“What we also need, more than ever, is civic engagement. We need to see the challenges that face us as just that, challenges, and ones that with prudent, careful action we can overcome.” ~ Dan Rather
“Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much.” – Helen Keller
A thriving community starts with one word, and that word is YES….
Yes, we believe in the power of community.
Yes, we believe in the importance of shared wellbeing.
Yes, we believe in the value of all capital forms to achieve community wellbeing.
Yes, we believe that those capitals work best when directed by the community members.
Yes, we believe the time is now to engage community members to activate community wealth.
What is community wealth? It’s not just financial capital, which is certainly useful, it’s all the non-monetary capital (relationships, respect, trust, environmental, energy, knowledge, etc.) that create the basis of shared experiences leading to wisdom, empathy and community that transform a collection of individuals into a real community in which every member understands the purpose of Community is to produce the individual and mutual wellbeing of all the participants, in an ongoing way.
Thriving now requires a local renewal (re-cultivation) of community. To move into this renewal requires a shift away from the old pattern that looked at community as an object (aggregated land, buildings and people), instead taking the more functional ‘new pattern’ view which looks at community as a dynamic social network of people coordinating their living of life together.
Seen through this lens, community can be defined as a social network in which the participants share, as a core element of their relationships, the tacit social contract to coordinate their living together so they jointly produce individual and shared wellbeing, community thriving, provisioning for thriving now and also in our shared future.
One way to connect your community’s future story of thriving to the larger movement that is growing and strengthening every day is to join SOCAP’s ‘The Gathering’, a one-day event designed for SOCAP attendees who want to apply SOCAP ‘s unlikely ally and impact investing principles to their local economy. At this event, you’ll meet folks from all over the world who are building networks of trust, support and impact focused on creating an equitable, inclusive, sustainable economy built to last.
Please join Neighborhood Economics in San Francisco on Tuesday, September 13th and join with hundreds who are grounding impact investing and social entrepreneurship in their own neighborhoods, towns, and cities. Bring your community’s story and we’ll write the book of community wealth together.
Say YES to The Gathering 2016.