Finding Your Path: Opportunities for Communities
Finding the right community is a lot like finding the right person for friendship or romance. But we rarely approach our affiliations with anything like the same consideration. It reminds me of the Johnny Lee song Lookin’ for Love:
”Lookin’ for love in all the wrong places/Lookin’ for love in too many places”
We rush to join one or more organizations to meet people and get a sense of belonging then are disappointed when we do not find what we are looking for. It is important to take time and think about your current affiliations and new possibilities before you invest time and effort.
So what does that mean? To begin, remember that a healthy community provides mutual support for its members within a context of shared experience, shared interest, shared goals, shared mission, or some combination of them. Understanding what binds a community together both officially and unofficially will help you understand if the purpose of that community is important to you and what role you might play in perpetuating it.
Next, you can consider different types of communities which might be of interest to you and evaluate them using a view guiding questions. Many types are discussed here in no particular order.
Neighborhood
Depending on where you live, your neighborhood can be a significant community in your life. To put neighborhood in perspective, historically, a close-knit neighborhood was crucial to survival. There were tribes and there were villages or towns that required cooperative efforts (shared interests and shared goals!) to find food and for defensive purposes. Today, your neighborhood might be an apartment building with dozens or hundreds of community members or a few streets with twenty families or you might be far from the nearest neighbor. Most notably, now, people are rarely dependent on their neighbors for survival as they were in the past.
Your neighborhood may be a community for you. There may be informal community leadership that encourages communication and interaction. There may be block associations and shared events. Most likely, there is a formal definition of your neighborhood that creates inter-dependency to address shared interests for safe streets and, perhaps, good schools.
Here are questions to determine if your neighborhood has the key features of a community:
- Do members of the neighborhood have a sense of shared interests based on the geography?
- Do you have a shared interest or goal that is shared around the neighborhood?
- Are you planning to stay in the community for a few years or just a short amount of time?
- Do you know other people in the neighborhood well enough to determine if you want to be part of the community?
- Is there a structure with leadership for the neighborhood or should there be?
If the neighborhood is defined too broadly, such as a city, the sense of belonging might be weak or lack expressed shared values and shared interests. It is also possible that there is little or no sense of community in your neighborhood because houses are too far apart, or it is a large apartment building with people moving in and out all the time.
Hobbies and Sports
Those who enjoy the same pursuit and take the time to participate together in an organized way form a community. Having a hobby which might be anything from basketball to bowling, painting to glass blowing, or singing to stamp collecting is a natural place to look for shared interest with others. Maybe your hobby or a sport requires a group, or you might choose a hobby because of the group.
While almost any hobby can be a source of community if organized accordingly, music has extraordinary power to create community. When people make music together or share an interest in a type of music, it is a proven strong cohesive force across all cultures. Music as a shared interest provides a choice for level of formality and type of membership from opera patrons to band members to fan groups.
If you are looking to pursue a hobby or sport, consider:
- Do you enjoy the shared activity and purpose of the group (or are you part of it because of a few individuals or because you have been involved for a while)?
- Are you happy with the frequency and quality of interactions among members?
- Does it provide mutual support relating to the activity, so you improve at it?
- Is there a suitable and sustainable structure for the purpose such as a leadership pipeline or is it dependent on one person?
Business and Work
If you have a job or a profession, you probably spend a lot of time with the same people pursuing your career. You want to be surrounded by people you like and, if possible, enjoy most of the time you spend at work. The success of the company that employs you is a shared interest with co-workers. Also, you have a shared experience of working in the same place (or same pursuit) every day. There might be a specific shared goal for your work team or department. Plus, you might become friends with some of your co-workers. All these factors with some cultivation and guidance can make for a strong community. A good manager will foster the sense of community for a positive workplace atmosphere and to make people work more effectively.
The community spirit at your workplace is likely to be quite different depending on the size of the company as well as the business sector. If you work in a mission-driven business especially a non-profit, it is likely that the community is stronger and even a necessary element for success. In a large company, there may be affinity groups or training groups within a company that create belonging and connectedness.
So, is your workplace a community? Maybe.
Here are some questions to consider:
- Is the management team helping to cultivate workplace community or is it really that you have some friends there?
- Is being a community important for achieving the workplace goals and be successful (often for an NGO)?
- Is the workplace too hierarchical or disparate to meet the definition of community?
- Is there something that you can and want to do to make the workplace more of a community?
- If you make this a priority community, how will it affect your motivation to develop your career at this company or another company?
- What happens if you want to get a new job somewhere else or change responsibilities at this company?
Note that an industry organization related to your career can be a source of community based on shared interests without the complications of employment.
Education and Beyond
You attended high school, may have spent a few years in college, and perhaps went on to graduate or professional school — each within a community setting. Still, when you were done, it was great to move on to your next endeavor. Now you might be ready for lifelong learning, or you might want to be involved with an alumni community.
Lifelong learning might be professional education, an opportunity to return to school full-time, arts, crafts, or an interest in taking a few courses on topics of interest at a local college or somewhere else. Presumably, you are taking classes because you want to or need to learn about the subject however you might also want to be part of a learning community. And there are people for whom the classes are primarily about the community and secondarily about the topic. Plus, there is a realization that lifelong learning is important for mental and physical health — being part of a learning community is even more beneficial than “just” attending classes.
Lifelong learning is a great opportunity if you are looking to join a new community because there are so many options. Also, you and the other learners have a shared interest in the topic and a shared experience in class. If lifelong learning is of interest to you, consider these questions:
- What do I want to learn about? It can be practical or philosophical, so long as you are genuinely interested in it.
