Post-pandemic Blues: The Challenge Community Associations Are Having and What They Can Do About It.

Recently I have talked with a number of community associations. This includes housing associations, neighbourhood associations and home owner associations. They told me the biggest challenge they face, especially since the pandemic, is engaging with more community members. Wouldn’t it be great if community associations had a way of creating real engagement with its their citizens?

The Covid Effect

While people in communities have becoming more isolated over the last 10 years, these associations consistently said that Covid greatly accelerated the process. Once isolation became normal, there has been a lasting effect of less community cohesion. People are being slow to reconnect as a community. For example, an Alberta Community Association told me that 10 years ago, people were placing greater emphasis on self and less on common good. Then Covid hit and the focus on self was magnified. Now they are struggling to recapture that sense of common good.

 

The Non-engagement Effect – not just an issue for

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Create Sustainability through Community

“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed, citizens can change the world.” Margaret Mead

Those words have never been more true or more important than today.

The most powerful human force on earth is not big business, nor is it big politicians. It is ordinary people living in ordinary communities that have the real power. Communities of people are the most powerful force on earth.

Facebook is getting a taste of this power as people turn away – Zukerberg’s shares recently fell by 60%.

And the Iranian leadership are getting a taste to the limits of their power as women and men rise up against the morality laws.

And the lawmakers of Michigan experienced the power of community as citizens rose up against the poisoned water they drink – the governments are acting to clean it up in response.

Even Putin of Russia and Xi Jinping of China have felt the sting of common people coming together in … Read the rest

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Do We Really Want Inclusive Communities?

Recently in a conversation with a great friend, I started having new thoughts about what kind of communities do we really want to live in. Is an inclusive community really good enough? Is there a better idea?

As we examine the word inclusive, it implies that there is an includer and an includee. The includee wants to be included and the includer gets to decide whether the potential includee will be included or not. We hear this all the time from people who are considered marginalized. They say “I just want to be treated like everyone else and be accepted for who I am.”

Is this good enough? That us privileged get to sit in judgement and as gate keeper. In another experience that I had with a First Nation woman, she called me a “White Savior” and she didn’t want any white savior saving her. I was extremely hurt by this accusation and did not see myself as a … Read the rest

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What is a Whole Community?

Recently I had a conversation with a good friend about his experience of raising a special needs person into adulthood. His son has reached the legal age of adulthood and has the mental state of a normal two year old. His goal is to give his son as normal as possible life experience of community, love and acceptance.

As we continued the conversation, he shared how difficult it is to have fellow community members offer to take his son for a walk. This simple gesture would have so much benefit for his son and for the rest of his family. Taking his son for a walk would provide his son with new experiences of the community world while offering respite and acceptance to my friend and his family. It would relieve the burden of being alone in this incredibly important journey.

Yet, our fellow community members often stay aloof from people like my friend. It isn’t that we don’t have … Read the rest

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Is 2023 the Year the World Gets Happier

We have experienced a tough time in recent human history, but we have also learned some big lessons. There is hope.

What we have learned

We have learned that belonging in real communities where people know each other and care about each other is important to our happiness. And we have learned that co-operation gets better results than competition. And we have learned that knowing and supporting each other is better than self-reliance.

Connected, Belonging and Caring Communities have been fundamental to human wellbeing and happiness since we became humans. In recent years, we have tended to take communities for granted and let the social fabric fray. During and after COVID, we have come to realize just how important communities are.

And now, Happy Community Project and Happy Community Builders are ready to bring community to the forefront of our lives. We have done a lot of work getting to this point. Now communities in Nova Scotia, across Canada and … Read the rest

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The Power of Community to Create Sustainability

“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed, citizens can change the world.” Margaret Mead

These words have never been truer or more important than today.

The most powerful human force on earth is not big business, nor is it big politicians. It is ordinary people living in ordinary communities that have the real power. Communities of people are the most powerful force on earth.

For example: Facebook is getting a taste of this power as people turn away – Zugerberg’s shares recently fell by 60%.

And the Iranian leadership are getting a taste to the limits of their power as women and men rise up against the morality laws.

And the lawmakers of Michigan experienced the power of community as citizens rose up against the poisoned water they drink and the governments are acting to clean it up.

Even Putin of Russia and Xi Jinping of China have felt the sting of common people coming together in community … Read the rest

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Sustainability and Community

Communities have been the foundation for human wellbeing for time immemorial. It has only been in the last 50 years that we have changed from a sense of common good to an emphasis on personal good. In this process, communities have shifted from a place of belonging and mutual care towards a place to live that provides the convenience for goods and services that “I” can purchase.

75% of Americans do not have a relationship with their next door neighbor. According to the General Social Survey, only about 20 percent of Americans spend time regularly with their neighbors, while a third say they’ve never interacted with them. Canadian statistics are not much better with over 50% of Canadians not having relationship with their neighbors.

Happy Community Builders is committed to being part of the shift to co-operation amongst citizens for a common good. We see re-emphasizing community as a place of co-operation as being the foundation on which to make … Read the rest

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Homelessness, Poverty, and the Environment:

A new way to think about ‘solving big problems’

 

Homelessness, poverty, and the environments are big problems. We’ve had them since the 1970’s. But little has changed since the 70’s. In this article, we’ll expose:

  • 5 Important Facts that point to a new way of solving problems
  • Why what we have been doing will never be the solution
  • The new way to create a world with fewer big problems

Stating the obvious: our big problems are still problems, 50 years later.

In the 1970’s, homelessness was an endemic problem. Today, homelessness is an endemic problem. In the 1970’s, poverty was an endemic problem that our governments promised to eliminate. Today, financial insecurity and poverty is worse than ever. In the 1970’s, environment was a concern, now it is a crisis. The list goes on and the question is why haven’t these problems been solved in spite of best intentions, monies and efforts?

There is an army of well meaning … Read the rest

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5 Reasons Why Volunteers Matter For Community Development

As our society continues to evolve into greater dependency on technology, with stronger relationships to the machines that dominate our lives, are volunteers important anymore?

It takes effort, it takes structure and it takes caring to make a community work. Volunteers put in the effort, build the structure and bring us the heart that keeps our communities glued together.

Here are 5 reasons why volunteers matter for community development. We’ll cover the social gaps volunteers fill, and why relying on technology or the government alone can’t replace the importance of volunteerism.

#1 Volunteers fill important social gaps that can’t be fixed by technology or automation

We are developing incredible machines that can talk to us, do things for us and even care for us. For example, in Japan, Robots work in nursing homes take care of elders. But as amazing as these machines are, they do not have that extra thing we call human spirit or human heart. We have … Read the rest

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When Volunteers Don’t Show Up

You are passionate about the project you have started. It’s a great idea and you have put your heart and soul into it. Other people have agreed with your project and agreed to help. But what do you do when volunteers don’t show up?

In this post, we’ll share 4 ways you can reduce the chances of volunteers not showing up: proactive ways that will not only increase volunteer attendance, but help leaders and organizers run your events smoothly.

A common volunteer scenario for busy community organizers

Today is an important day for your project and you have lined up volunteers who have agreed to take care of important activities. You look around.

Where is Mary – she agreed to take care of one of the most important activities. And where is Joe, he had agree do to be a greeter for the people arriving to this event. You haven’t heard from them, and yet you can’t find them and … Read the rest

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