Gallup Report Review: VoicesDMV Community Insights

The Greater Washington Community Foundation’s VoicesDMV is a powerful civic engagement initiative that taps into Community Insights through a regional survey, brings residents together to discuss the issues that matter in their community through virtual or face-to-face small-group On the Table conversations, and helps advance ideas sparked during those conversations through Community Action Awards.

The regional survey, conducted by Gallup earlier this year showed that, even before the COVID-19 pandemic and recent incidents that highlighted deep inequities experienced by so many, residents of the DMV region faced significant economic and social challenges. For example:

• Nearly one in 10 Black residents (9 percent) felt discriminated against in interactions with the police in the past year compared with less than one in 100 White residents (0.7 percent).
• Before the pandemic, 17 percent of the DMV’s Black households said they were already “very worried” about being able to pay their rent or mortgage. By comparison, fewer than 3 percent of White households indicated they had that same fear.
• Nearly one-quarter of all workers (24 percent) and nearly one-half of unemployed residents who are looking for work (49 percent) cited level of education as a barrier to finding and keeping a job.

Gallup Report Review: Community Insights - DC, MD and VA 

Join us on Tuesday, September 22 at 1:00 p.m. for a webinar presented by Leadership Greater Washington and the Greater Washington Community Foundation that will share more insights from this survey data. You’ll learn more about what comes next and how we can all be part of solutions to drive our communities forward.

On the Table Conversations

We are proud to partner with the Greater Washington Community Foundation on this exciting civic engagement initiative that will give LGW members another chance to put purpose into action.

We encourage you to host a conversation on Thursday, October 1 as part of The Community Foundation’s On the Table – a powerful civic engagement initiative will bring people from across the DMV region together through virtual (using The Community Foundation’s platform with a built-in, interactive discussion guide) or face-to-face small-group socially distanced conversations to discuss and reimagine the future of our communities.

Then, invite your friends, neighbors, colleagues and fellow community members to discuss the critical issues impacting our region and consider the ways we can work together to make our communities stronger. Coming out of the conversations, The Community Foundation is launching the Community Action Awards to help everyone – individuals and organizations – implement ideas sparked during their discussions.

In this moment where we’ve been spending so much time apart, it has never been more important to come together to discuss the ways we can work together to make our communities stronger.