Sense of Community Belonging in Your Local Area
Measures how connected residents feel to their local community, how often they engage with neighbors and local institutions, and what barriers keep people from participating more, with an AI follow-up that digs into a specific recent moment of connection or isolation.
Sample questions
A preview of what’s in the template. Every question is editable before you launch.
What city or town do you consider your community for this survey?
Overall, how connected do you feel to the people in your local community?
How much do you agree with each statement about your community?
- I trust most of my neighbors
- People here are willing to help each other
- I feel safe walking around my neighborhood at night
- This community reflects my values
- I would recommend this community to a friend looking to move here
In the last 30 days, how often did you interact with a neighbor in person (talking, helping out, etc.)?
- Not at all
- 1-2 times
- 3-5 times
- 6-10 times
- More than 10 times
In the last 3 months, which of these local activities have you participated in?
- Community meeting or town hall
- Volunteering for a local organization
- Neighborhood or block event
- Local sports league or recreational group
- Religious or spiritual gathering
- School or PTA event
- Farmers market or local business event
Which of these would most improve your sense of community, and which would matter least?
- More community events and gatherings
- Safer streets and public spaces
- Better public transportation
- More affordable local businesses
- Easier ways to meet neighbors online
- More green spaces and parks
- Better local schools
- More responsive local government
What's the biggest barrier keeping you from being more involved in your community?
- Not enough time
- Don't know how to get involved
- Don't feel welcome or included
- No activities that interest me
- Work or family obligations
- I'm already as involved as I want to be
Ask the respondent to describe one specific recent moment when they felt strongly connected to their community, and one when they felt isolated or excluded from it. Probe what made each moment feel that way, who was involved, and whether it changed how they engage now. If they say they're already 'as involved as they want to be,' explore what keeps them satisfied at that level rather than assuming disengagement.
How likely are you to still be living in this community in two years?
How long have you lived in this community?
- Less than 1 year
- 1-3 years
- 4-10 years
- More than 10 years
- Prefer not to say
Which age range do you fall into?
- 18-24
- 25-34
- 35-44
- 45-54
- 55-64
- 65 or older
- Prefer not to say
That's everything — thank you! Your responses will be combined with others to help local leaders and organizations understand and strengthen community connection here.
What’s included
AI follow-ups
Adaptive probes on open-ended answers that pull out detail a static form would miss.
Attention checks
Built-in safeguards against rushed answers and low-quality respondents.
AI-drafted copy
Wording, ordering, and branching written by the AI — tuned to your research goal.
Auto report
Themes, quotes, and a plain-English summary write themselves once responses come in.
How it compares
We reviewed the closest templates from other survey tools. Here’s what they do well — and where this template goes further.
Why this template
- Uses an adaptive AI follow-up interview that asks respondents to describe one specific recent moment of connection or isolation, surfacing detail static surveys can't reach
- Combines quantitative measures (an opinion-scale connectedness rating, an agreement matrix, a MaxDiff on what would most improve belonging) with open-ended probing in a single flow
- Explicitly maps engagement behaviors (neighbor interactions, activity participation) against stated barriers to involvement, not just satisfaction scores
- Auto-generates a report from responses and can run as a voice AI interview if a more conversational, screen-share-free experience is wanted
SurveyMonkey
HOA Survey Template: Questions for HomeownersThis is a fielding-ready template, but it's scoped to homeowners' associations rather than general local-area residents, so questions lean toward HOA governance, fees, and amenities rather than broad belonging or neighbor engagement. It overlaps with our topic on community satisfaction but is a narrower audience fit. Useful if the target population is specifically HOA members, less so for a general resident sample.
What it does well
- Ready-to-use, established survey platform with easy distribution
- Purpose-built for HOA/community-association feedback use cases
- Simple to deploy for organizations already familiar with SurveyMonkey
Where it falls short
- Static question set with no adaptive AI follow-up to probe specific moments of connection or isolation
- No per-response quality scoring or automated depth on open-ended answers
- Audience is limited to HOA residents, not applicable to renters or non-HOA neighborhoods
Ready to launch?
Open this template in the editor. Every part is yours to change before the first respondent sees it.