Amid the pandemic and societal turmoil leading to calls for greater justice, rarely has the disparity in access to opportunity and public safety been more apparent. And recent data show the gaps are persistent and widespread across the United States.
Global analytics firm Gallup has for the last three years collaborated with the Center for Advancing Opportunity (CAO) — a partnership between the Thurgood Marshall College Fund, the Charles Koch Foundation and Koch Industries — to study the opinions of those living in “fragile communities.” As part of Koch's enduring mission to help all people achieve their potential, CAO and Gallup have released the third annual study examining access to opportunity for 6,941 residents of fragile communities, from Appalachia to large urban areas. Conducted between November 2019 and January 2020, the survey reveals lagging access to education opportunities, job prospects and health care compared to the rest of America, inhibiting people in these communities from reaching their full potential.
什么是脆弱的社区？简而言之，这是一个社区，其特征是大量居民每天都在苦苦挣扎，社会流动机会有限。这是通过四个组成部分来衡量的：失业率（不在劳动力中的工作年龄成年人的百分比），贫困率（家庭收入低于贫困水平的居民百分比）；教育水平（具有大学学位的成年人的百分比）；以及福利得分（基于盖洛普指数，衡量了五个相互关联的健康：职业意识，社会关系，财务安全，与社区的关系和身体健康）。与美国成年人相比，脆弱社区的居民的家庭收入低于35,000美元的可能性几乎是两倍。只有十分之一的居民拥有学士学位，而总体三分之一的成年人中有1个。
“The lives of residents of America's fragile communities are critical to understand at this time, but they are not understood well enough,” said Camille Lloyd, director of Gallup’s Center on Black Voices, in a news release announcing the report. “The third year of our research on fragile communities with the Center for Advancing Opportunity reveals new opportunities as well as persistent ones that demand attention from leaders.”
The results are eye-opening. Here are six things you should know about the state of opportunity from this year’s report:
1. STRUGGLE OVER INCOME, CAREER ADVANCEMENT AND ADDICTION
Last year, nearly half (47%) of all Americans said they were “living comfortably” on their current income, while just 1 in 5 (20%) of residents in fragile communities felt the same way. When presented with a list of 14 potential barriers to opportunity to overcome, people in fragile communities most frequently pointed to two: a lack of enough jobs that offer career advancement (39%) and drug or alcohol addiction (35%). .
2. LACK OF TRUST IN LAW ENFORCEMENT
One of the report's key takeaways from its criminal justice findings: Racial disparities persist, with Black residents in fragile communities being more likely than white or Hispanic residents to say they have been mistreated by the police and legal system. The study found 60% of Black residents in fragile communities said they knew “some” people or “a lot” of people who were treated unfairly by the police. That’s significantly more than 31% of white residents and 39% of Hispanic residents in fragile communities who said the same. In addition, about half (49%) of Black residents in fragile communities said they knew “some” people or “a lot” of people who were unfairly sent to jail, while just 19% of white residents and 23% of Hispanic residents said the same. Only about 1 in 4 Black residents said they were “very confident” local police would treat them with courtesy and respect, compared with 1 in 3 Hispanic residents (33%) and nearly half (47%) of white residents.
3. HEALTH CARE QUALITY LAGS
While nearly three-quarters (74%) of all Americans said they were satisfied with the availability of health care in their area, just 58% of residents in fragile communities said the same. Only a third (33%) of residents in fragile communities described their health as “excellent” or “very good,” and about the same share (31%) described it as “fair” or “poor.”
4. AFFORDABLE COLLEGE EDUCATION SEEMS INACCESSIBLE
While more than half (55%) of residents in fragile communities said a college education is “very important,” just 28% said they “strongly agree” or “agree” that all people in their area have access to an affordable college education.
5. PANDEMIC OR NOT, FINDING A JOB IS A KEY CONCERN
At the time the survey was conducted, the national unemployment rate was around 3.5%. As of August 2020, the national rate stood at 8.4% amid economic instability surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic. That rate, while more than double that of before the pandemic, is still lower than the 1 in 6 (16.7%) residents in fragile communities who at the time of the survey were jobless and looking for work.
6.对改善生活的强烈信心
脆弱社区中约有十分之一的居民说，他们“非常自信”或“自信”，他们可以改善自己的生活。研究人员发现，信心的最佳预测因素来自自我报告的健康状况，这些状况与收入水平密切相关。虽然有43％的家庭收入少于24,000美元的人将其健康状况描述为“公平”或“穷人”，而收入为90,000美元或更多的人中只有14％的人说相同的收入。
Also linked to self-confidence: access to educational opportunities that focus on discovering and building strengths, as well as access to social networks that can boost economic mobility.
阅读完整报告here, and search the full Opportunity Dashboard with three years of datahere.
See some of the ways Koch Industries is battling injustice in communities across the countryhere.
