The Belonging Initiative team is partnering with communities in providing the Belonging Index survey as a way for those communities to better understand where they are on the continuum of welcoming to belonging.

Gathering community insight

The Belonging Index measures how much residents feel like they belong in the community as a whole and various groups, organizations, and entities. Community members know they belong when they have tangible, relational participation in business, government, philanthropy and the arts, among other areas.

The Belonging Index provides an overall measurement of belonging in a community and pinpoints gaps that can be addressed to make a community where everyone knows they belong. This effort seeks answers to questions like:

• Who feels like they belong? Who doesn’t?
• Where do people feel like they belong? Where don’t they?
• How long did it take newcomers to feel like they belong?

The survey is designed for community members with a special interest in people who have moved to the area in recent years. Residents of the community who are interested can complete the online survey using a computer or mobile device with Internet access. Currently, the survey is available in both English and Spanish.

All responses are anonymous, and all results will be aggregated; no individually identifiable information will be collected or published.

Interactive charts and graphs help to visualize the community’s sense of belonging and compare belonging by demographic and geographic characteristics.

Although the current survey focuses on Grand Rapids, the Belonging Initiative team is beginning to work with communities in other metro areas. The long-term goal is to challenge and inspire communities to build and evaluate neighborhood-level support systems that creates trust and social capital through hospitality, conversation, the arts and just by simply being.