Building Community
Knowing your neighbours is handy: it makes the streets safer, it can get you out of a pickle and it's a lot of fun. But connecting with your neighbourhood goes beyond all that. It answers the deep need within us for a sense of belonging to the place we live. It improves our wellbeing and goes to the heart of what it means to have a home.
In modern society there are demands on people to be engaged in paid work to pay for necessities, which has reduced people's "free" time to make or grow things themselves. Therefore, our non-working time is seriously curtailed. As "time poor" people we are simultaneously needing to also consume more. We have an unprecedented market of consumer goods available for purchasing around the clock as well as on-line. This pressure for working and consuming reduces the time people previously had for getting to know their neighbours, through sharing cups of tea, swapping recipes and sharing belongings which builds relationships and strengthens neighbourhood communities as well as reducing consumption and people's isolation.
News reports warn and worry us with global financial crises, environmental strife and energy scarcity. These can make people feel despondent and uncertain about the future, as well as insecure about their safety. Tighter local communities will help us flourish, restore hope and increase positivity despite these uncertainties.
Reducing people's isolation will drastically improve their quality of life, for elderly people living alone, new parents or emerging refugee communities for example. The Sharehood provides a means to remove barriers between people by showing that "everyone can be your neighbour". This can be immediately obvious in geographical communities, such as the people next door and in your local area. However, it can also be a bridge between people of different ages, nationalities and cultures, people with mental health diagnoses, lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans people. The principle of the Sharehood is that you can share with your neighbours and get to know them, and that includes transcending any real or imagined differences or barriers between us.
There are all manner of ways to build your community, and in this section, we've listed a few ideas for activities or groups you could start.
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