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A civic conversation led by NC State students Provided by Maggie Woods, IEI, NCSU

By Maggie Woods, NC State University.

North Carolinians are feeling more disconnected than ever. And in this increasingly polarized time, we are less able to talk to each other. That’s a problem.

Historically, we have been socialized NOT to talk about issues that may be divisive. We are told we shouldn’t talk about politics and religion, so we don’t, and we avoid conflict at all costs.

And now we find ourselves unable to engage with coworkers, unable to talk with friends, and certainly unable to have a conversation with our uncle at Thanksgiving dinner (yes, everyone has that uncle).

At the Institute for Emerging Issues at NC State University, we are trying to address this disconnection through the ReCONNECT NC series, and through a newly launched initiative called Civic Conversations.

What do we mean by ‘civic conversation’?

How healthy is civic life in North Carolina? Unlike testing blood pressure, or logging exercise time as measures of physical health, making a measure of civic connectedness and activity is tricky.

I am glad that the NCSU Institute for Emerging Issues took on this effort by producing the NC Civic Health Index, 2015.

The report identifies “broad lessons” based on comparing North Carolina’s civic health to national data. It highlights “trends and divides” for subgroups – especially youth and racial and ethnic minority groups — having lower measures than older, Caucasian NC residents, and concludes with a “Call to Action.”

Since the Index surveys the whole state, there are certain to be varying results from community to community. Just because some things may look better than the national average, we probably still have plenty of areas to improve (i.e., get out and exercise more!).

I’ll get straight to the results. Further down, I provide a little context about other states’ civic indexes and compare the 2010 and 2015 NC Civic Health Indexes.