How do you measure civic pride?
Mara Trionfero, a local community organizer, is attempting to do just that with the launch of the South Bend Community Survey in conjunction with the Vennli Inc. software company.
“Ultimately we do all these campaigns and I wonder how we measure whether they move the needle at all on civic pride in South Bend,” Trionfero says.
The survey asks questions about what factors are important in choosing a city where you would like to live.
A five point scale is used to gauge whether respondents agree with the importance of ethnic diversity, arts and entertainment options, restaurant choices, job opportunities, etc., as well as how passionately respondents feel about those factors.
It then uses another five point scale ranging from “strongly disagree” to “strongly agree” to measure civic pride in South Bend based on the same factors.
Trionfero says that this first survey will act as a baseline for follow-up surveys, which will be used to track changes over time. Vennli will compile the data with their software and help Trionfero interpret it.
Results from the survey will be shared with the city government and community organizations such as DTSB and the St. Joseph County Chamber of Commerce to improve civic pride.
You can complete the survey at http://bit.ly/SBsurvey2015
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1 Comment
When the Harvard study showed South Bend as the third most unhappy city in the US it was wrong. It is the MOST unhappy city. After having been fined for absolutely no reason by code enforcement for 500.00, being charged another 166.66 for collection fees after selling the house, and getting no response from the court system ( this cost me another 154.00), I view the cesspool that is South Bend as a completely dying city. I won’t include the details because nobody in this city will care. These costs are complimented by a charge of 1500.00 I paid to the police for, again, nothing that was my fault.
When the city send me a check for that plus the 820.66 for the ridiculous charges I may have something better to say.