This commentary is by Meg Little Reilly, director of UVM’s Project 14 civic infrastructure initiative and former deputy associate director of communications and strategy at the White House Office of Management and Budget under President Obama; and Richard Watts director of the Center for Research on Vermont at the University of Vermont.
With the announcement of Vermont’s 80 percent vaccination goal met last Monday, this state is leading the nation with a Covid-19 strategy that called on our commitment to one another and the common good.
Let’s turn our attention now to another pressing need and apply those same principles to heal an ailing civil society.
America is on the precipice of becoming a dangerously fractured society, and our democratic systems are not the only thing in peril. A recent report by the National Intelligence Council identified the “trust gap” between the informed public and a broader populace that is more skeptical of institutions as a long-term threat to national security. With this greater social fragmentation comes hyper-partisanship, hostility toward other groups, and more political fragmentation, as new data from FiveThirtyEight demonstrates.
The antidote to this trend is trusted local sources of information, robust communication among neighbors, and community collaboration. In other words, we need to build a strong civic infrastructure.
The benefits of a robust civic infrastructure are multifold, from increased voter engagement and
social cohesion to more government accountability and a thriving state economy. Perhaps most critically, civic health promotes more equitable communities wherein everyone has access to information, resources, opportunity and representation.
On the heels of our trailblazing COVID-19 vaccination rates, Vermont can lead the way in rebuilding social trust, solving common problems together, and inoculating our communities against corrosive misinformation.
Amid all the havoc and pain that this pandemic has wrought, there are opportunities to rebuild with its lessons in mind. Gov. Scott and state legislators want to shore up the physical infrastructure of Vermont with the latest influx of federal dollars, and we must. But in doing so, we must also shore up our civic infrastructure, investing in sustainable models for trusted local journalism and information-sharing that will preclude the dystopian sectarianism foreseen by the current data.
These priorities are not at competing odds with one another; they’re complimentary. Local reporting of the American Rescue Plan’s implementation at the state level will help foster participation, collaboration and accountability. It will help ensure that these new roads, bridges, and broadband are being used to foster human engagement and economic activity across barriers of politics and identity. Our communities can’t thrive without civic participation and civility; we must do both.
As we consider what is most broken in America today and how to allocate our resources, we should seize this opportunity to invest in the functions that underpin democracy itself. We are in a unique position here in Vermont as arguably the most accessible and participatory democracy in the nation. We’re primed to lead in this area, but it won’t happen without attention, resources and commitment from the people who live here.
To that end, we are launching this week a statewide civic infrastructure initiative called
Project 14. It will combine the talents of our college students with community newspapers to support local news coverage and information systems for local communities. This work builds on
UVM’s Center for Research Community News Service — a partnership between colleges and papers across the state.
Much of our efforts are focused on expanding local and hyperlocal newspaper coverage, but the initiative may include anything that: promotes government transparency; supports livable towns and economic opportunity; and improves equity and access to critical information.
Vermont’s future as a vibrant, collaborative and diverse place for residents and visitors alike will hinge on our ability to create and maintain a strong civic infrastructure.
Vermont already has many of the pieces in place for these efforts to make an impact, from strong media organizations like VPR, VTDigger and Seven Days, to active local governments, one of the highest rates of citizen volunteerism in the country, and a Legislature and governor who are willing to work together to solve our challenges.
The challenges before us are more than crumbling physical infrastructure and lack of broadband. The processes and practices that keep our democracy humming require maintenance too.
For a thriving future in Vermont, we must start building a strong civic infrastructure today.
