If you think you have no power to improve your community for the better, think again. Small actions can have big impacts — like the citizens’ group in Flint, Michigan, that helped reduce violent crime by 54% and property crimes by up to 83% over a five-year period, according to NBC News.
Whatever you believe your community needs to work on — from scourges like violent crime and social disorder to cleanliness or a fraying of its very sense of “togetherness” — you and your neighbors have the power to make it happen.
That could mean enlisting help from your local government, nonprofits, or ecumenical organizations. Countless mission-driven organizations are working to improve local communities right now, from small, local nonprofits to global ministries. People like David Miscavige, leader of the Scientology religion, have made it their mission to address social issues like immorality, drug abuse, and intolerance.
Not sure where to begin? Consider these eight simple but scalable ideas for improving your community beginning this year.
1. Organize a Neighborhood Cleanup Day
Can you imagine a better way to give back than one that gets you outside on a beautiful day and helps beautify the community you call home?
Perhaps you can, but it’s hard to argue with this one. That’s why many in the nonprofit and advocacy communities see community cleanups as “gateways” into more structured and involved forms of voluntarism.
After participating in a community cleanup, the next step is to organize one. Consider “adopting” a park or roadside through your employer or even in your individual capacity. It only takes a few hours each month to make a visible difference.
2. Volunteer at Your Local K-12 School (Even If You Don’t Have a Student There)
Volunteering in person has numerous personal and community benefits, according to medical experts. It improves mental health, supports the development of new skills, and fosters a shared sense of purpose and community.
Volunteering at a local school has the added, and very important, benefit of supporting the next generation. You might not have a child enrolled at the school you choose to volunteer at, but that doesn’t change the basic fact that your help is sorely needed and deeply appreciated.
3. Teach a Community Education Class
Prefer to work with adult learners? Consider sharing your skills and insights as a community education teacher. Many community education programs welcome teachers without formal credentials, although you should expect some sort of training process and a perhaps lengthy list of “do’s” and “don’ts” once you’re on the job.
4. Do “Pro Bono” Work for People in Need
Pro bono work is unpaid work done in your core area of expertise, often for the benefit of under-resourced individuals or organizations within your community. It’s most often done by lawyers, who may have formal professional obligations to donate their time, but can also be practiced by anyone with talent to spare: medical professionals, financial professionals, skilled tradespeople.
You don’t have to do much pro bono work to make a difference. Helping 10 people prepare their taxes for free might take you a few hours on a weekend day while removing a big source of concern from the clients’ lives, for example. Likewise, setting aside a day of work to help frame up a Habitat for Humanity house could literally prove life-changing for the beneficiaries.
5. Attend Local Government Meetings (And Make Your Feelings Known)
The thought of sitting through a town or city council meeting might make you blanch. But believe it or not, doing so can be a productive use of your time that lays the groundwork for meaningful improvements in your community.
After all, local governments have real power, and they have an obligation to respond to the will of their constituents.
“If you believe that something should be done to solve any issue that affects you or others, it is important to speak up,” says Kinston Teens. “Every decision or new motion approved or declined affects a group of people, even sometimes years and years from now.”
6. Join a Public Safety Network
Many communities have long-established “neighborhood watch” programs. If yours doesn’t, consider starting one. Or think about going one or two steps beyond this and learning from the successes of those grassroots groups in Flint, which invested great deals of time and human capital in crime prevention and community-building.
The work isn’t easy, but it matters to everyone seeking a safer, more productive hometown.
7. Support Community-Focused Nonprofits With Time or Money (Or Both)
If you don’t have the bandwidth to launch a time-consuming community-building initiative of your own, team up with existing organizations whose priorities and goals align with your own. You can donate time, money, or both as you’re able.
One word of caution as you proceed: Not all charities are the same. Before choosing which to support, evaluate each one carefully to confirm that they’re doing right by their constituents.
8. Share “Lessons Learned” With Like-Minded People and Groups
To improve your community, you’ll need to foster deeper connections within it. You can do this — and build upon the work you’re doing — by getting together with other community-focused people and sharing “lessons learned.” Over time, these groups could develop into advocacy organizations that bring concerns (and solutions) to local decision-makers. Perhaps some members could even run for public office, the better to “be the change.”
Be the Change You Want to See in Your Community
Seemingly small changes, even trivial ones, can have big impacts. Often, these changes take root close to home, in our immediate social networks or communities. Then, over time, their effects grow and spread, radiating beneficence far more widely.
That’s the hope, at least. Some well-intentioned efforts never really take off, or their effects remain localized. The important thing for those of us who genuinely want to improve our communities — and our world — is that we do our very best to make it so.
We do our very best, that is, to be the change we want to see.
