Cagora - Community "Is"

When is the last time you stopped to look around the area you live in? To many of us, the area we live in is just a location where our houses happen to be. Every so often though we hear of someone stopping to smell the roses. Today, Cagora - It's All About Community visits the very heart of community - the place you live.

In years gone by, people lived in close-knit groups, knew their neighbours names, fed their friends pets and collected their mail. Next time you see a classic 70s or 80s show on TV, stop and have a look at how the families interact. Chances are, you'll see numerous families all "knowing" each other.

Unfortunately, society has forgotten these days. Do you know your neighbours name? Have you ever gone over there, knocked on the door just to say hello? For many people, the answer will be no to both these questions. Urban Sprawl, Crime, even legislation have turned what used to be small community areas into seemingly forgotten streets and roads where people go about their lives oblivious to their surroundings.

But all is not lost. People are taking control, standing up and proclaiming that they want their communities back! Laurie Christopherson of St. Paul recently wrote a letter to the editor of the Star Tribune stating:

"Why not just turn all our inner-city neighborhoods into large parking lots and build centrally located entertainment venues for all the suburbanites? Cities apparently aren't for living after all, just destinations to drive to.

Why can't people understand that what makes a community is the people who live, work, play and shop locally!

Try to imagine living near your workplace and not commuting and polluting. Why create another freeway to simply encourage sprawl rather than work to preserve our city neighborhoods as great places to live. Bring on the density, but preserve the gems such as the Kasota wetlands and inner-city green space. Linear thinking and expansion/exploitation is what got us into this global environmental mess. Try to imagine something better."

Source: Star Tribune

I challenge you, take a page from Paul's book and look at the area you live. What's going on in your neighbourhood? Go and say hello to your neighbours, invite them over for dinner or a drink.

Community starts & ends with people, and Cagora - It's All About Community want nothing more than people the world over to be able to claim they are proud to be part of their local community.

Cagora - What IS Community

In a world gone mad, the idea of community appears to have gotten lost. People wake up, go to work, come home without stopping to realise that on their way to the office they probably passed through a number of small communities. They may live, work or play among any number of communities. But do they realise it? In this busy chaotic world, Cagora - It's All About Community plans to ask that question, and prove that yes, communites are alive, kicking and very strong.

You just have to open your eyes.

Scrolling through the Internet today I found a very fascinating post by Suellen Hozman. Suellen raises a very good question about Community; What does it really mean?

"The Universal Community will meet everywhere, tonight at eight. The fictitious announcement appeared as galactic skywriting. What if everyone came? Would everyone stay? Probably not. Some would leave because people from over there, you know, that place, came. I struggle with the word community. What does it really mean? I feel heretical taking issue with the word. It’s the social apple pie of language. Sometimes it gets flung, hits you in the face and it doesn’t taste sweet."

Source: About.com Human Resources

What does Community mean? For decades, people have often thought of community as weekends together doing group shared activities. Local fairs and markets, weekly town meetings and bake-offs are all steriotypical "old school" Community activities. But is this really the truest definition of Community?

THE COMMUNITY EQUATION

The American Heritage Dictionary refers to community as being:

"A group of people having common interests: the scientific community; the international business community."

Source: Dictionary.com

Now we are getting somewhere! Take a few minutes to think over this quote. let's break it down into it's 3 key parts.

"A Group"

Joined together, as one.

"of people"

Laugh if you will, but "people" are the central key phrase here. People MAKE a community. People ARE the community.

"having common interests"

Regardless of how big, small, serious or funny that interest may be, it's still a vital part of the Community Equation.

To ask the question again; What IS a community? In it's broadest sense, it is you, me, and the people around us. It is mothers sharing stories over coffee. It is athletes sharing an interest in their sport. It is teenagers talking about music.

Community "is"!

More on this in the next installment of "Cagora - It's All About Community.