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Pat Wagner's avatar

I have some experience with the theory and practice of building community. My opinion is that it always starts with our individual acts showing our care for our neighbors, both physically and virtually. For example, we have one of those Little Free Libraries in front of our home in central, urban Denver. Has generated lots of conversations among strangers, getting to know each other, finding points of commonality and reasons to help each other. Another neighbor started a neighborhood event where homeowners research the history of their homes and post them. An excuse to chat and make connections.

People like me with native plant, pollinator, and xeriscape gardens post information about our plants during the event. We all hang out to talk to our neighbors, who have a map with descriptions for a self-guided tour. I have joined forces with the history buffs to help better spread the word this year, and we made sure to make our goal of Building Community is communicated to volunteers and frames our decision-making.

We help each other out: leaving homegrown vegetables and fresh eggs on people's porches and sharing extra groceries to shoveling walks, dog walking, sharing tools, and driving folks to the doctor.

Many years ago in a former life, I was involved in the intentional community movement, circa 1968. I did consulting about conflict management and governance and visited several established alternative communities. They all said the same thing regarding recruitment. We want people who knew how to build community where they were: hosting dinners for people in their apartment, involving themselves in various volunteer programs, inviting strangers to share a meal with them in a crowded restaurant, assisting a lost tourist and such.

Starts with one hello at a time.

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Laura Durnell ♿️ ♀️'s avatar

That's wonderful. Brilliant as the Irish say.

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