New portrait of American civic participation

The National Conference on Citizenship, a nonprofit organization created by Congress, has just released a 47-page report on American civic participation. Its findings appear to confirm a decline in the willingness of Americans, especially the poor and less educated, to be involved with their communities.
This study, following up on the work of Robert "Bowling Alone" Putnam, can be accessed at:

http://www.ncoc.net/conferences/2006civichealth.pdf

A Washington Post article, writing about the launch of the report and featuring Putnam's response, can be found at:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/18/AR2006091801118.html