Is it over? Time to rethink your community engagement

Ahead of Communities Week, Jess Wenban-Smith describes why now is the perfect time to take action in your community.

Hope is in the air. At the time of writing there’s the possibility that life could return to a post-COVID version of normal within the coming months. Schools and offices are reopening their doors, and with luck that is how they will stay.

The timing couldn’t be better for Great Big Green Week and Communities Week, both of which are running between 18 – 26 September. These two events celebrate of communities taking action, whether that’s to tackle climate change and protect green spaces, or simply to make their local neighbourhoods better places to live.

Taking action to address climate change is a tangible way we can ‘build back better’.

In fact, research published during the pandemic showed that community work is climate work and as we emerge from one crisis, taking action to address climate change is a tangible way we can ‘build back better’. Likewise, places to meet – whether community centres, green spaces or parks – are also good for our mental health and help to strengthen local economies. Taking part in neighbourhood events, projects and activities – from veg kits to poetry nights – may offer a route to individual and collective recovery from the past 18 months.

Needed now more than ever, this is a moment of reinvention.

And the work we do together now, will benefit us in the future. The connections and relationships forged between neighbours who work together to support their communities are likely to make those places more resilient and able to cope in a crisis. Many of the stories shared during the Great Big Green Week and Communities Week will also have a lasting impact in the communities where they are happening. Together they form a new chapter in the history of community development.

Needed now more than ever, this is a moment of reinvention. Taking action in and for our communities is something that most people can do, and there are (at least) three good reasons to try:

• active, resilient communities cope better in a crisis
• community work is climate work
• it’s good for your own wellbeing

If you’re inspired to get involved in your community, there’s a myriad of ways to do it. Many can be found on the MyCommunity website which offers lots of resources and inspiration.