- Can I find a place to learn about this that will be conducive to forming or joining a community?
- Is the lifelong learning opportunity connected to a community such as an alumni association or a community center that you are interested in or already part of?
- What does the educational institution offer that promotes community?
- Are there organized activities outside of class?
- What are the unofficial opportunities to connect with others in the program/class?
Self-help groups can be included as a type of lifelong learning. Participants have a shared challenge and exist to be mutually supportive, the key elements of a community. As with any community, you should be sincere in your interest and in your “qualifications” for being part of the group.
Also, from each educational experience you have an alumni community. Alumni communities have been important for career opportunities and for social structure for many decades. Even if your school does not engage its alumni, schoolmates may form an independent community. If alumni affiliation is of interest, consider these questions:
- Am I part of an alumni group that fosters a shared mission for me today (supporting the institution or some other purpose)?
- Do I understand the institution today or is it really about my memory of the institution?
- Is there opportunity for me to have personal growth through this affiliation?
- Is my affiliation about friendships or the purpose/community of the alumni group?
- What are the opportunities to serve the organization?
Organizations and Causes
There are over a million organizations and associations dedicated to a cause or a purpose, so it is likely that interested in at least one. Caused-based organizations might support the arts or the needs of other in education or health. They might be volunteer driven or professionally managed with an opportunity to give back.
A cause-based entity is an excellent source of community when it fosters working together and, even more, working together to help others. If you have a cause that you want to support, find an organization that facilitates your effectiveness in furthering the cause and provides mutual support. Here are some questions to consider:
- Is the organization committed to my interest as a primary cause?
- If it is a multi-faceted organization, do I share the overall purpose or mission as well as the specific interest?
- Does the organization cultivate the community as well as address the cause (gatherings for volunteers, etc)?
- Should I support this organization because they do good work for the cause but find a different community based on my interest?
Creative community
What is this? Keep reading! You might not have heard of this idea but it could be just what you are looking for.
One day, before COVID, I entered a coffee shop — the kind of place that exists to foster neighborhood community though I was not in my own neighborhood. Somehow, I ended up sharing a table and talking with Dr. Tuukka Toivonen about “Creative Community.” Yes, a community that brings people together to be a source of incremental creativity for individual purposes and pursuits. In the corporate world, the equivalent might be a business innovation hub that fosters creative clashes that help shape business models.
The concept begins with a group of self-identified creators or innovators. By sharing ideas and discussing them while hearing from others, each concept grows and develops in new ways. For this community, the shared interest is creativity and expanding ideas in unpredictable ways.
Here is an example: When I started writing, I saw a posting about joining a writing group. When I attended the first session, it was clear that the participants were interested in thematically different writing projects. I joined immediately and found that by sharing our disparate ideas, we spurred creative thought beyond the expected boundaries. If you have an idea you are pursuing, consider joining or forming a creative community.
Here are some questions to ask if you are considering a creative community:
- Does the group bring a wide enough variety of interests and ideas?
- Is there sufficient trust for the community members including you to be comfortable with an open exchange of ideas (on a confidential basis)?
- Are you willing to take the time to learn about the other projects and provide input?
Family
Family is a huge and often fraught subject that will not be (and could not be) addressed in all its complexities here. It often, maybe generally, fits in the definition of community– mutually supportive participants with some mix of shared interest, shared values, and shared experiences with qualifications for belonging. The discussion is complicated by the many definitions of family but I use the concept of “constructed family” that includes people with whom you live, those with biological or marital ties, and when there is a bond that makes you include them in the term.
Family is your first community, whether large or small. With the dispersion of families and the social support structures of today, the connection can be more tenuous and weaker because most families do not have a shared purpose such as defense, survival, or competitive advantage. Sometimes there is a strong sense of family identity and pride with emphasis on knowing the family tree across many generations and branches. This can be reassuring, but it can also be burdensome.
Being a part of a family, large or small, whether you like other members or not, often comes with significant responsibilities and obligations especially as you become an adult or a parent. And. while family gatherings and connections are intended as a positive experience, it is not always the case. Also, family is the dominant or defining community at certain stages of life, but the people and the dynamics may shift dramatically from childhood onward.
Here are some questions to consider about family as a meaningful community for you:
- What is connecting “members” that will sustain the family community going forward?
- Is there a family connection beyond genetics such as a business or shared pursuit?
- Do you and other family members understand and respect the changing roles over time?
- If there is “just” the genetic connection, could there be an additional type of bond or shared activities to strengthen the family community?
Brand or Corporate
Are you a Hog or part of Lugnet? Some corporate brands have a community around their product or service whether started by the company or its fans such as the Harley Davidson Owners Group (Hogs) or Lego (Lugnet.) Some provide communications, gatherings, and a virtual social platform though it is primarily to generate sales, not to serve you or a shared purpose. Yes, maybe, their motivation is not important, but the result is — a mutually supportive community with shared experience and shared interests.
Make sure to consider these questions when focusing on a brand community to make sure it goes beyond the sales motivation:
- Is the community only about selling a product or service?
- Is there a purpose to the community beyond brand building (and selling)?
- Is there a platform or communications that provides engagement and fosters mutual support?
Conclusion
There are so many choices of what path to take on your journey to community and belonging. This discussion presents a few of the options. You can help yourself by deciding on a category of community first and then looking at specific opportunities using guiding questions.
Please share in the comments if you are pursuing something included in the discussion or something else. Intentional community building is a big discussion that can be helpful to us all.
The greatness of a community is most accurately measured by the compassionate actions of its members. — Coretta Scott King
