For decades, community revitalization has been measured by things that can be easily counted: the number of new businesses, jobs created, building renovations, affordable housing units, and the amount invested. These metrics are important, but they don’t tell the whole story.
The Washington State Main Street Program wanted to answer a different question. Do people actually feel like they belong downtown? To find out, the organization looked at the Belonging Barometer.
The Washington State Main Street Program supports approximately 80 downtown organizations across the state, helping communities create vibrant and economically prosperous downtowns while preserving historic places. For years, program leaders have known that their work brings neighborhoods together, creates welcoming gathering spaces, fosters community pride, and creates social value, but they have struggled to measure their results.
“We’ve always known the impact our work has on society,” said Lydia Felty of the Washington State Main Street Program. “But the social return on investment is difficult to pin down.”
For many years, success has been measured by tangible results such as renovating buildings, starting new businesses, and creating jobs.
While these metrics captured economic impact, they failed to answer an equally important question: Do residents feel connected to their community? Do they feel welcome in the downtown space? Do they believe they can help shape the future of their community?
“We kept asking ourselves, ‘How do we know if an event accomplished anything more than bringing people downtown or increasing sales for local businesses?’ These metrics are important, but they don’t tell the whole story.”
After being introduced to Belonging Barometer by a longtime colleague, the team quickly saw its potential and put it into action.
“The Belonging Barometer provides a very clear framework for how to approach this work with a very clear ‘why,’” Felty said. “This is a difficult task, but the framework makes it easier to tackle.”
Equally important, this study was designed to be replicable and adaptable to a variety of settings.
Rather than broadly measuring sense of belonging, Washington Main Street customized the survey to focus specifically on residents’ experiences in the downtown community. Questions explored whether people felt emotionally connected to downtown, welcomed by others, and able to influence decisions that affect their community.
“We felt this study was incredibly malleable,” Felty said. “If it can work nationally, regionally, in workplaces, schools, and communities, then we should be able to apply it to our own situations.”
The Washington State Main Street Program began with a manageable pilot rather than a statewide launch. In fall 2024, four communities joined the first cohort. The goal was to establish a baseline and understand what happens when using the affiliation barometer in a Main Street context. In addition to research, the team added historical research, site visits, and community interviews to better understand each downtown’s unique story and context.
Because a sense of belonging is deeply connected to place, we wanted our data to reflect more than just survey scores.
“We leaned into the idea of place-based belonging,” Felty said. “What does it actually mean for people to feel like they belong in this particular downtown?”
Some of the most meaningful insights have come from people’s stories. One participant said she attended the sensory-friendly downtown parade with her autistic grandson. For those families, this event was proof that Downtown had intentionally created accessible spaces and experiences where they felt welcome.
“That really stood out,” Felty said. “It was one of those moments where someone could truly say, ‘We belong here.'”
Stories like this helped reinforce what many community leaders already suspected. This means that intentional programming can meaningfully shape whether people feel included.
The pilot confirmed one of the team’s initial hypotheses. That is, people who participate in local Main Street organizations generally report a stronger sense of belonging. Although the research team acknowledges that it is too early to draw broad causal conclusions, the discovery provided an important clue and starting point.
More importantly, the process itself began to change the conversation. Community partners and local organizations used the findings to rethink existing programs and consider who still felt left out, how volunteers could feel more connected, and what small changes could be made to make events more welcoming.
“Even if the data doesn’t immediately tell you to do X, Y, and Z, being part of a collective consciousness changes the way people think,” Felty says. “This encourages organizations to make small adjustments and more intentionally integrate resources to help people feel more connected.”
For Felty, one of the affiliation barometer’s greatest strengths is that it allows organizations to measure something that many have long believed to be important but could not be quantified.
“We frequently measure dollars, employment, spending and attendance,” she said. “They’re all important, but they only tell part of the story.”
“Being able to measure belonging, and therefore social impact, means we can better build communities where people feel truly connected to each other and the places they live in. That’s the core of this work.”
Following the success of the pilot, the Washington State Main Street Program is expanding to a second group of communities as we continue to learn with other communities using our own community barometer. Felty recommends that organizations not wait until they have the perfect plan.
“The blueprint is already there,” she said. “You can pick it up and start learning it in your own context.”
The Belonging Barometer provides organizations with a practical starting point and grows a community of practitioners who want to share their discoveries. Because while each community looks different, the problem is the same.
Do people feel like they belong here?
The first step to answering that question is just asking.
Are you ready to get started?
Download the free Belonging Barometer quick start guide and survey questions to start measuring your community belonging.
