Community...is where residents look out for both themselves and for others.

Community building...is a process that provides ways for people in the neighborhood to connect meaningfully with one another.

A central tenet of community builders is that tapping into the social life of the community is a key step in catalyzing collective action, building collaborative relationships among key community members, and building community capacity. ("Community Change: Theories, Practice, and Evidence." Edited by Karen Fulbright-Anderson and Patricia Auspos, THE ASPEN INSTITUTE,  Roundtable on Community Change, 2006)

Why Build Community? | Strategic Factors for Building Community | The Importance of Neighbors | Community Building | Role of Government and Social Capital | Neighborhood Resource Center of Colorado | Capacity Building | Cultural Acclimation

Why Build Community?

150 years of social and medical research indicates four factors are most important to our physical, psychological, and social well-being. One of those factors is the degree to which we have a sense of community, or sense of belonging.

Isolation has been shown to be a significant health risk.

Studies of professional and personal environments demonstrate we gain access to a broader array of resources from casual acquaintances (weak social ties) such as neighbors, store clerks, or business associates than we can access from close friends or family.

Studies on the contagiousness of happiness indicate that family or close friends living within a mile can increase our happiness by a factor of 14%. Our co-resident spouse can increase our happiness by 8%. However, when we have a good relationship with our neighbors, our happiness increases by a factor of 34%!!!

Strategic Factors for Building Community

150 years of social and medical research indicates four factors are most important to our physical, psychological, and social well-being. These factors are based on the degree to which we feel/have:

• A sense of community;
• Connections to other networks for resource and exchange;
• Individual and collective control; and
• Adequate economic, finanical assets, and other resources.

The most powerful and successful community development campaigns are linked to these strategic factors. The most effective way to initiate and sustain the development of community is through a fifth strategic factor: collective action. For more information on this topic from Dr. David Chavis, please visit www.communityscience.com.

The Importance of Neighbors

According to Unger and Wandersman, neighbors:

• Often serve as support systems;
• Serve as buffer against sense of isolation;
• Provide links to information about organizations and services available;
• Provide aid (daycare or emergency help); and
  
• Join together to exercise their political skills.
  

Community Building

Community building is simple, yet comes with complexities. There is no single definition of "social capital" and little empirical evidence of what works at the neighborhood level exists in the literature.

Role of Government and Social Capital

1993 reserach demonstrated correlatino between the effectiveness of governments and the public's set of attitudes, relationships, and behaviors.

Where government was effective and efficient, residents there engaged in civic organizations, mutual aid societies, soccer or literary clubs, and unions (Robert Putnam).

Neighborhood Resource Center of Colorado

NRC-Colorado promotes the use of community building strategies to resolve societal issues:

• Emergency preparedness
• Cultural acclimation
• "Aging in Community"
• Increase sense of community/belonging
  

Capacity Building

Capacity building is the "process of developing and strengthening the skills, instincts, abilities, processes and resources that organizations and communities need to survive, adapt, and thrive in the fast-changing world."

Ann Philbin
Capacity Building in Social Justice Organizations
Ford Foundation, 1996