Investing in community power building to increase civic engagement through voting
Lessons from the Building Healthy Communities initiative
Bibliographic Data
The objective of this study was to examine the impact of investments in community organizing made as part of a 10-year comprehensive community initiative focused on community power building in California. Data from multiple sources were used to examine the relationship between investments and one measure of civic engagement, voter turnout. Comparisons were made over time (2010–2019) and between intervention and propensity-weighted comparison sites. Analyses determined that investments by the funder were positively associated with turnout; this effect differed across elections and was largest in 2012. Broad investments to support community engagement, organizing, and base building had a positive impact on voting, an important indicator of civic engagement. In historically marginalized or underserved communities, investing in power building can yield benefits despite structural barriers that result in inequities. As restrictive electoral reforms grow across the country in the wake of the 2020 election, initiatives designed to build power may support proactively organizing against these changes or provide the infrastructure to understand and navigate them. Investing in community power building is a promising strategy for philanthropic organizations, organizers, and policy makers
Business · Capacity building · Civic engagement · Community building · Community engagement · Community organization · Economic growth · Economics · Intervention (counseling · Political science · Politics · Power (physics · Public relations · Turnout · Voter turnout · Voting · Community Health and Development · Nonprofit Sector and Volunteering · Psychology · Public Administration · Youth Development and Social Support
The Political Determinants of Health
Impacts of Adolescent and Young Adult Civic Engagement on Health and Socioeconomic Status in Adulthood
Prognostic score–based balance measures can be a useful diagnostic for propensity score methods in comparative effectiveness research
The central role of the propensity score in observational studies for causal effects
What Do We Mean By “Civic Engagement”
Two Mechanisms
Getting out the vote in the projects
Differential influences on participation in midterm versus presidential elections
Safe and Accessible Voting
Depression and Political Participation
Foreclosure Depresses Voter Turnout
High School Community Service as a Predictor of Adult Voting and Volunteering
Economic Discontent as a Mobilizer
Connecting, Trusting, and Participating
Latino Immigrants at the Polls
Foreclosure’s Fallout
Economic Adversity and Voter Turnout
Community leadership development education
Disentangling the directions of associations between structural social capital and mental health
Unemployment and voter turnout revisited
Healthy voting
Misdemeanor Disenfranchisement? The Demobilizing Effects of Brief Jail Spells on Potential Voters
Why behavioural health promotion endures despite its failure to reduce health inequities
| Citations per year | 1 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2023 - 2026 (4) |
| Highly cited | No |