What is a Community and how to make it better


What Is A good meaning Of Community?

A community can be of a suburban location that emphasizes guidelines and local laws for business, some governmental functions, and for schooling.

Another example of a community can be of a group of priests who meet and share the same interests in a church.

A community can be used to describe a lot of things; a separate group of people, an area, or even an institution – Community College. In every sense, the community is about living together as civilized and polite people.

So, if you have any assumptions about the word “community,” then today is your lucky day because this content will clear everything. Every aspect of the community will be discussed in this content, so grab a cup of tea and put on your reading glasses.

What Exactly Is Community all about?

IT IS ABOUT PEOPLE!

The above-mentioned phrase is an easy-to-guess meaning of community, but the actual meaning is very complicated and complex to explain.

In addition to this, not enough understanding can lead to a lot of false assumptions about what community is, and it can also cause a sudden change in your behavior towards other people.

In many diverse societies, it is important to maintain a strong bond with your fellow societal, so you can help each other in the time of need.

If we take some time out to add accurate information to our corrupted knowledge about “community,” we can be able to help a lot of evaluators and funders understand, strengthen and identify the communities they currently work hand-in-hand with.

In the field of social sciences, a lot of research based on the idea of community has been made, and a lot of philosophers have described the community in a lot of different ways. However, the majority of the community to be a change in the behavior and the way we treat other people.

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Some Best Examples Of Forming Healthy Community

There are so many examples of people living together and forming a community. So, let’s discuss them all in detail.

A sense of Place

As you know, the term community involves a lot of social interaction that can typically take place in a digital or a physical place, for instance, the social interactions between people or neighbors who live in the same area.

This type of interaction adds a sense of place for the people. Similarly, other attractive places situated in the town or city can also form a sense of community among people.

Unity 

The presence or sense of community creates a feeling of oneness – a place where people can share their goals and values and work together for the same purpose, without being judged or whatsoever.

Social Status

In a community, it is important for people to be chatty and respective towards one another. With that being said, social status is known to be the respect that is earned by a member.

By maintaining social status, a member can jump from one community to another with powerful goals. However, not every community is the same, as some respect ideals or norms while others respect the coolness and personality.

Politeness

In a community, it is essential for every person to treat the other with kindness, and everyone should try to solve their disagreements and issues politely, according to the ideals of the culture the community is from.

Celebrating Everything Together

In every community, the members are always looking for something to celebrate, and they love to do it together.

Shared Knowledge

The members of a community are always having fun. They are always getting involved in activities and love to take risks and fulfill their tasks heartily.

On the other hand, those individuals who love to take risks and enjoy life can have a good time in a community. The members share their experiences, knowledge, and other memories to strengthen their bond with one another.

A Lot Of Encounters

In a community, several encounters with one another are meant to happen. You might run into someone you know or even someone new, for instance, a neighborhood with a play place that encourages neighbors to have fun with others.

Cosmopolitanism

A community may be formed based on shared identities. In addition to this, it can also be based on the celebration of unique ideas or personalities.

For example, a great embrace of community is cosmopolitanism, as it is a very high level of community-based on shared pursuits or experiences.

Participation In Multiple Activities

A community is not a community without activities, projects, and events that serve as an outlet for people’s energies.

Empathy

The best quality of a good community is to treat everyone with empathy and kindness. Which means every person should show sympathy and respect for one another.

Interacting With Others

Communities provide a person with several opportunities to interact with others and learn different ways to get along with each other in the best context of culture and traditions.

By doing this, a person develops social skills and becomes active in all community activities and cultural capital is formed in the community.

Identity

As a community is filled with people who share the same interests, an individual may consider their community members to be an element of their own identity, and that’s great.

Membership

With the help of a community, a sense of social membership and inclusion is provided. However, a neighborhood doesn’t need to have just one community, there can be many communities based on the profession, lifestyle, circumstances, city, beliefs, aspects, and interests of a person’s identity. So, one can become a part of a community according to his/her interests.

Exchanging Information

When you live in a community, you get the chance to learn a lot of things from different individuals and get to make new friends. In a lot of cases, a community is known to be the major key to the sharing and development of situated and domain-related knowledge.

Personal Help

Communities provide help to those who are looking for new ways to enhance their personalities. Communities change the entire perspective of a person, and they correct a person socially.

Getting Influence From Others

In a community, people influence one another with their special qualities by interacting with each other in several communicative activities.

Providing Love And Believe

You get different opportunities to give into something that you love and believe in. A lot of community members feel blessed o have a community like this to which they want to give back. This helps to enhance the moral character of a person.

What to Learn?

The above-mentioned examples describe everything a community has to offer to an individual and how it changes a person. In addition to this, it is important to understand that not all communities represent the same idea; some are based on different concepts.

So, you must be a part of a community that shares the same interests as you, otherwise, it won’t work.

