39Winter 2005

Social Capitalism Begins at HomeEarlier in the summer, Citizens Park in downtownWoburn, Massachusetts, opened as a centerpiece ofrevitalization efforts. Now, on a sultry Augustevening, an expectant crowd of all ages waits inCitizens Park while the Brazilian jazz band com-pletes its final tune-up. The waterfall tumbling overthe stones provides a perfect backdrop for a summerconcert.

As the cool Latin rhythm begins to fill the air, morepeople file into the park. Some, armed with theirlawn chairs, clearly intend to make the concert thehighlight of their evening’s entertainment. Others,strolling along Main Street, coming to or from din-ner, stop at first to satisfy their curiosity. They enjoythe music for a while and chat amiably with peoplethey know.

The crowd enjoying this evening in Citizens Parkseems to reflect the community’s increasing racialand ethnic diversity; it is certainly more diverse thangroups that one typically sees at a local public meet-ing or other such formal gathering. The invitingnature of the music is apparent as fellow organizerFel Medeiros and I speak to a Sri Lankan man,whose young daughter is twirling happily to themusic.

The Citizens Park Concert Series is a project of asocial capital building initiative I founded threeyears ago in Woburn. Social Capital Inc. (SCI) unitesorganizations and individuals to increase social cap-ital and civic engagement. Thousands of Woburnresidents have gotten involved through SCI, and weare now expanding our effort to other communitiesin our region. Major projects include a YouthCouncil program, a Civic Welcome Wagon, and aweekly local civic e-newsletter.

Founding of Social Capital Inc.

In his groundbreaking book Bowling Alone, RobertPutnam explains that “social capital refers to con-nections among individuals—social networks andthe norms of reciprocity that arise from them” (p.19). Putnam’s argument that social capital declinedprecipitously during the last thirty years of the twen-tieth century is well known to those concerned withAmerican civic life. My career in the nonprofit sec-tor has focused on engaging citizens in service andcommunity building, so I read Putnam’s book withgreat interest.

The book took on particular meaning for me recent-ly when I moved back to Woburn and was eager toreconnect with my community. After several frus-trating attempts to get involved with local civic life,the ideas in Bowling Alone began to resonate withmy experience in Woburn. If it was this hard for meto become civically engaged, despite my motivationand experience in the nonprofit sector, how wouldothers with less motivation or knowledge—not tomention cultural differences—get involved?

I believed there were steps that could be taken at thelocal level to increase social capital and civic engage-ment. A League of Women Voters study, “WorkingTogether: Community Involvement in America,”suggests that roughly half of Americans would liketo be more involved in their community. Althoughnational social and economic trends clearly play animportant role in explaining declining participation,there was an exciting opportunity to create bettersystems at the local level to engage willing citizens.

In 2001, I started talking informally to Woburn res-idents and other colleagues about the idea of creat-ing an organization dedicated to increasing social

B Y D AV I D C R O W L E Y

40 Nat ional Civ ic Review

capital. People were quick to embrace the concept asa way of strengthening the fabric of our civic life.On the basis of an enthusiastic response to the ideaof creating a local model for increasing social capi-tal, we began a public planning process early in2002, which led to creation of the SCI programmodel. We have now been successfully implement-ing the model for three years in Woburn. From thisinitial success, and with the support of the BostonGlobe Foundation, we began to expand our work toother communities in our region. We recently com-pleted the first year of operating our initial expan-sion site in the Boston neighborhood of Dorchester.

The SCI Model

Although a healthy supply of social capital is neededto address any cause we might care about, most com-munity organization leaders are too preoccupieddelivering services and running their organization totackle the complex issue of declining social capital. Inother words, there is a coordination problem. TheSCI model unites community groups and institutionsaround their common need to increase social capital.We’ve found many groups ready to get involved witha collaboration that seeks to generate more volun-teers, more donors, more advocates—not to mentionmore neighbors who know and trust one another.

SCI also appeals to individual citizens who are con-cerned about the fraying of our community fabric.In particular, SCI attracts active citizens who arefrustrated with the small (and too often dwindling)number of people doing civic work. They see gettinginvolved with SCI as a long-term strategy forexpanding the base of people who are workingactively to strengthen the community.

Once SCI establishes a network of community insti-tutions and citizens who want to collaborate toincrease social capital, we implement projects infour priority areas.

Engaging Youth. SCI sees developing the next gener-ation of citizens as crucial for civic engagement

over the long run. The SCI Youth Council trainsteenagers as active young civic leaders who imple-ment projects that engage their peers in the com-munity. In addition to hands-on volunteer projects,the Youth Council has organized youth-led candi-date forums that engage students in the electoralprocess. (Ninety-five percent of students participat-ing in the most recent SCI Youth Candidate Forumindicated that the project increased their interest inpolitics and voting.) SCI has also partnered with St.John’s Baptist Church, Woburn Mayor JohnCurran, and the Woburn Public Schools to developthe Woburn Civil Rights Forum, through whichhigh school students learn about the civil rightsmovement from adults with firsthand knowledgeof it.

