Wk 2: Community Resilience
Q: What makes a community resilient? How is community resilience different from personal resilience? How are they related? Are there communities/community-driven projects that you think are interesting examples of this?
A: In my class Media-Making as a Healing practice we recently discussed the concept of fractals in relation to justice and healing movements. The main takeaway is that what we practice on the small scale sets the pattern for larger systems. The factors that make a community resilient are very similar to what makes individuals resilient: self-reliance in regards to production of goods and services, sustainable reliance on local/naturally occurring resources, supportive connections across communities, a strong sense of community, collective knowledge. However, because communities involve multiple players their resilience is threatened when there are not mechanisms in place to deal with interpersonal conflict. Community resilience requires transparency, communication, and honesty between members. Community resilience can also be supported by power structures that leverage the benefits of having multiple people involved and not placing too much burden in any one area. This makes them more flexible and adaptable when changes arise.I feel like I have encountered information about communities that do model this, but I don’t have enough information to name one at this time.
Below are two local Community-based Organizations (aka CBOs) in my area that I believe play an active role in the resilience of the community and am interested in getting involved with.
The reason I am interested in the CBOs is because they made an impression on me as a community member. I was aware of Playground Coffee Shop before I even got to New York. I had been following them on Instagram since the summer of 2020 observing the work and events they were hosting in Brooklyn wishing I lived closer so I could be a part of what was going on. When I did move here it was also a place that was repeatedly recommended and came up in stories. I got the impression that the people behind the organization were real about what they were doing and that their connection with the community was solid. What a better place to get started at when you’ve just moved to the community?
The Garden alternatively was something I came across at one of my first events in New York. I went to the street market on Tompkins Ave. with my roommate and towards the end of our walk we ended up at a table full of books on my reading list and were engaged by one of the warmest (and attractive) people I’d ever met and to top it off they were talking passionately about Abolition! “Wowee wow wow, is this New York?!” was the feeling I had. I immediately followed them on instagram and found their online presence to be equally warm and inviting. The community ideas they were sharing were definitely the ones I was looking for. So again, what a great place to start.
