Education levels did not significantly correspond with leadership. This finding adds new insight to previous research, which has indicated that high levels of education and income correlate to higher levels of civic engagement and leadership.
Key Finding 6: Community is the best reference point
Community opens the door, but politics can close it. Survey respondents of both parties were willing to share their thoughts on community life and civic culture. However, there were strong negative reactions to survey questions about politics, polarization, and partisan differences.
Download the full report
to explore the findings
from our community survey