Developing Leaders. During the development of SCI,people spoke about the diminishing supply of lead-ers available to play a key role in civic life.Therefore, we created Leadership Woburn as one ofour initial programs, providing emerging leaderswith skills training and an opportunity to discussimportant community issues. We have also recentlybegun working to meet an emerging need to helpleaders of existing community institutions adapttheir structure and programming in order to moreeffectively engage twenty-first-century citizens.

Uniting Diverse Individuals and Groups. SCI is par-ticularly interested in fostering “bridging social cap-ital,” that is, creating relationships across barrierssuch as race, ethnicity, and religion that too oftendivide us in our communities. Our concert series isone effective way of bringing diverse groups of peo-ple together. We’ve also worked with St. John’sChurch to expand their annual Martin Luther KingDay Celebration for church members into a com-munitywide event. Large gatherings such as theconcerts and MLK Day can serve as a catalyst forbringing people together, but they are dependent onan ongoing effort to develop one-on-one relation-ships upon which we can build when planningmajor initiatives.

41Winter 2005

Connecting Citizens. The League of Women Votersstudy mentioned earlier cites lack of information asa major barrier to people getting more involved, afinding consistent with my own experience and thatof others who participated in the SCI planningprocess. One of SCI’s first projects was to create acommunity Website with information about localevents, volunteer opportunities, and other civicinformation to help people get involved. We’ve alsodeveloped a weekly civic e-mail that highlights SCIprojects and other community happenings. Thisconsistent communication helps encourage use ofour Website; our community sites are now gettingmore than twelve hundred unique visitors permonth. SCI also coordinates a Civic WelcomeWagon program, through which volunteers greetnew residents and bring them a civic informationpublication.

What We Learned

We believe SCI has had a significant impact in ourfirst three years in Woburn. During the past year weengaged 1,765 Woburn residents and reached morethan 3,800 additional people. More than 90 percentof participants in programs such as our YouthCouncil have demonstrated increased civic leader-ship skills. But perhaps more important than ourquantifiable results is helping to create the belief thatcitizens can work together to improve the communi-ty. There is a palpable sense that Woburn is a com-munity on the move, striving to overcome some ofour past difficulties and usher in positive change.Many factors helped create this potential for change,including improvements in education and progres-sive political leadership, but SCI has been able toserve as a catalyst for community building.

We believe that the SCI model and the lessons we’velearned are applicable to a variety of communities.Community-building efforts need to be locally driv-en, but they can also benefit from applicable lessonslearned and strategies developed in other communi-ties. Dorchester, SCI’s first expansion site, is very dif-ferent from Woburn in many respects. It is an urbanneighborhood of Boston and has a diverse popula-tion. Yet despite the many differences, SCI has takenoff quickly in Dorchester, with a number of SCIWoburn programs such as the Youth Council andWeb and e-mail strategies being replicated.

Two essential elements make SCI’s work replicable.First, we start by partnering with a local institutionwith a strong presence in the community. InDorchester, our lead partner is DotWell, a health ser-vices partnership that unites the Codman SquareHealth Center and Dorchester House Multi-ServiceCenter, health centers with a long track record ofserving the community. Second, SCI brings a frame-work for building social capital and a set of effectivestrategies, but within this framework there is ampleroom for local adaptation through a communityplanning process.

Here are some of SCI’s key lessons learned that maybe relevant to a variety of community settings.

Understanding the Civic Engagement Continuum. SCIoperates on the basis of a concept of a civic engage-ment continuum that suggests effective citizens,throughout the course of their lives, will engage intheir communities in many ways: helping neighbors;volunteering time and money; developing a diverseset of relationships; joining civic and religious insti-tutions; and exercising their political voices throughvoting, communicating with elected officials, andperhaps running for office.

With the civic engagement continuum in mind, SCIdevelops projects that foster participation in a holis-tic way. For instance, our concert series featuresmusic celebrating a variety of cultural traditions,

Most community organization leaders are too pre-occupied delivering services and running theirorganization to tackle the complex issue of declin-ing social capital. In other words, there is a coor-dination problem.

42 Nat ional Civ ic Review

thus encouraging informal relations among commu-nity members from diverse backgrounds who cometo enjoy the music. At the concerts, we promoteother ways for people to become involved throughannouncements of upcoming events and takingvoter registration.

This holistic approach seems to be working. Onevolunteer named Tracey, who started with SCI byhelping to establish our Civic Welcome Wagon andthen became active in many other ways, comment-ed, “As a result of SCI, I’m now registered to vote,and feel like I make a difference.”

