“Belonging is a fundamental human need. Without it, individuals and communities struggle. With it, they thrive.”
From 2022-2024, TogetherUp founder Nichole Argo led a team of researchers on a quest to conceptualize and measure belonging. The result was The Belonging Barometer, co-produced by Over Zero and the Center for Inclusion and Belonging at the American Immigration Council.
The Barometer conceptualizes belonging as: connection (feeling included and emotionally connected), psychological safety (feeling safe and valued even when one disagrees), and agency (feeling we are treated equally, and able to influence decisions). It creates an easy-to-wield measure that allows organizations and communities to track programmatic impact and/or belonging changes over time.
In a nationally representative survey, higher Belonging Barometer scores were associated with more positive outcomes in health and the workplace, as well as local social cohesion (e.g., higher satisfaction with local community; increased trust in one’s neighbors, other local residents, other Americans, local government, and U.S. government; more civic engagement, increased confidence that residents’ involvement in their community can change the way it is run; more engagement with local social actions; decreased feelings of marginalization; more openness to diversity), and support for democracy.
Unfortunately, a majority of Americans were found to experience non-belonging (ambiguity or exclusion) in the workplace, their local communities, and/or the nation. We use non-belonging as a cumulative term that includes people who ranked in the bottom two thirds of the Barometer measure, categorizing those who scored between 2.34 and 3.66 as unsure or ambiguous about whether they belong and those who scored between 1 and 2.33 as experiencing exclusion. Sixty-four percent of Americans reported non-belonging in the workplace, 67% in the nation, and 74% in their local community. The lack of belonging Americans experience in these settings may hold significant costs to individuals, institutions, and our society as a whole.
Questions about belonging, or how to use and/or analyze the instrument? Interested in sharing insights, impacts or stories of how you’ve used the Barometer in your organization, community, or region? We’d love to hear! Write us at info@togetherup.org.
