For many years, neighborhood revitalization has been measured by what we are able to simply depend: variety of new companies, jobs created, constructing rehabilitations, reasonably priced housing models, and {dollars} invested. These metrics matter, however they don’t present the total image.
The Washington State Important Avenue Program needed to reply a distinct query: Do folks truly really feel like they belong of their downtowns? To seek out out, the group turned to the Belonging Barometer.
The Washington State Important Avenue Program helps roughly 80 downtown organizations throughout the state, serving to communities protect historic locations whereas creating vibrant, economically thriving downtowns. For years, program leaders knew their work created social worth, bringing neighbors collectively, creating welcoming gathering areas, and fostering neighborhood delight, however they struggled to measure these outcomes.
“We’ve all the time identified concerning the social impression of our work,” stated Lydia Felty of the Washington State Important Avenue Program. “However articulating that social return on funding has been elusive.”
For years, success was measured by tangible outcomes: buildings rehabilitated, new companies opened, and jobs created.
These metrics captured financial impression, however they couldn’t reply equally essential questions: Do residents really feel linked to their neighborhood? Do they really feel welcome in downtown areas? Do they imagine they can assist form their neighborhood’s future?
“We stored asking ourselves, ‘How are you aware if an occasion achieved one thing past bringing folks downtown or rising gross sales for native companies?’ These metrics are essential—however they don’t inform the total story,” says Felty.
After being launched to the Belonging Barometer by a longtime colleague, the staff instantly noticed its potential and labored to place it into motion.
“The Belonging Barometer supplies such a transparent framework for method this work with a really clear ‘why,’” Felty stated. “It’s troublesome work, however the framework makes it accessible.”
Simply as importantly, the survey was designed to be replicated and tailored for various settings.
As a substitute of measuring belonging broadly, Washington Important Avenue personalized the survey to focus particularly on residents’ experiences of their downtown communities. Questions explored whether or not folks felt emotionally linked to their downtown, welcomed by others, and in a position to affect selections affecting their neighborhood.
“The survey felt extremely adaptable,” Felty stated. “If it could possibly work nationally, domestically, in workplaces, colleges, and communities, certainly we are able to apply it to our personal scenario.”
Moderately than launching statewide, the Washington State Important Avenue Program started with a manageable pilot. In fall 2024, 4 communities participated within the first cohort. The purpose was to ascertain a baseline and perceive what utilizing the Belonging Barometer might appear to be in a Important Avenue context. Alongside the survey, the staff added historic analysis, website visits, and neighborhood interviews to raised perceive every downtown’s distinctive story and context.
As a result of belonging is deeply linked to position, they needed the information to mirror greater than survey scores alone.
“We leaned into the concept of place-based belonging,” Felty stated. “What does it truly imply for folks to really feel like they belong on this particular downtown?”
Among the most significant insights got here from folks’s tales. One participant described attending a sensory-friendly downtown parade with a grandchild who has autism. For that household, the occasion was proof that the downtown had deliberately created an accessible house and expertise the place they felt welcome.
“That basically stood out,” Felty stated. “It was a kind of moments the place somebody might genuinely say, ‘We belong right here.’”
Tales like these helped reinforce one thing many neighborhood leaders already suspected: intentional programming can meaningfully form whether or not folks really feel included.
The pilot confirmed one of many staff’s preliminary hypotheses: individuals who had been engaged with their native Important Avenue organizations usually reported a stronger sense of belonging. Whereas the staff acknowledges it’s too early to attract broad causal conclusions, the findings offered essential cues and a place to begin.
Extra importantly, the method itself started altering conversations. Group companions and native organizations used the findings to rethink present packages, asking who would possibly nonetheless really feel overlooked, how volunteers might really feel extra linked, and what small modifications might make occasions much more welcoming.
“Even when the information doesn’t instantly let you know to do X, Y, or Z, having belonging within the collective consciousness modifications the best way folks assume,” Felty stated. “It encourages organizations to make small changes and be extra intentional about integrating assets that assist folks really feel extra linked.”
For Felty, one of many biggest strengths of the Belonging Barometer is that it helps organizations measure one thing many have lengthy believed was essential however couldn’t quantify.
“So usually we’re measuring {dollars}, jobs, spending, or attendance,” she stated. “These are all essential, however they solely inform one a part of the story.”
“With the ability to measure belonging—having the ability to measure social impression—means we’re higher in a position to create communities the place folks genuinely really feel linked to one another and to the locations they reside. That’s the guts of the work.”
Following the success of the pilot, the Washington State Important Avenue Program is increasing to a second cohort of communities whereas persevering with to be taught alongside others utilizing the Belonging Barometer. Felty encourages organizations to not wait till they’ve an ideal plan.
“The blueprint is already there,” she stated. “You’ll be able to choose it up, adapt it to your individual context, and begin studying.”
The Belonging Barometer affords organizations a sensible place to begin and a rising neighborhood of practitioners desperate to share what they’re discovering. As a result of whereas each neighborhood seems to be completely different, the query is identical:
Do folks really feel like they belong right here?
Step one towards answering that query is just asking it.
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Obtain the free Belonging Barometer Fast Begin Information and survey questions to start measuring belonging in your neighborhood.
