Community+-+Chapters+1&2

From what I collected, social fabric is the shared sense of belonging that brings a group of people together in order to build a community. There are a series of small steps that are involved in this, but without the creation of social fabric, a nonprofit would not be able to successfully engage a community because people would not be connected or feel a sense of belonging. Below I have listed some important principles in which will assist a community to become engaged in the nonprofit world. I will touch on the mail concepts of the principle of strategy discussed in chapter two and make it clear as to how a nonprofit organization can use these principles to become more community oriented. The first principle touches on the need to build social fabric for the organization and to engage the citizens – when citizens care for one another they become accountable. A way to use this principle in the shift towards community engagement is to bring citizens together and create personal relationships. The next principle discusses the need for associational life – this makes it easier to create connections among a group. It is important for groups to relate to one another and create a true connection or relatedness.

Another important principle for strategy regarding community engagement is citizens using their power to convene other citizens; they are essentially altering the future. It is clear that through using a power that a citizen may have to bring other people together will change the thinking nd mindset of the people. People are more likely to think alike, creating more of a community, if they come together better. A non-profit could easily do this because people who are not in leadership positions may bring just as much knowledge to the situation. Another strategy that I found particularly interesting was the need for small groups to come together, which will transform the future as well. In order to become more focused on community engagement in this aspect, it is important to realize that a small group has a unique value in it and that value cannot always be kept the same in a big group. Often times, people do feel belonging, but voices are not always heard.

The final principle of strategy for community engagement, and my opinion the most important one, is that transformation is linguistic. It is important to realize that community is basically a conversation. There should not be one speaker and an audience, but in order for a community to become involved and engaged, it must take into consideration the thoughts and opinions of everyone involved. There is a large need for all of these strategies in a nonprofit organization because in order for a community to even be created, people must feel they are being heard, cared for, supported, respected, and that what they are saying is agreeable. Not everyone will have the same opinion, but this is also the beauty of a community because there is such a great deal of diversity – meaning everyone will bring different, creative, and essential things forth to the table.