While I have been practicing social work in this “community” for several years, I recently realized that I neglected to thoroughly consider what “community” means in the context of the work that I do. I want to take this opportunity to consider two questions: What is my own understanding of community and how has this perception revealed itself in my practice. Before I get into this discussion I would first like look at some basic definitions:
According to WIKIPEDIA the free encyclopedia
Main Entry: com·mu·ni·ty
1 : a unified body of individuals: as a : state, commonwealth b : the people with common interests living in a particular area; broadly : the area itself
2 : society at large
3 a : joint ownership or participation
A community of place or place-based community is a community of people who are bound together because of where they reside, work, visit or otherwise spend a continuous portion of their time. Such a community can be a neighborhood, town, coffeehouse, workplace, gathering place, public space or any other geographically-specific place that a number of people share, have in common or visit frequently. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Community_of_place)
From the Encyclopædia Britannica
biologyalso called biological community,
in biology, an interacting group of various species in a common location. For example, a forest of trees and undergrowth plants, inhabited by animals and rooted in soil containing bacteria and fungi, constitutes a biological community.
Among the factors that determine the overall structure of a community are the number of species (diversity) within it, the number of each species (abundance) found within it, the interactions among the species, and the ability of the community to return to normal after a disruptive influence.
According to Jeffery Hampton there are seven common themes that emerge when you ask people to define community. Of these seven definitions the one that spoke to me was, “A community is best defined as a group of people who, regardless of the diversity of their backgrounds, have been able to accept and transcend their differences, enabling them to communicate effectively and openly and to work together toward goals identified as being for their common good.” http://www.community4me.com/comm_definitions.html. This definition spoke to me because I have never really defined what community looks like to me and those that are closest to me. I have struggled for some time trying to define what community is to me and who is a part of it. What I have begun to realize is that growing up my community consisted mostly of family. For me this community essentially dissolved due to divorce, distance, and separation as I reached my teens. My parents divorced, my eldest sister joined the military, and my grand mother who had always been there moved to another state. Our community suddenly split apart at the seams. Soon after that I left to seek my own connections with new communities, which happened to be the ones associated with the boy I was dating: His family, his friends, and his life as a student were the closest I came to being a part of different communities, yet I never really felt that I fit in. I never really developed my own community until I joined the Army National Guard; This is when I began to make my own important connections and relationships that became a very influential community for me. This is a community that saw me through several relationships, college, several jobs, and eventually getting married and having children. Many of the connections I made in this community remain a part of my life today, even though I am no longer an active part of that community.
I believe that I have always felt a bit removed from a sense of community and that the closest I have come to actually belonging to a particular community was that of the Army National Guard and what ever job I was working at the time. Even today, most of the friends that I have are either associated with the National Guard or my place of work. I do not currently belong to any spiritual groups, social groups. Even as a student I was not involved in any particular extracurricular activities or groups. I think that for a long period of time I have experienced a sense of disconnect form community. Because of this, I ended up compensating for my lack of community by building my own around me. I do this by opening my home and family to others who are I similar situations. Over the years my family of origin has gravitated back towards me and my young family. It is almost as if we are becoming the center of our own community, accept that or family gatherings now include a diverse group of individuals who’s common goal is to find a sense of community with each other. This community is not stagnate, but changes all the time, some come and go on occasion and are connected with other communities, some bring along others who come back on their own, and still others end up doing the same that we do , which is opening their home to others in search of that common connection.
What struck me tonight when I attended a wedding out of town of some friends that are African American and from LA was that as our community grows; we have become more open and accepting to the idea of diversity in our lives. We haven’t known these friends long, but they became a part of our community in the way that I just described. Five years ago I don’t think you could have convince my husband and I to attend a wedding where we were unlikely to know anyone and especially a wedding where we were likely to draw attention for looking different from everyone else present There were approximately 100 people at the wedding and most were African American or Hispanic. My family and maybe three other guests at the wedding were the only Caucasians. I was closely monitoring my own reaction as well as the reaction of my family in their ability to integrate into this community of people who had gathered to celebrate the union of family, friends, and loved ones. We were warmly welcomed and engaged in conversations as we were introduced. Part of what helped us fit into to this community was that we had traveled to the wedding with another friend who had already been introduced to the community. She facilitated introductions and pointed out key members of the community. My children had no problem integrating and never complained that they felt out of place or different form anyone. This was a sign to me that our children are growing up to respect and embrace diversity in their own community.
As I am writing this blog I realize that my original thoughts on how my work as a social worker was effected by my own understanding of community is not such a negative impact of what I had first feared. I was initially concerned that my own early lack of understanding of community would create a barrier in my ability to recognize and celebrate the communities of the clients that I was working with. I assumed that my own lack of exposure to the communities that we commonly recognize would prevent me from relating to those needed by my clients. What I found instead was that the opposite has happened for me, in that my lack of community has found me to be more sensitive to recognizing communities that are not as easily recognized and celebrated. An example is that I had been working with a 17 year old youth who was very difficult to build a relationship with. The youth mother was deceased, there was no connection with the father, the youth is extremely intelligent, and the youth claimed an alternate life style. No matter how I approached the youth I could not seem to make a strong enough connection to assist the youth with their transition from foster care. This youth often ran from placement to be with another youth. My realization was that my youth was trying desperately to help the other youth who he was romantically involved with, but that they did not have the resources to do so. When I changed my strategy to help both of these youth, a relationship of trust suddenly blossomed and allowed us to accomplish so much more. So in a sense I was able to recognize and celebrate his community by offering supports he could not access, which created trust and facilitated a working relationship that had not previously existed.
I have also realized that my desire to feel a sense of connection to a community has also helped me see and celebrate the diversity of many communities. While I may know that I am unable to be apart of certain communities that are based on religion, culture, ethnicity, heritage, sexual orientation…etc, the diversity of what makes a community for any one person has endless possibilities and shows how important it is for the human species to survive as part of some thing bigger then self.
