Strengthening Communities

Strengthening Communities

An individual can take action to strengthen their community. While there are many challenges on communities that are weakening communities, a lot of these can be overcome or worked with to bring a community together.

Communities can come together through social media. While social media can weaken a community because people can forgo their physical community for a digital one, it can also be used to bring together a physical community. A housing complex can now have a website where the people who live near each other can communicate and plan get together. People in that community need to know about this. An individual can get the word out and can help people who are not tech savvy stay connected. Useful information can be put on a community website that can help people feel like they are part of a community and not just living in a place.

Since I run a book club, I know it is individuals who can keep a community together. One individual can keep in touch with multiple people, they can schedule meet ups and keep a community engaged. I use Facebook to keep my book club members up to date on what book we will be reading and when and where we will be meeting. I’m able to make changes if some members can’t make it on a certain day and make sure the most people can get together for a meeting. Facebook also allows us to move beyond just a book club friendship and most members of the club are now friends outside of the club, creating a closer knit community.

One very important way an individual can strengthen a community is to get out into the community. Meeting neighbors, exchanging phone numbers and email address. When one person keeps up on what is going on in the community and spreads that information around the community becomes stronger and other will want to be a part of the group.

The easiest way for an individual can strengthen their community is to communicate to other individuals. When people are talking they are more liking to join in on events and keep in touch, this is how a community is created.