What Kind Of Global Citizen Are You? - The Community Builder

A community can be a bunch of people you surf with, your beer pong buddies, your support group, your neighbours or your family. Essentially, it's a bunch of people you see eye to eye with on a specific set of things, like a book club, or a bunch of people that you are bound to by a specific set of things, like your nationality. Tuning into a handful of these units of community in your life is a crucial practice in a world that is likely to continue inflicting pandemics, capitalism and the shocking conquests of Pete Davidson on us.

No city can thrive without the presence of a resilient community. It is the community in any place that holds it together, that gives a place its identity, that makes a home out of apartment blocks, parks and schools. The COVID-19 pandemic has proved that communities are the first and most crucial line of defense in times of crisis. Lockdown after lockdown demonstrated the power of communities as volunteer groups mobilised to look after vulnerable populations, teenagers picked up groceries for their elderly neighbours and food banks were flooded with donations for those who were hit hardest. But we don’t have to wait for a crisis to recognise and optimise the power of the community! Here are some ways in which you can be a part of a community at the local, national and global level.

Local

Your most immediate community is your neighbourhood. Those closest to you are bound together by proximity, no matter how different you are. Rather than just sharing space, you can take this neighbourly association to a greater extent and emerge as a community. From having parties in the local park to deepen ties between people from all walks of life to setting up a community garden together to starting a skill-exchange in your neighbourhood - there are many exciting ways to build communities amongst people who already share a common space.

National

One of the most powerful forces that communities come together with is a common cause. A cause could be anything that is personal to you from breast cancer awareness to veganism to socially conscious literature. You could join the national marathon branch in your city as a volunteer, you could lend your skills to a vegan activism group or you could join a book club that specifically reads women of colour. Nowadays, most of these opportunities are available online and you could join groups that accept members from all over the country and find yourself in a community of people who have similar interests and wish to make a difference in the same kind of way!

Global

When you think of yourself as a part of the global community, it opens up the scope of possibilities very wide. As an individual, you can be part of any world forum of your choice. Depending on your skills and interests, you could even direct your education and career towards global welfare in a bid to strengthen global communities. Developmental studies, policy, journalism, healthcare and so on are some ways of turning your interest in global communities into a career. This is not the only way, of course, to be a part of a global community. You can donate to aligned causes or spend time overseas volunteering with organisations that are building community centres or libraries. If you are travelling, you can try to spend more time in a place, moving slowly through it so that you can engage with local communities more deeply by discovering the specific and unique ways in which they could use support.

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