Soul of the Community is a study of perceptions. Unlike the latest unemployment figures, we can change what people think and how they feel. That is why we can be experiencing one of the worst economic declines in recent memory, and still have a large percentage of residents who love where they live.

The economy is bad everywhere. Folks don’t appear to be blaming their financial troubles on where they live. Instead, there are other community features that drive people’s perception that the Bradenton area is a place they enjoy and recommend to others.

Luckily for us, these features also happen to be ones we can influence.

Two key features are perceived as community strengths in Bradenton: our social offerings (fun places to gather and meet people) and our aesthetics (the region’s physical beauty and green spaces).

But a third feature, openness — or how welcoming a place is perceived to be for different demographic groups — merits extra attention and work.

You can read the rest at Bradenton.com. Then come back and give us your thoughts.

What jumped out at you from the results of the study?

WOW, the Soul of the Community survey results are a major point of pride for the Bradenton area. Not only does the Bradenton Metropolitan Statistical Area have the distinction of the highest overall community attachment score in 2009, the two-year results showed a "significant increase in residents' passion and loyalty for their community." From 3.79 in 2008 to 4.03 in 2009 is impressive since Gallup saw little overall change in community attachment in the 26 cities between 2008 and 2009.

Perhaps the major community engagement in the Realize Bradenton cultural planning process this past year helped to fuel the sense of connection people are feeling (although a direct causality is not indicated). Now that I have been on the job 10 days as the new Executive Director of Realize Bradenton (which grew out of the cultural planning process funded by the Knight Foundation), I have experienced a great sense of pride and enthusiasm in Bradenton mingled with “wait and see” anticipation.

I am a strong believer in the sentiment expressed by Peter Drucker that “the ageless essence of leadership is to create an alignment of strengths in ways that make a system’s weaknesses irrelevant.”

Positive image, positive action. So the opportunity now for us is how to build on the Bradenton’s Soul of the Community results and strategically communicate to the various segments of the community its strengths, accomplishments, and the near-term plans for Realize Bradenton. This requires a coordinated strategic communications plan of key messages, information sharing, and multiple venues for dialogue (electronic, print, events, word of mouth). I will be discussing this initiative with the Downtown Development Authority (DDA) and the Realize Bradenton Board in the near future.

What do you consider to be the key takeaways from the findings?

This two-year study underscores the power of place and social connections to build economic development outcomes. Citizens who are attached to their community spread the word to prospective residents and tourists. Citizens who are proud become more engaged and informed. It produces results like the Jim Collins “Good to Great” flywheel—“success breeds support and commitment, which breed even greater success, which breeds more support and commitment—round and around the flywheel goes. People like to support winners!”

Do the findings reinforce the value of any local initiatives?

The Soul of the Community (SOTC) results will help Realize Bradenton build its relationship with:

Bradenton Area Convention & Visitors Bureau (CVB): For the first time the CVB has set aside a pool of funds from the tourist tax to promote arts and culture. SOTC positions Bradenton in a very positive light and the SOTC information has already be sent to the CVB. CVB has secured newspaper coverage on downtown Bradenton from a reporter from the Boston Globe in October 2009. I have passed on the SOTC results to the reporter and hopefully SOTC will be cited in the article.

The Manatee Chamber of Commerce: Mike Kennedy, the Executive Director of DDA and Board member of Realize Bradenton, is attending the chamber’s Leadership Retreat this month and the survey SOTC survey results may provide information on the relationship of economic outcomes to Community Attachment, as well as a road map of findings to help guide business-culture undertakings.

Development of the our next grant to the Knight Foundation: As indicated in SOTC, opportunities for greater engagement are residents who are younger, single and non-employed (including students). As indicated in SOTC, older, long-term, retired and higher educated residents have a strong connection to the Bradenton area and we will find additional ways to engage these segments in Realize Bradenton’s planning and implementation. What I am excited about is that this multi-year study will allow us to measure the progress of our efforts over time using behavioral economic measures.

What questions does the study raise for you?

How can the Net Promoter methodology and an e-survey tool interface with the Soul of the Community and be pilot-tested in Bradenton? I am interested in the Net Promoter concept introduced in 2003 in a Harvard Business Review article, “The One Number You Need to Grow.” The idea is that companies (and cities) should strive to create more “Promoters” and fewer “Detractors.”  Promoters answer affirmatively to the question: “How likely is it that you would recommend our company (our city) to a friend or colleague?” The Net Promoter score can be used to motivate an organization (a city) to become more focused on improving products and services for customers. With the power of the broadband to inform and engage customers and citizens, I wonder how the Net Promoter e-surveys can be adapted for use in civic engagement. Based on my experience using this method in a major franchise, I think it holds promise for community building.

Soul is a feeling, feeling deep within

Soul is not the colour of your skin

Soul is the essence, essence from within

It is where everything begins

So declares Van Morrison in “Soul” on his “Keep it Simple” album, released in 2008. That’s the same time the Knight Foundation launched its project to find the “Soul of the Community” in 26 cities, including Bradenton.

