Community Strategies

When giving suggestions for how to start building community, Stephen Thompson said:

“Community  networks aren't going to build themselves folks, you're gonna have to reach out and have coffee with the stranger, stop the corner store and talk to the lady that has an accent and ask her where she from originally, go to your local high school football game and maybe though you don't know any of the players- cheer like your son was playing. Go home and cook a meal for your elderly neighbor and then just sit down and talk to her for a while. We must connect to people, we must engage with people, go home and call a friend, send a friend a note on Facebook and if they don't reply, try again. See if you can volunteer to read at your local elementary school.”

 These are great suggestions of small actions you can take to start building a sense of community. Make a goal to talk to one new person and reach out to one person you already know today. Check out the full TedTalk here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j4Wxhm46RbU

1. Participate in a community that is related to one of your hobbies or recreational interests. Try reflecting on activities that spark your interest or bring you joy. Once you have identified a hobby or recreational interest, find a group of people to do it with! If you can't find an established group, you can start a group of your own to enjoy the activity with. Community participation is higher when the community members relate to the community through a hobby/recreation (Nakagawa & Ichiro, 2019). 

2. Once you have identified a community you are already a part of or have joined a new group, find commonalities between members of the group. In your journal, reflect on what unites the members of your community. In what ways are we similar? What shared values or experiences connect us? Finding common values, experiences, and goals between group members helps increase a sense of belonging (Rodriguez, 2019).

3. Exploring Spiritual Communities: One way to find connection in your own community is to take a more spiritual avenue. For example, researchers studied participants who completed a self-report measure on the level of connection they felt with their congregation, some congregations being religious and others secular (Brown et al., 2021). Researchers also measured their quality of life, moral attitudes, including whether they felt their morals were similar to those in their congregation or not, and values. They found that participants who had attended their congregation for more years, as well as participants who met with their congregation more frequently, felt generally more connected to their church/congregation. Connectedness was also a predictor of quality of life, and a positive correlation was found between connectedness and moral similarity. Evidently, the benefits of going to church or joining a congregation with those who hold similar beliefs to you seem to extend beyond just a fulfilled sense of spirituality, but a feeling of closeness with others around you, which can lead to an experience of higher well-being.

4. Make an effort to help other community members feel like they belong. As you include others (especially newcomers), you will feel more belonging as well (Rodriguez, 2019). Identify who newcomers or people who may not feel included in the communities you are a part of are. Then, make an effort to talk to them and let them know that you are glad they are part of your community. Reflect in your journal on specific ways that you can help the individuals that you have in mind feel more belonging and inclusion. Then, carry out the ideas that you have written down. 

5. In your journal, identify as many personal character strengths that you have as you can. Additionally, reflect on what your motivations are and how those motivations connect to the communities you are a part of. Self-reflection and identifying character strengths and motivations aids in increasing a sense of belonging (Allen et al., 2021). 

6. Try a form of active transportation (these include walking, biking, or taking public transportation to your destination). Not only is this great for the environment and your health, but active transportation is tied to increased community participation. Each day of active transportation predicts a 0.03 increase in community participation, which adds up over time!  (Stroope, 2021). 

7. Try increasing your acts of kindness. Do more acts of kindness in a day than you usually do and switch the acts up! “Being kind and generous leads you to perceive others more positively and more charitably which fosters a heightened sense of interdependence and cooperation in your social community” (Lyubomirsky, 2007).