How to Build a Community

Types of communities and where to look: Different communities can contribute to a sense of belonging, and there is no shortage of communities out there. People can be part of many communities, and joining a community is associated with multi-group belonging (Haslam et al., 2020). Most people love to hang out with friends. Some people find a connection with others through religion and through shared experiences. Many people also find community in sports teams or in recreational clubs. Even identification with classmates in school leads to a greater connection with humanity (Albarello et al., 2020). These kinds of communities impact people’s sense of belonging, life satisfaction, feelings of loneliness and over all mental health (Graupensperger et al., 2020; Haslam et al., 2020; Kekkonen et al., 2020). 

A common kind of community people experience could be friends circles. Meeting up with friends during adolescence is associated with feeling less lonely and with having higher life satisfaction (Kekkonen et al., 2020). Similarly, less frequent meetups with friends during adolescence is associated with lower life satisfaction in young adulthood (Kekkonen et al., 2020). Meeting with friends multiple times a week can lessen feelings of loneliness and increase life satisfaction that also show lasting impacts later in life. 

Many people find religion to be a big part of their identity. While many people may find their faith alone to be beneficial in their life, research shows that religious community has big impacts on psychological well-being (Hashemi, 2020). Religious identity and even shared ethnicity can create social connectedness providing members with perceived social support (Hashemi, 2020). 

Perhaps one reason people join communities is because communities can bring a sense of empowerment to help in hard times (Tanaka et al., 2018). For example, a library club created a space for newcomer refugee and immigrant children to come and share their struggles at school with each other. The students described their experience as feeling that they were all in the same boat (Rodriguez, 2019). The shared feeling of being different brought these youth a sense of belonging and community (Rodriguez, 2019). Communities can create this sense of belonging, which can help people spiritually and emotionally and can even bring physical benefits. 

Communities based around sports and recreational activities have many psychological and physical benefits. Functional interactions with teammates result in social support and structural links with others reflect connectedness (Graupensperger et al., 2020).  Social connection and connectedness among teammates is associated with greater health as well as psychological, social, and emotional well-being (Graupensperger, et al., 2020). These team based communities are not something to miss out on. One study found that among women, not participating in recreational sports was associated with lower life satisfaction (Kekkonen, V., et al., 2020). Athletic teams are excellent communities to join, as they create many communal benefits for all members. 

Nothing fosters more communal benefits like volunteering. If you are unsure what kind of community fits best for you, try volunteering. Volunteers often join an established group or organization that coordinates efforts to work on a specific goal. This might include a soup kitchen, park cleanup, or knitting blankets for those in need. Typically, volunteering happens within a local community that provides benefits for the volunteer service performed and also benefits those doing the volunteer work. Volunteering within a community is mutually reinforcing because it creates higher “connectedness”, greater trust in neighbors, and generalized reciprocity for kind acts (Gray & Stevenson, 2020). This increase in service and sense of community can also lead to more volunteer work (Gray & Stevenson, 2020). Whether working on a goal or coming together as a community, a shared identity can have many positive impacts. Feelings of acceptance and belonging are associated with volunteering (Gray & Stevenson, 2020). These associated feelings make volunteering a great way to get started in community involvement. For those struggling in life with things such as illness recovery, bereavement, or major life transitions, volunteering provides a great source of identity-based support and is an excellent means of social reintegration (Gray & Stevenson, 2020). Volunteering provides a great way to bring a community together, create communities and provide a sense of identity and belonging to all people. 

Connection Creates Communities: There are three main areas to successfully creating and maintaining communities. These are connection, openness, and belonging (Speer et al., 2013). Connection links people together and forms the initial bonds for communal relationships. Openness is the foundation for communities to form and is required for one to join a community. Belonging is what keeps community participation going. Connection, openness, and belonging are key to creating and joining communities. 

Finding and forming communities involves a very similar process when getting started because they both rely on connection. Connection contains the personal links one has to others in life. Stephen Jon Thompson (2017) explains the importance of connection in his TEDx talk titled, Creating a Community and Finding Purpose. In his talk, he explains that community is all about shared connections. He suggests starting by making friends with everyone. Much like networking, he sought to meet many new people and share conversations and activities, thereby expanding his personal connections. These personal connections opened up many opportunities for him because, as he puts it, “what my friends did, I did.” In creating connections with others, Thompson joined many communities and created his own vast community consisting of the many connections he strives to make. 

Joining and forming communities would not be possible without openness. It is difficult to form connections without being open to others and likewise if others are not open to you. Sometimes being open means getting out of your comfort zone. It means talking to strangers, trying new activities, or opening up yourself when someone invites you to connect with them. Thompson (2017) explains that his community had no borders and consists of all his connections. Being open to everyone may not be easy, but seeking to be inclusive is what led Thompson to explain that his success is a symptom of his community. What success are you looking for? What does your ideal community look like? If you are willing to be open with others, you may find that community successes are open to you. 

Openness is what allows connections to form, and belonging is what strengthens those connections that form a community. According to Angela Damiani, belonging is the product of social architecture, which can be shaped with three steps that she shares in her TEDx talk titled Chasing Belonging. The first step to building social architecture is empowerment. Empowerment is the reminder that people are individuals, and we should support each other as such. The second part is seeking increased connections. This includes making connections with a broader culture outside our own and making efforts to be more inclusive. The third step is change mechanisms. This involves requesting changes and helping to make that change. The final piece Damiani shares is showing consistency in those three steps. She explains that trust is shared experience over time and consistently creating positive shared experiences contributes highly to belonging. 

Communities form and expand because of the individuals that contribute to them. These contributions include connections between people, which expand the horizons of successful communities. Showing openness and acceptance of others brings people together to join and participate in communities. Belonging keeps these connections alive and growing and is what most people look for and come to find by contributing to communities. Connection, openness, and belonging are the key to joining and forming communities.