Baltimore Sun
December 8, 2010
Civic Health Index also ranks state 47th on number of adults who regularly eat dinner with family By Yeganeh June Torbati, The Baltimore Sun For Yvette Pappoe, it can be hard to catch her mother and brother for five minutes of conversation in a day, though they all live in the same Randallstown home. Hectic schedules at work and school mean Pappoe doesn’t get home until late evening, after the rest of her family has eaten dinner. ”I think if we ate dinner together, we’d be a little more close,” said the 18–year–old Catonsville Community College student, who laments that it can take weeks before she is able to tell her mother about important news such as exam grades. ”We see each other when we can. It’s not very often though.” Pappoe is far from alone in Maryland. The state ranks 47th in the country when it comes to the frequency of eating with family members at least a few times a week. Just under 87 percent of Marylanders reported doing so, compared to more than 89 percent nationally. The statistic was contained in a first–of–its–kind report on the state’s civic health released Wednesday. Maryland fared better in other areas. Collectively, we score above the national average in volunteering, working with neighbors and political involvement. All are considered indicators of how residents engage with their communities, a topic that has drawn increasing attention from policy makers concerned that citizens’ civic responsibilities are going unfulfilled. The report’s findings were generated through focus groups and U.S. Census Bureau data. Maryland’s low ranking in some areas, such as dining together, can be attributed to the stress of long commutes and pressures at work, said Brad Rourke, president of the Rockville–based consulting firm Manakee Circle Group and author of the study sponsored by the Center for Civic Education. ”People really almost lamented the amount of time they spent on the road,” Rourke said. ”I’ve got to believe that a great deal of not really eating together very often is symptomatic of a very high–energy and stressed populace.” Though there are fewer Marylanders sharing a meal with their families, it’s apparent they’re still sharing their political opinions: Close to 46 percent of Marylanders — the fifth–highest proportion in the country — reported talking about politics with friends and families, compared to a national average of just over 39 percent. Though the report paints a picture of busy Marylanders who nonetheless generally do slightly better than the national average on civic engagement, state leaders and educators said they would like to see Maryland lead the country, considering its proximity to the nation’s capital, high incomes, and top–ranked education system. ”I think we’re so used to being No. 1 in everything in Maryland that being in the middle of the pack is not acceptable,” said Marcie Taylor–Thoma, vice–chair of the state’s Commission on Civic Literacy. The Maryland report is part of a push to examine the country’s civic strength at the national and local levels. A 2009 law passed by Congress requires a yearly assessment of the nation’s civic involvement and rates of volunteering, and more than a dozen states are preparing similar analyses, in conjunction with the National Conference on Citizenship, a federally chartered organization. ”For fifteen or twenty years now, there’s been concern over a sort of declining civic life on a national basis,” Rourke said. ”There’s lots of data about that being the case, but there’s also been sort of competing ways of looking at it.” That slip in civic engagement could be caused by a number of factors, said Stephen Frantzich, a U.S. Naval Academy professor who has written on citizen involvement in democracy. Long commutes and frequent moves among young people can all contribute to a sense of uprootedness, he said. ”In modern society, geography is largely irrelevant,” Frantzich said at a discussion Wednesday on the report’s results, noting that although he has lived in the same house for years, he has been part of several different legislative districts because of redrawn boundaries. Maryland ranked 23rd in the country when it came to volunteering. More than 29 percent of residents reported volunteering their time in 2009, compared to under 27 percent of U.S. residents surveyed. And 17 percent of residents reported exchanging favors with neighbors recently, slightly higher than the nationwide rate. A mother of two young children living in Ellicott City, Laura Bush, 40, commutes about a half–hour each day to a demanding job as a Procter & Gamble Co. engineer in Hunt Valley, and once a month she has to fly to the company’s headquarters in Cincinnati. Though work and family together might be enough responsibility for most people, Bush also makes time to mentor twice a month through the United Way, lead a volunteering program at her company, and pitch in at her daughter’s school. ”Volunteering gives me energy to do other things,” Bush said. ”I find ways to squeeze it in because it’s important to me and it’s my passion and gives me energy to do the rest of my work.” Local organizations say Bush’s attitude is far from unusual. Chuck Tildon, the vice–president of external affairs for the United Way of Central Maryland, said his group had to hire a part–time volunteer coordinator in the last six weeks just to manage all the extra volunteers coming forward. Job losses and tighter budgets, Tildon said, lead people to give more of their time rather than their money. ”Everyone during this recession is more and more strapped for cash, but they do want to help,” he said. That observation is borne out in the survey, which found that Marylanders with family incomes of less than $35,000 were more likely to exchange favors with neighbors and talk to their neighbors compared to wealthier residents. Mandy DeBoy, the volunteer coordinator for the Maryland Food Bank, said she has seen an 11 percent increase in the number of volunteer hours logged at the bank’s Maryland sites between 2009 and 2010. And Marylanders’ engagement doesn’t stop at volunteerism. According to the report, voter turnout and registration rates were higher here than in the rest of the nation, as were the proportion of people who reported marching in a protest or rally, boycotting a company, and donating to a political campaign. In other words, when it comes to civic engagement, Maryland isn’t in dire straits. ”It’s not a crisis,” Rourke said at the panel discussion on Wednesday. But having the report as a baseline, said Sen. Allan Kittleman, a Howard County Republican who heads the state’s civic literacy commission, will help leaders move forward in determining how to increase community involvement. ”You don’t get better until you know where you’re at,” Kittleman said. i By the numbers: •68.3 percent of eligible Marylanders voted in 2008, compared to 63.6 percent of Americans nationwide •45.8 percent of Marylanders said they discuss politics frequently with family and friends, compared to 39.3 percent of Americans nationwide •86.8 percent of Marylanders eat dinner with family or household almost every day, compared to 89.1 percent of Americans nationwide •52.1 percent of Maryland residents reported making a contribution of $25 or more to a charitable cause, compared to 50.0 percent of U.S. residents •29.4 percent of Marylanders reported volunteering in 2009, compared to 26.8 percent of Americans.