The Value of Nothing

How we put value on community

Values define who we are as individuals, and values define who we are as a society. But what do we actually value?

I am reading Mark Carney’s new book “Values.” Carney was the governor of the Bank of Canada and then went on to be the Governor of the Bank of England. He knows a thing or two about values and power of money.

How we fit into economy

The short and sweet of his book is: We have transformed our economy over the last four decades. It used to be that the economy was part of the social fabric of our society, now economy sees society as a resource to be used by the economy and the only things that have value are things with a price tag.

Forty years ago, the market place served the people and supported and honoured societies values. Things like trust, integrity, caring for each other and community were important parts of the marketplace.
Our economy has gone through a 180 degree transformation. Now people are there to serve the economy and the only things that have value are what the market says has value.

We see this all around us

Every way, every where we see how our value in society has become a measure of our contribution to GDP. Our personal data, our environment, and our communities are meant to be ‘free’ contributors to the financial success of others. For example, if you google “the value of community” the most common links are about how to make money from community.

But this is changing:

There is a huge movement emerging that is calling these practices to account. The environment, civil rights and community are emerging as powerful forces for changing this paradigm to where economy is meant to serve people, not the other way round. And community is at the centre of these initiatives.

There is hardly a discussion about any important topic where the word community doesn’t come up. Our experience with Covid has shown every citizen that we can no longer take community for granted; community is essential for our wellbeing.

We are the people we have been waiting for.

We have seen the power of people when they come together with a common idea. Me- Too, Black Lives matter and Fridays for Future led by great Thunberg are all examples of citizens insisting that their values be respected by the economy. There is a new movement emerging around reclaiming the values of community. The Happy Community Project is one of the leaders who is changing how we think about community. We do this by enabling Community Champions in 4 countries on 3 continents.

Placing value on community

For five years, I have been working alongside other professionals who volunteer their expertise and time. Together we have enabled ten communities to be more connected, belonging and caring places to live. Our goal is to scale this up and support hundreds of communities.

We need your help. We look to citizens like you who care about community values to help us. You are our most reliable source of funding. For the price of one cup of coffee a week, you can make a huge difference.

Our Best Hope

Our best hope for a sustainable way of enabling Community Champions to make their communities happier places to live is when there are enough people like you who share our community values. If you are one of those who value communities that are connected, belonging and caring, please help us. You can be a Friend of the Happy Community Project and donate here.

For every 20 people who  become part of the Happy Community campaign and donate the equivalent of 2 coffees a month ($10/month), we can support one community Champion who makes her community a happier community. Our goal is 200 people will be part of the Friends of the Happy Community Campaign. This will enable us to help up to a minimum of 10 more communities become happier communities.

Please be one of these people who values the value of community.
We are limited in helping communities be happier communities only by the amount of value people actually place on community values.

Be a Friend. Donate here