Not only did she register to vote for the first timeshortly after starting to volunteer with SCI but dur-ing the next election she served as manager for a suc-cessful campaign that elected a new ward alderman.Tracey is now chair of the Woburn HistoricalCommission and leading efforts to preserve thecommunity’s historic homes.

SCI’s broad view of civic engagement encouragesindividuals to participate in many facets of commu-nity life. We also believe that the continuum conceptis important in fostering collective action. Neighborswho connect with one another informally, be it at acommunity concert or a one-day neighborhoodproject, develop bonds of trust that place them in abetter position to work collectively to tackle prob-lems. For instance, SCI Dorchester recently workedwith several local neighborhood groups to organizeneighborhood clean-up projects as part of theBoston Shines program. As a result of the connec-tions developed working on this one-day project,one neighborhood is now organizing a crime watch.

Engaging Twenty-First-Century Citizens. At SCI, westrive to adapt our practices to reflect the changinglifestyles of the early twenty-first century. Oneexample of the disconnect between civic practicesand today’s lifestyles is the prevalence of voluntarygroups that are built around frequent, regular, in-person meetings. Even though SCI is highly commit-ted to bringing people together face-to-face, we havedeveloped a flexible approach that allows manyforms and levels of participation. Effective use oftechnology is one key element of this approach.People unable to make it to a meeting can keepabreast of what SCI is doing by way of our weeklye-mails and by visiting our Website. When designinga new project, we often use an online survey tool togather input in addition to discussing the idea at ameeting. This typically allows us to involve twice asmany people as would be the case if we gatheredinput only through meetings.

Keeping people in the information loop over e-mailenables them to participate when they have the timeand find a project or cause that interests them. Attimes I wonder if people I haven’t seen in the com-munity for a while are reading their SCI e-mails, butthen I see people who haven’t come to anything insix months at an event and they tell me how muchthey appreciate being kept informed.

Engaging twenty-first-century citizens involves morethan effective use of technology. Perhaps moreimportant, SCI has developed an organizational cul-ture that demonstrates to people that we understandtheir busy lives and welcome whatever level ofinvolvement works for them.

Realistically, some organizations can’t function withthe fluidity SCI embraces, but organizations that donot offer flexibility must realize they are limitingtheir pool of potential members. Those of us con-cerned with increasing civic engagement can’t neg-lect people who require flexibility in order toparticipate.

Ultimately, being a bridge builder is about unitingdiverse members of the community.

43Winter 2005

Being a Bridge Builder. Relationship building lies atthe heart of SCI’s work; social capital as an organiz-ing framework keeps relationships central to ourefforts. In our conversation we’re often able to iden-tify people who share a common interest. We say,“Do you know about the work So-and-So is doing?You should really talk to him.” It’s amazing howoften the people we’re speaking with don’t knowsomeone doing similar work around the corner. Thelinkages we create among actors in the civic spacebring real added value to the community.

The depth and breadth of relationships we developare both important. The sheer number of contacts wecan build up in the community is important; we’reconstantly looking at how we at SCI can add to ourlist of contacts and get more people involved. Inaddition, each person on our list has a personal socialnetwork, so when we’re communicating with our listthere’s a potential for a significant multiplier effect.

Ultimately, being a bridge builder is about unitingdiverse members of the community. We must realizethat bringing people together across lines that toooften divide them takes persistent effort. It was dis-appointing when participants at the first SCI plan-ning meetings did not reflect the increasing racialand ethnic diversity of the community. But that sim-ply meant we needed to work harder to create rela-tionships that would lead to increased diversity.

I have also come to appreciate the importance ofcreating the right venues for welcoming diverseparticipation. Brazilian jazz in downtown Woburncan build bridges in a way that meetings oftencan’t. A band chosen to celebrate diverse culturessends a message about inclusivity. As we’ve seen atmany of our concerts, music helps people relax andconnect with one another. On a warm summernight in downtown Woburn, we can get a glimpseof a community full of diversity and vitality. Ourtask at SCI is to hold on to that vision, learn fromit, and work to make it our everyday experience ofcommunity life.

R E F E R E N C E S

Putnam, R. Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival ofAmerican Community. New York: Simon and Schuster,2000.

“Working Together: Community Involvement in America.”Summary of recent research findings from project commis-sioned by the League of Women Voters and conducted byLake Snell Perry and Associates and the Tarrance Group.Retrieved July 22, 2005, from http://www.lwv.org/AM/Te m p l a t e . c f m ? S e c t i o n = H o m e & t e m p l a t e = / C M /HTMLDisplay.cfm&ContentID=1739.

David Crowley is the president and founder of Social CapitalInc. (SCI).

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