"Creating Community" - by Becky Robinson at Mountain State University

A blog post at Mountain State University, from Becky Robinson

"My friend Helen is looking for community.

One evening, she and I discussed the difference between having connected relationships with people and experiencing community. We agreed people want more than just a few close relationships; people are  hungry for true community. Though you can find community many places — at work, at school, in your neighborhood, through an online network, at your church or other local organization — it's not automatic that where people gather, there will be community. Leaders who want to create community do so with a sense of purpose and intentionality.

• To create community, leaders foster shared relationships. People feel part of a community when they are well connected in relationships. I know you, but I also know the people you know. And they know each other. To foster shared relationships, leaders facilitate this interconnectedness. The more people are interconnected, the more likely they are to have a sense of community.
• To create community, leaders initiate shared experiences. When people participate in activities together, collaborating as a whole or working in small groups, relationships have a chance to grow. Even after the activity is over, shared memories with others can contribute to a sense of community.
• To create community, leaders cultivate shared goals and purpose. As people rally around a shared cause or goal, a sense of community builds. People feel emboldened by others who are working toward the same purpose.
• To create community, leaders celebrate shared achievement. People enjoy being a part of something bigger than themselves, knowing that their contribution makes a difference. Leaders who recognize a groups' effort build community.

As a leader, how are you creating community in your organization?

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Lead Change "Tweet Chat" from the LinkedIn group - post by Mike Henry Sr.

From Mike's Blog ... I am sorry I couldn't join the Chat, but I will try to next time. Sounds fascinating!

"Last Thursday we held the inaugural Lead Change Tweet Chat. The topic was “How can you apply character-based leadership to make a positive difference in 2010?” In one hour over 100 people joined in the “conversation” and made over 600 posts. Some of my friends have seen the transcript and called the event chaos. Maybe it’s the wild west of technology and communications. But if you’ve ever participated in a tweet-chat before, you know they can be chaotic. Like “Where’s Waldo,” many times you have to search to find the nuggets.

Three nuggets I got from the chat include:

1. People want to make a positive difference. The Lead Change Group is up to 500 members on LinkedIn right now, but only 200 that I’m aware of are on Twitter. We had good participation with short notice and we picked up several new friends and members.
2. We all know “poster-quotes.” At 9:33 PM EST, Tim Milburn (@Timage) noted:

Does anyone else feel like they’re walking past a motivational poster shop and reading all the captions?

3. We want to be about something more significant than “poster-quotes.” Many committed to make a positive difference starting “tomorrow” once Kit Stookey (@kstookey) prompted us for some traction. Just Ctrl-F down the page looking for the word “tomorrow.”

• Brandleadership: we can encourage a leader tomorrow.
• Timage: tomorrow I will do my best to say something encouraging in the first 30 seconds of a conversation.
• KetelboeterPR: Tomorrow, I will choose to build the vision and share the trust.
• Timage: tomorrow I can tell someone I believe in them. I can help them become more of the person they were created to be.
• Logosnoesis: Tomorrow I can encourage a leader to invite others into the leadership conversation @ their place.

Tomorrow?

So, let’s take this a bit further. If you’re one of the “Tomorrow” quotes, how did you do? Is there anything this group can do to help? We all want to be part of a community that makes a positive difference by applying character-based leadership.

Chaos To Community

Would you like to insert order into the chaos of your thoughts and plans? Cement your thoughts about making a positive difference. This community will help. Here are 4 steps you can take to begin to make a positive difference immediately.

1. Download and check out the transcript. Think about what you will do to make a positive difference?
2. Write it down. Post a comment here or on Twitter about what you can do to make a positive difference beginning today. Please use the #LeadChange hashtag on Twitter so we can find you.
3. Get some help. Get with people who don’t want to spend the next year watching TV. Maybe it’s your church or some other local organization. If you don’t have one locally, join this group at http://bit.ly/leadchange or just follow 200 active individuals on Twitter with 1-click by going to http://bit.ly/36uhrt. Or start your own.
4. If you do take some action to cement your plan, share it with the group here, on Twitter or LinkedIn. We’d love to help.

These four steps aren’t complex or the stuff of peace prizes, but they are steps. If you’re already making a difference, share your ideas and help the rest of us. But if this is progress for you, start making it. We won’t judge you and you don’t have to enroll in the Advanced School of Sainthood. Just do something. Our world needs you to stop being a spectator.

We’ll do this again in January. Share your plans. What are you willing to commit to, or what are you already doing to make a positive difference?

Until then, thanks and have a great year!"

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Great post, Mike

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UNDP engages Namibian communities in conversation on HIV/AIDS

On "World AIDS Day", I just want to commend the work that so many people and organizations do to help on this issue. Here's a great example of community based action in Nambia from the UNDP. Here's the article from the UNDP website:

Community conversations have proven to be an effective way to combat HIV/AIDS in Namibia (photo: UNDP Namibia)

Katima Mulilo, Namibia – What causes people to have more than one sexual partner at a time? “Sexual desire and satisfaction”; “It is a cultural and social norm”; “Poverty and hunger; it’s a way to survive.” These are just some of the perspectives that came out when communities under four traditional authorities from the Caprivi region, in the Northeast of Namibia, came together to talk about what is known as “multiple and concurrent partnerships”.

