Building Strong Communities
No simple task, not in the insect world or in our own communities. It takes a lot work and on-going commitment from everyone involved. The key word is being “involved”! Just as honeybees work collectively so should we, building strong communities that will sustain us on a long-term basis. We want to feel safe and secure in our neighborhoods and the good news is … it’s achievable. Remember the film titled “Field of Dreams”? I’m reminded of the one liner – if you build it he will come. As a Crime Prevention through Environmental Design (CPTED) practitioner, I’ve adapted this statement a bit – if you build it properly they will stay!
Webster’s dictionary defines “Community” as an interacting population of various kinds of individuals in a common location. Interacting with our neighbors and striving for more cohesion among residents helps build strong communities. Today, we are more isolated, working more and more and socializing less and less. How many of us know our surrounding neighbors, especially if we reside in condos or apartments. It often seems like we are more interested in keeping up with the Jones’s rather than socializing with them. This brings us to another important question, our quality of life. The CPTED concept, coined by criminologist C. Ray Jeffery supports the idea that the proper design and effective use of the built environment can lead to a reduction in the fear and incidence of crime and to an improvement in the quality of life.
Increasing our social capital will help build strong communities. We are generally fixated on the importance of financial capital while socially we struggle with various issues ranging from addictions and various forms of abuse to homelessness. So what is social capital, really? Mark Anielski is an ecological economist who believes that Social Capital means quality and strength of our relations in community: trust, honesty, common values, including tolerance. In his book titled “The Economics of Happiness” – Building Genuine Wealth he goes on to explain that ” a genuinely wealthy community is one which has articulated its values and lives life accordingly. Such communities work in spirit of collective and shared responsibility or stewardship to ensure that the various conditions of well-being that add to quality of life are flourishing, vibrant, life-giving and sustainable for current and future generations.”
We are starting to see quite a paradigm shift in how we build stronger communities. The most exciting aspect of this development has been gaining more momentum over the past few years. A prime example is the ABC Emmy Award winning television series Extreme Makeover: Home Addition where deserving families are provided with major home renovations. With numerous sponsors such as Ford Motor Company and local builders they are building a better community. There are good examples of corporate citizens and community volunteers right in our own backyard. Laebon Homes recently adopted a new corporate slogan – The Spirit of Community. More and more businesses are becoming socially engaged in the communities they serve. Working in the Cooperative Retailing System (CRS) for over 10 years provided a solid foundation for me. You see, Cooperatives around the world generally operate according to 7 core principles and values. Principle # 7 - Concern for Community states that while focusing on member needs, cooperatives work for the sustainable development of communities through policies and programs accepted by the members. Red Deer Co-op supports these principles and is another good example of a corporate community builder.
Are we on the right track … absolutely, and it’s exciting to see! As more of us continue to see the great potential in giving back to our communities and sharing resources we begin to create a powerful process of transformation. Maintaining that spirit and concern for community builds something even stronger, it builds precious communities that become legacies for future generations.
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Great article Steve! Thanks for sending the message of getting involve in our respective communities. TEAM- Together Everyone Achieves More. Red Deer Co-op does take pride in being a Community Builder by participating and supporting different community initiatives.Keep up the good work.
Hi, Some key points have been made here, but there’s no talk about opportunities and cost sharing…perhaps it’s created through the explanined processes…I believe in this process but today’s reality is yes, “be up with the Jones,” if opportunity was instilled correctly through trust building and teamwork, results will increase and unbelievable rewards will take place…The goal is to inspire neighborhoods and “think outside of the box,”…clearout self deceptions…again, mircles and rewards will come, just as in the movie “field of dreams,” why was he able to achieve the result,it’s was through inspiration and ignoreing self deceptions…Lance
I really like the article. It made me think back to a time when things where simpler. I also believe that community starts at home. It seems that technology has influenced the family unit by providing too much uninformed information through the WEB. Our children are greatly affected by the access to this bad information, as we are ourselves. It has in many ways caused confusion in the family unit and therefore directly affects our communities. We need to get back to simpler times and talk to our children and neighbours more. The WEB seems to be slowly eating away at the way people socialize and communicate on a basic “one to one” level. Dont get me wrong, I believe that technology is a good thing and has brought the worlds peoples many great things. My point is we need to share more on a basic level. Communities have changed with the advancement and implementation of technology in our society. Communities have also changed because we are rarely in our homes and communites as we once where, when times where simpler. In our goal to provide our family unit with the best, we have slowly become a society in North America the has caused another paradigm shift. We now live to work, instead of working to live. This has slowly drawn us away from our communities as a place to live and play, to a place to retreat in seclusion from the distractions of our working lives. Growing up as a kid I was so involved in the community, not directly, but indirectly by those people in the community that shared the responsibilty of the parental role by extending the same concern for other children as they did their own. When I go home after a hard days work now I rarely see my neighbours or their children. This isnt just because of tecnology and our work lives, but I believe these two things greatly influence the way we communicate. The question is, how do we get back to basics and create communities that in essence function like a family unit. CPTED can accomplish many of these needs by designing communites that provide more and better opportunites to directly communicate with our neighbours through shared space. Designing communites that provide an environment that encourages people to get out of their homes to walk and play. Communities where they feel safe and believe their community is their sanctuary.
Gerry
“Proper design?”
My old friend Professor C. Ray Jeffery may have coined the term CPTED. But it was Elisabeth Wood and Jane Jacobs a decade earlier who first wrote the contemporary story about territorial feelings and how they might prevent crime.
Rather than the old CPTED maxim – “proper design leads to reduced fear and crime” – I prefer Oscar Newman’s take on the matter. Almost 40 years ago he said:
“We have become strangers sharing the largest collective habitats in human history [modern cities]. Although this heterogeneity may be intellectually desirable, it has crippled our ability to agree on the action required to maintain the social framework necessary to our continued survival. The very winds of liberation that have brought us this far may also have carried with them the seeds of our demise.”
Newman is not saying we should ignore heterogeneity. He is saying we need to relearn how to be both active and proactive neighbours. He is talking about social cohesion – or in today’s case, the lack thereof. He is not talking about design per se. Design only works if it properly reflects the neighbourhood needs, resident desires and allows positive social collaboration. And – dare I say it – fun!
Among the best examples of social collaboration within sophisticated urban design is the new housing form called “co-housing”. This week the national Co-Housing Conference is running in Seattle.
If you haven’t read about co-housing (distinct from co-operative housing)…do so immediately!
With apologies to Newman – we cannot see beyond the seeds of our demise if we don’t know where to look. There are hundreds of co-housing projects across North America, including a good one in Calgary. Cohousing provides the most sophisticated urban designs and community building we have yet discovered for building community safety. If you don’t know it, you can’t plan for it.
Check it out, especially the City Repair movement that is affiliated with it:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AYgQAfxXHqk
http://www.cohousing.ca/
http://www.cohousing.org/
Hi, Some key points have been made here, but there’s no talk about opportunities and cost sharing…perhaps it’s created through the explanined processes…I believe in this process but today’s reality is yes, “be up with the Jones,” if opportunity was instilled correctly through trust building and teamwork, results will increase and unbelievable rewards will take place…The goal is to inspire neighborhoods and “think outside of the box,”…clearout self deceptions…again, mircles and rewards will come, just as in the movie “field of dreams,” why was he able to achieve the result,it’s was through inspiration and ignoreing self deceptions…Lance