Building a Sense of Community
This blog is to engage stakeholders in the concept of building a sense of community, focusing on the homeless and those at risk of homelessness! Understanding a person’s sense of community helps us to analyze a person’s commitment to their community. A community could be where we live, where we work, or the gym we go to. As you can see, we interact with many communities daily; these are places where we socialize and build networks that enable us to take advantage of opportunities for building meaningful lives. The framework for understanding our levels of social integration was defined in 1986 by McMillan and Chavis to understand such deep rooted concepts as a sense of membership, needs fulfillment, emotional connection and influence. The concept of feeling a sense of community helps builds the sense of deep rootedness that connects us to our communities, builds long-term self-sufficiency, and long-term housing retention.
If our goal is to manage homelessness and address those at risk of homelessness, it is critical to understand how we can build communities that foster this concept. Remember that placing people in housing at any level is the easy part, supporting them to advance and sustain housing is the hard part.
Through this blog, I will address some of the fundamental research on sense of community and the parallels to situation and cultures that have found ways in which to successfully foster a positive sense of community. If we can learn from successes, we can better ensure that that those that are housed have the ability to take advantage of opportunities to become self-sufficient, resilient, and enjoy a higher quality of life.
I look forward to your comments and hearing your thoughts on how we can work towards building sustainable communities that improve quality of life for those we serve. I hope to provide content that will take us to various Cities in the Unites States as well as abroad. Please join me on this journey!
Donna Wickes 