Finding the soul of anything doesn’t sound simple. Yet it truly is where everything begins. And if the research of this three-year project holds true, the Bradenton area has a tremendous core for its future.

It was with more than a bit of skepticism that I went to the University of South Florida’s Selby Auditorium last week for the official presentation of the project’s second-year results. Let’s see: recession, home invasions, unemployment, record murder rate. Those have been beating up on our community’s soul for months now. How in the world could those traits coexist with a good soul?

Read the rest at BradentonHerald.com.

Manatee County’s determination to diversify the economy and attract new business received a major boost this week. Bradenton’s top ranking in a Gallup study, funded by the Knight Foundation and entitled “Soul of the Community,” should help convince business prospects that this is indeed the right place to locate their enterprise.

Gallup surveyed 25 other American communities to identify the reasons why residents become emotionally bonded to their town. Thanks to a surge in community passion and loyalty in 2009, the Bradenton-Sarasota-Venice region scored highest of all for emotional attachment. The rise in ratings for three key factors fueled that score: our appreciation of local social offerings, the area’s natural beauty and our friendly and open nature.

Not even the sour economy, the worst in decades, could dampen our enthusiasm — even though unemployment took the top spot as the most important problem among survey respondents.

MANATEE COUNTY - A new study reveals Suncoast residents rank the area's physical beauty and social offerings as some of the top reasons they're attached to the community.

"Soul of the Community" is a three-year study that explores what qualities influence people's loyalty and passion for where they live.

19-year-old Hannah Crowe works at the Shake Pit in Bradenton.  Her parents have owned the restaurant since 2001.  She was born at Blake Hospital, lives on the island, and loves Bradenton.  "Kinda of like a little country song, everybody knows everybody.  You go to school from kindergarten on.  I go to State College of Florida right now, and there's kids that I go to school with that I've gone to school with since kindergarten," says Crowe.

A Gallup and Knight Foundation study of the Bradenton area and 25 other U.S. communities has found that emotional attachment to the Bradenton MSA (which includes Sarasota and Venice) is the highest of all communities surveyed, according to “The Soul of the Community” survey. The study pinpointed the region’s social offerings (fun places to gather), openness (how welcoming a place is) and aesthetics (an area’s physical beauty and green spaces). Researchers are investigating whether emotional connection to place where one lives drives economic growth. Residents and leaders can explore the findings during a town hall meeting at 5 p.m. Oct. 8 at the University of South Florida Sarasota-Manatee Selby Auditorium. Register at www.sarasota.usf.edu/ippl or call (941) 359-4602. For complete survey findings on Bradenton, visit www.soulofthecommunity.org/bradenton.

That’s what Meredith Hector thought about people here when she first visited two years ago.

“It was ‘Roll up your sleeves, get things done,’ ” said the Knight Foundation’s Bradenton program director in Miami. “Very, very friendly.”

Deeply attached to the community, too, she might have added.

All those traits helped make Bradenton No. 1 in a Gallup study, “Soul of the Community,” to determine whether the worst economic crisis in decades was a factor in attracting or retaining residents in 26 U.S. communities.

It turns out that the worst economic crisis in decades is not a key factor in residents' passion and loyalty for their community.

The Soul of the Community study also found that of the 26 communities surveyed, residents of the Bradenton area (the Bradenton-Sarasota-Venice metropolitan statistical area) were the most emotionally attached to their community.

What does the economy have to do with our love of where we live? The study explores what community qualities influence residents’ passion for the place they call home. It then tries to understand how those feelings relate to indicators of community well-being such as local economic growth. In the Bradenton area the relationship between community attachment and GDP growth has increased since last year and is strong and significant (correlation =.431).

There are three main factors that bind residents to the Bradenton area: social offerings (opportunities and the environment to meet others), openness (how welcoming a place is) and aesthetics (the perceived beauty of the place).

Perhaps not surprisingly, the most attached residents are most likely to be older, long-term, retired and higher educated. The least likely to be attached are younger, single and non-employed (includes students, laid off) residents. There was a significant increase of community attachment for many demographic groups from year 1 to year two including older, higher educated, new and high income residents.

It’s great that overall residents of this region are so engaged but it seems we should analyze and document reasons for the improved ratings of important drivers and for increased attachment in key demographic groups. Perhaps we can look at ways to improve job satisfaction, engage new residents. Or maybe we can focus on welcomeness for college grads.

There’s plenty to learn and explore in this very rich data set. We’ll be starting an online conversation here so please click around, explore website, and feel free to post your comments here. If a virtual conversation isn’t enough I’d also encourage you to join us for a terrific discussion about the survey results and their implications for our community with Dr. Katherine Loflin at 5 p.m. Oct. 8 at the University of South Florida Sarasota-Manatee Selby Auditorium. Those interesting in attending should register by visiting www.sarasota.usf.edu/ippl or calling the event hotline at 941-359-4602. But let’s think collectively about what we might we do as a community to ensure this area is an attractive and vibrant destination where all of its residents want to live, work, visit and play.