As mentioned at the beginning of this content, the true meaning of community is to belong to a social group and share the same interests with them. A community can be formed anywhere – a neighborhood, a town, city, even in a small institution.

The sole purpose of a community is to create the feeling of belongingness into one another by changing their characters into helping and interactive human beings.

On the other hand, a community can be based on profession, circumstances, interests or beliefs, and even geography.

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The Best Definitions Of Community

Just close your eyes for a second and imagine the “community” of your organization. Doesn’t it give good vibes? A feeling of friendship and familiarity, can you feel it?

Communities can be defined as people, and not by abstractions. A community does not involve rhetoric expressions, but it involves human beings.

You can have several discussions with the people in your community and understand what the other person needs. You can have thousands of bodies with desires and dreams of walking through your space. So, it is best suggested for you to think about these people in groups – Communities.

A community is a group of people who tend to share the same interests. You can be able to define a community with only shared attributes and by the strength of their links, among others. For a community to be held strong, a bunch of people needs to be the same, people who demand the same interpersonal connections.

If you wish to judge individuals in a particular group, the most important thing to understand is their shared qualities.

To mobilize or mix individuals in a group, the power of their connection is very important. Communities can be of different sizes; big, small, tightly together, or niche. The key is to know what you want.

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So How do We Really see A Community?

The easy way to begin is to create a list of the people who you can relate to. Who is connected to you? Who do you rely on? Who loves you?

Let’s just say you are a retired businessman who loves to play with cars. Teenagers are using your plaza for skateboarding, moms with kids from societies across the street. Artistic college kids with their unique appearances or street performers with their instruments and moves.

Make a list of the relevant communities, and you will get to know that the shared qualities that make them one vary. Most of the time, a community is described as a particular place – where people live, play, work.

Whereas, a community is described by identity – which can be of race or religion. With Affinity as well – where people love to do things together. By affiliation – where you live with people you know and share the same values.

Every one of these shared attributes is not considered to be distinct. A group of people or community have fun at trivia night in their neighborhood bar could be identified as a place – bar, affinity – trivia, affiliation – old fellows, individuality – nerds.

Strong Vs. Weak Community

So, how much does the power of connections among others rely on the meaning of community? A powerful community embraces fellowship, among other people, includes passionate leaders, identifies some norms.

On the other hand, weak communities often lead to disastrous results, and the members may not even know each other that well. All of these differences can be helpful when you want to reach out to a community.

On the other hand, a community will still be able to exist in both a weak or strong bond among people. 

How Many Types Of Communities Exist?

When we try to classify broadly, five different types of communities exist.

  • Action Communities: This type of community involves a bunch of people protesting or taking action against wrong and trying to bring a change.
  • Practice Communities: This community involves a couple of people of the same profession who undertake similar activities.
  • Interest Communities: It is very easy to understand this type of community, as it involves a group of people who share the same interests.
  • Place Communities: This type of community is a community where people are gathered together due to geographical boundaries.
  • Circumstance Communities: This type of community is formed when communities of people are gathered together due to external situations/events.

Community – A Source To Share Similar Interest And Cultural Heritage

First of all, the word community is a Noun, and it is related to a group of people living in the same area or sharing the same personality traits.

Even a particular place or area where people get together can be defined as a community. What we call community is a gathering of those who represent the same feelings.

However, the size of the community doesn’t matter, all that matters is that they share similar interests and have a common cultural heritage. As explained in this content several times, a community can be based on anything – religion, culture, profession, area, skills, etc.

What Are The Characteristics Of A Community?

We can understand the meaning of the community in a much better way if we try to study the characteristics of key features. These characteristics play a vital role in determining whether a group is a community or not.

Neutrality

A community is always organized with natural senses. It is not a human production, nor is it an act of government, but it grows continuously and amazingly. Individuals become a member of a community by birth.

A Bunch Of People

The most important characteristic of a community is the people; without them, a community cannot exist. A group doesn’t need to be large, as the number of people does n’ matter in a group; where people with the same interest exist, a community exists.

Community Feeling 

A really important characteristic of a community is the “Feeling.” Without the feeling, a community cannot be formed. The feeling of a community refers to a powerful sense of belongingness among others.

It is about a sentiment of normal living that lives among community members. When you live in an area for a long time, a feeling of common living is created among the members of that particular area. Because of this feeling, people identify themselves in terms of their emotions.

Stability 

A community is always a stable group. It is about the permanent living of people living in the same territory. It is not considered to be a temporary feeling; it is supposed to be permanent.

Similarity 

The members are similar in a variety of different ways. As you know, they all live in a definite area, so they tend to lead similar lives and share the same interests. Among the people, the similarity in customs, traditions, language, and culture and lots of other things is known.

Because of these similarities, an enhancement of the feeling of a community is bound to happen.

Strong Nature

A community is always strong, as it is about a group of people living in the same area. Hence, it is powerful.

