Seeking a New Relationship with Communities: How Local Elected Officials Want to Bridge Divides, Distrust, and Doubts (2020)

About: A nationwide study prepared by The Harwood Institute for Public Innovation in partnership with the Kettering Foundation.

Author: Jed Miller and Andrew Taylor with commentary from Richard C. Harwood

Publish Date: 2020

Description: In 2019, The Harwood Institute interviewed 36 leaders to learn how local elected officials view and feel about their interactions with community members. We heard about the tenuous rapport between local officials and the people they serve and, more specifically, the state of outreach and engagement between them.

Our interviews revealed a dynamic between officials and the public that is uncomfortably strained by distrust in government. According to the leaders we interviewed, people harbor deep doubts about their leaders, and those leaders are seeking a new footing to help them reach past those doubts and past the fatigue and limitations that surround traditional outreach and engagement methods.

The resulting report details the hopes, challenges, and perspectives of local elected officials as they engage with communities.