I Dare you to connect-

There are pounds, no tons of studies out there on the importance of social connectedness.  I think we many times we figure if we are on Social Media we must have it covered. Not so much.  Social Connectedness has scores of definitions online. I am currently working with a group of community leaders trying to implement social connectedness throughout our County.  Mesa County is a great place to live with many wonderful people, amenities, and landscape. We have a first-rate University, Colorado Mesa University.  The community has struggled since the recession hit in 2008. This area entered a touch later than the rest of the Country and has not come out nearly as quickly or as robustly as much of the Front Range of Colorado.   A group of community leaders came together and discussed why the unemployment rate lagged and drug related crimes and suicide plagued such a great community.  We kept coming back to is it the economy or lack of services the general consensus was that all the difficulty the community faced was a symptom of something other than just jobs or healthy living or educational opportunities. We knew we had all the components of a great community, but why did we struggle?  After many, many meetings, whiteboard exercises, sticky notes and discussions we decided social connectedness with its four components is what needs attention.  

Social Connectedness Defined By…

·         Personal Relationships - This refers to the “structure and nature of people’s personal relationships” and is concerned with who people know and what they do to establish and maintain their personal relationships.

·         Social Network Support- This refers to “the level of resources or support that a person can draw from their personal relationships,” but also includes what people do for other individuals on a personal basis.

·         Civic Engagement -This refers to “the actions and behaviors that can be seen as contributing positively to the collective life of a community or society.” It includes activities such as volunteering, political participation, and other forms of community actions.

·         Trust and Cooperative Norms - This refers to the trust and to the cooperative norms or shared values that shape the way people behave towards each other and as members of society. Trust and values that are beneficial for society as a whole (such as, for example, solidarity and equity) can determine how much people in a society are willing to cooperate with one another.

The idea is that every sector of our community from the head of the Department of Human Services to the Main Street businesses to Joe Citizen should be connected or have an easy path to find that connectedness.  We realized we did not need another initiative or to get everyone involved in a “new” process or project, but rather we all needed to connect the dots of what we are all doing right where we are at right now.

While everyone was concerned about the suicide rate, not everyone needed to start another project to address the issue. Rather how is what I already do impact or contribute to helping reduce that rate or do I need to join your group and we pursue the solution together rather than running 5 different projects at once. 

We are focusing on what we do best and then being sure we are connecting each other’s efforts to better impact the entire community. It is a paradigm shift in thinking for the entire community.  It’s not so much starting new projects rather interweaving what we currently do with other organizations through collaboration and communicating and listening.  The hope is that every business, group or organization can pursue the same wildly important goal of social connectedness while doing what that group does best.

A community-wide survey is being launched with the hope of personally contacting 1000 citizens, asking them how and what makes them feel connected. After those results are tabulated a larger group of diverse community folks will come together and plan the next steps as based on those survey results. Yes this will be a long project, but I truly believe it maybe one of the most legitimate efforts due to the diversity of the groups involved and that no needs to change what they are doing rather find how where we connect to provide better goods and services to those most in need in any given situation. 

  

I've had my share of experience with civic engagement projects statewide to pass legislative initiatives, but this one is really special as it is all about civic engagement for the entire county. 

Here's to our success! I'll keep you updated on our progress in coming blog posts. 

I Dare YOU to become or find out how you and your organizations are connected.