What Does it Mean to Strengthen Communities?
What does it mean to build stronger communities? To discuss the elements that make communities strong, we will use the words Community, Collective Action, and Common purpose. These elements include shared values, collective action, and access to resources. These elements are crucial to building stronger communities. The following points will help you to understand what it means to build stronger communities. Continue reading to find out more. Check out our list with essential ingredients for building community.
Collective action
A powerful strategy to improve services, promote local growth, and address problems affecting members is collective action. While collectives have the potential to improve a community’s well-being, there are many challenges that may impede their success. Collectives are limited because of religious, cultural, and political issues. In many cases, women were excluded from collectives and the patriarchal system might prevent them working together.
Common values
All members of a community cherish common values and use them as a guide in their lives. As shared principles that must be defended, these values help communities shape their vision, mission, and strategic plan. Community values are not only a compass but also guide capital projects and budgets. Communities can become more cohesive and stronger by developing shared values. Here are three ways to develop shared values:
Common purpose
Common Purpose: Strengthening Communities offers a model for changing social programs. The book is divided in three parts. Part One describes the characteristics of successful interventions. Programs that have a common purpose are designed to benefit entire communities or neighborhoods. They also evolve over time. Their staff are consummate professionals, who invest a lot of energy and time in building relationships with community stakeholders. The new book is the result of this process.
Access to resources
Community-based efforts to improve health and well-being are designed to provide resources and services that enhance the quality of everyone’s lives. These community resources include nonprofit organizations, public schools, and health care services. Many community services and programs are often overlooked by nonprofits and public schools. Nonprofit organizations offer health and mental health services, emergency shelter, and other community resources. These organizations also offer educational opportunities to people in need.
Conflict and tensions
In order to create a more equitable community, we must recognize that conflict and tensions exist. These forces need to be addressed and solutions must be found. Institutionalized racism and disparities among African Americans and European Americans, for example, perpetuate inequal treatment of different groups. These forces must be eradicated and people must come forward to find solutions. Additionally, there are structural relationships which can lead to conflict. A recent study on Vietnamese refugee communities in America found that a lack of culturally competent mental healthcare care was a major factor in mental health problems.
Organizing
Although there are many ways to strengthen communities, the Community Tool Box’s primary focus is on community improvement. There are many types of community organizing and each one has different reasons and purposes. In the next sections, we’ll be discussing each type of organizing in more detail. These are some examples to help you get started. Let’s begin with the first: community-building. The process of building community capacity and empowering the communities is called community building. It can increase self-worth and a sense of belonging for individuals, groups and organizations.