No Legal Rank

A community does not have legal status because it is not a person. It does not feature any duties or rights according to the law. A community is created by the public, so only the public has right on it.

Social Life

A community enhances the social life of an individual, as it helps members to interact with one another, and this leads to friendships.

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Why Is A Community Important?

When you take some time on your hands and think about the place where you live, what made you come there.

  • Were you inspired by the culture?
  • Were the local parks a convenience for you?
  • Friendly neighborhood?
  • Was it because of the nearby schools for your kids?

Regardless of the reason, the place where you live has turned out to be “home” for you because of the community created there.

When the thought of community comes to mind, it makes you want to build or just be a part of anything that involves it.

When we interact with others and are there for each other in the time of need, that’s when we understand the importance of a community.

What Is The Difference Between Society And Community?

SOCIETY COMMUNITY
It is a group of people with similar cultures and territories, socializing with one another. A group of people living in the same area or sharing the same interests.
A society features a lot of different communities, so the members are very diverse.Members share the same qualities and characteristics.
In a society, the main aspect is to interact with members to create a huge chain of connections.Interactions among people happen continuously as they share the same interests.
All the members in a society share diverse characteristics, as it is heterogeneous.There is less diversity in a community, as it is homogeneous.
Small in size.Large in size.
The name of a society is not locally determined, and it is not even important to give a name.Locality becomes a huge factor, and it gives a name to the community itself.

How is a Community Organized?

There are a lot of different communities, and each community is organized to serve different needs of various members, but they are based on different cultures, experiences, and religion.

For instance, we can’t compare the teachings given through the African American church to be the same as from a Buddhist temple or a Mosque because they are organized in different ways and contain different communities.

Furthermore, the major cause of assortment among communities is global migration because every person follows a different pattern of belongingness, caring, and trusting one another.

For example, a group of immigrants may create a community based on sharing the same needs and to promote a good method of treatment from law enforcement.

On the other hand, another group may create a community to fulfill their needs for spiritual guidance. The previous group might not be able to fulfill the requirements of a community, but the latter one does.

Needless to say, you have to put more thought and deliberation to learn the true concept of community. Some people in this world love to form communities just to educate others, and we think that’s beautiful.

How To Be Engaging And Mobile In A Community?

As you know, our world is continuously aging, and many communities are facing difficulties in providing basic needs to the members. However, the majority of every country’s population lives in big communities, but some people prefer to live in small communities due to their financial conditions.

So, small communities are likely the ones to face utility problems, which demand proper systematic arrangements, but these are very costly, and no average landlord can commit to them.

Moreover, small communities also contain a limited revenue base to fulfill the costs of huge projects, managerial, financial tendencies, and limited technical capacity to take responsibility for projects. Even politics can’t take care of this situation.

Two decades ago, grant money was accessible. These days, many of the financial projects are taken into consideration in the form of loans that demand to live in debt.

To overcome compound problems, a lot of communities have faced problems while keeping up with the covering costs of their systems, and this can lead to community lock-down, which is the worst-case scenario.

On the other hand, where there is a will, there is a way, which means you can fix these problems by attempting some simple steps.

Give Community Members Freedom To Make Effective Decisions. 

Many communities face a lot of problems regarding small situations, such as a drinking water project. Several public meetings get held, and no solution is achieved until or unless a wise person decides to speak up.

But, why wait for a person to break the silence when you can arrange a meeting that involves all of your community members to join and give them the chance to free speech about their opinions. you give one another the freedom to speak and express their opinions, it is possible to reach a reliable solution.

Make Every Member Participate In The Projects.

The most important step of starting and completing a project is to involve the community members equally into it. To achieve a successful project, the community members must participate equally and provide their opinions according to what bums them out. 

Projects do not require professional help, but just a couple of extra hands. So, it is healthy for the community members to work together in harmony to get better results.

Be Open To All Kinds Of Actions For The Well-Being Of Your Community. 

When it comes to handling difficult situations, no community leader should back down. If money is the issue, then funding programs should be created to gather the amount. It is good to leap instead of hiding in the shadows.

So, if there is a big problem running in your community doesn’t watch it from happening from the sidelines, do something about it so that your community can live in peace without any interruptions.

Conclusion

Community is all about people. In every sense, it is about staying together and not only providing benefits to each other but also sharing the cultural heritage. CWP

Community Watch Paper blogs:

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References

  1. https://ssir.org/articles/entry/what_is_community_anyway
  2. http://healthoholics.com/the-importance-of-community/
  3. https://www.pacificoaks.edu/voices/different-types-of-communities/
  4. https://www.feverbee.com/different-types-of-communities/
  5. https://pediaa.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Difference-Between-Society-and-Community-Comparison-Summary.jpg
  6. https://ephtracking.cdc.gov/showCommunityCharacteristicsLanding

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