This community conversation is one of many that are taking place in nine  regions of the country as part of a nationwide programme that engages communities in dialogue on the causes of HIV and AIDS, boosting local responses to the epidemic.

The programme is known as “Community Capacity Enhancement through Community Conversations”. It is being implemented by the Namibian Ministry of Regional and Local Government, Housing and Rural Development, with the support of UNDP in Namibia.

Community members working with condoms during a community conversation on MCP in Katima Mulilo, Caprivi region. Photo @ UNDP Namibia (Photo: UNDP Namibia)

“Long ago, marriages were respected. Nowadays, we have left this culture behind and both men and women have multiple sexual partners”, said one participant. Multiple and concurrent partnerships have been identified as one of the main reasons why HIV has spread so rapidly in Namibia. According to data from the latest Namibia Demographic and Health Survey of 2006-07, 16 percent of sexually active men and 3 percent of sexually active women said they had more than one partner over the previous 12 months in 2006.

 “By bringing together men, women and all those affected by HIV and AIDS, this approach gives people the opportunity to make their voices heard, to identify their needs and to be counted when decisions about HIV and AIDS interventions are made,” says the Manager of UNDP’s Community Capacity Enhancement Programme, Immanuel Mwilima.

Community Capacity Enhancement through Community Conversations is a tried and tested methodology to boost the capacity of communities to identify concerns, deliberate on solutions and map out courses of action around HIV and AIDS.

The approach opens up spaces for discussions based on relationships of trust and mutual respect.   

To date, communities in 9 regions are conducting community conversations, with impressive results. In the Caprivi region, traditional leaders have lead by example, going for voluntary counselling and testing  and breaking the stigma associated with testing. In the words of one leader: “It is shocking that many of our relatives and loved ones have died because of HIV and AIDS. Some of them passed away when they were still searching for Anti-Retroviral Treatments. If this programme had come sooner, our relatives would have been alive today.”

Many challenges still remain in the fight against HIV and AIDS, however. For instance, 17.8% of pregnant women are HIV-positive. “One of the biggest challenges facing rural communities in relation to accessing treatment, care and support services is stigma, discrimination, cultural norms and practices. Community Capacity Enhancement gives communities an opportunity to have an introspection of their cultural practices, norms and values,” says Lebogang Motlana, the Deputy Resident Representative of UNDP in Namibia. While Namibia is among the five countries most affected by HIV around the world, the epidemic is now demonstrating a downward trend after peaking at 22% in 2002.

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Connected Communities

From the RSA website, Jonathan Rowson's blog on "Connected Communities" ...

David Cameron’s speech at the conservative party conference indicated that the conservative party might be interested in the work of our connected communities project, so I decided to take a closer look.

The RSA is a charity, and strictly non-partisan, but Mathew Taylor [Chief Executive of the RSA] has previously given his thoughts on Progressive conservatism and it seems important to engage with the main ideas of the would-be next government as fairly as possible.

Cameron repeated one of his more memorable signature lines: “There is such a thing as society, it’s just not the same thing as the State.” This line sounds like a suitably respectful departure from Margaret Thatcher’s most famous “There is no such thing as society” quote, but in fact, when you read Thatcher’s original, and typically decontextualised quote, in full, she was saying something quite similar (to Women’s Own magazine, October 31 1987):

“I think we’ve been through a period where too many people have been given to understand that if they have a problem, it’s the government’s job to cope with it. ‘I have a problem, I’ll get a grant.’ ‘I’m homeless, the government must house me.’ They’re casting their problem on society. And, you know, there is no such thing as society. There are individual men and women, and there are families. And no government can do anything except through people, and people must look to themselves first. It’s our duty to look after ourselves and then, also to look after our neighbour. People have got the entitlements too much in mind, without the obligations. There’s no such thing as entitlement, unless someone has first met an obligation.”

Ten years later Tony Blair spoke of the need to combine rights with responsibilities, which again makes you wonder if they all mean much the same thing, with only slightly different degrees of emphasis. However, the tone of Thatcher’s quote is rather different, and more combative in spirit than Cameron’s distinction, or Blair’s juxtaposition. When Thatcher says ‘there are individual men and women and there are families’, I don’t sense she is thinking of community, and her vision of the social world does sound relatively atomised.

Cameron clearly sees community ( “the ultimate warm fuzzy” as a recent RSA seminar attendee put it) as part of the picture of a healthy society, as he made clear in his speech:

"So no, we are not going to solve our problems with bigger government. We are going to solve our problems with a stronger society. Stronger families. Stronger communities. A stronger country. All by rebuilding responsibility".

Read the rest of the post ...