Drivers of Positive Community Development:
Positive
Psychology emerged at the beginning of the new millennium as a movement
within psychology aimed at enhancing human strengths such as
creativity, joy, flow, responsibility, and optimal performance and
achievement. Most study of human behavior has focused mainly on what
goes wrong in human affairs: aggression, mental disease, failure, and so
on. While it is essential to study and contain such pathologies, it is
equally important to understand those aspects of human experience that
make life worth living.
2. Positive Connectedness
Friendship, bonding social capital, bridging social capital, etc.
3. Philanthropy
“A
philanthropist is anyone who gives anything - time, money, experience,
skills, and networks - in any amount, to create a better world.”
Philanthropists
can increase their impact by identifying, broadening, and building
their unique strengths and those of the communities they interact with
to create positive environments where people can flourish.
4. Positive Health
Positive
health describes a state beyond the mere absence of disease and is
definable and measurable. Positive health can be operationalised by a
combination of excellent status on biological,subjective, and functional
measures.
Positive
education is defined as education for both traditional skills and for
happiness.
Video: Positive Education with Character Strengths
"Through learning we grow, becoming more
than we were before, and in that sense learning is unselfish, because
it results in the transformation of what we were before, a setting aside
of the old self in favor of a more complex one."
~Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
6. Art, Sport, & Culture
Visual Art, Sports, Theater, Film, Music, Dance, Performance Art, Storytelling
National Advisor: Meghan Keener - Positive Psychology Expert specializing in Positive Media.
Journalism,
newspapers, television, internet, media,
social media, advertising, internet, public relations
"Communication is a symbolic process whereby reality is produced, maintained, repaired, and transformed."
~James W. Carey, Journalism Instructor at Columbia University, died in 2006
"...the
work done in media industries is a fundamental aspect of contemporary
experiences – intellectual, emotional, political, spiritual."
~Horace Newcomb, Director of the Peabody Awards
The process and policies by which a nation improves the economic, political, and social well-being of its people. Fostering innovation and entrepreneurship which results in the creation of new businesses or the expansion of existing businesses. Building the cultural life of a community is a good in itself, but it also helps in cases where when all other relocation or start up factors are considered, a business will want to choose your community.
Ideas for exploration:
Shared Value:
"...shared value (
video clip 1)... involves creating economic value in a way that also creates value for society by addressing its needs and challenges. Shared value (
video clip 2) is not social responsibility, philanthropy, or even sustainability, but a new way to achieve economic success."
Coworking:
We see great potential for coworking to foster both economic development and positive social connectedness. "Coworking is a style of work that involves a shared working environment, sometimes an office, yet independent activity. Unlike in a typical office environment, those coworking are usually not employed by the same organization."
~
Coworking Wikipedia Entry
Positive Technology Advisor: Zack Prager,
Joy Dose &
Gratitude Bucket
9. Placemaking
National Advisor: Katherine Loflin - Principal at Loflin Consulting Solutions
"Placemaking
is when you put place central to all your decisions, all of your
thinking. It doesn't mean you stop growing and you stop becoming, but
its that you never lose sight of where you live and the space that you
share and how much it matters."
"...quality of place creates human capital, and human capital generates economic activity and revitalization."
~Dennis Scholl on Place Matters
Placemaking
is a multi-faceted approach to the planning, design and management of
public spaces. Put simply, it involves looking at, listening to, and
asking questions of the people who live, work and play in a particular
space, to discover their needs and aspirations. This information is then
used to create a common vision for that place. The vision can evolve
quickly into an implementation strategy, beginning with small-scale,
do-able improvements that can immediately bring benefits to public
spaces and the people who use them.
Actions:
- Identify the top ten public spaces (streets, bars,
coffee shops, parks, etc.) in your neighborhood that draw people
together and ten great things (reasons to be there, things to do, things
to see, etc.) about each place.
- Bring your strengths, drivers, and your neighborhood together to better your top ten public places.
10. Environment
Nature experiences, gardening, parks, etc.
11. Neighborhoods
Neighborhoods
(walkable, about the size of an area that feeds into an elementary
school) and neighborhood partnerships (bikable, an area the size of the neighborhoods
that feed into a high school) are ends in themselves, and they are also
living
laboratories to discover what works well. Each
neighborhood partnership will have an advisory council and each city will have a
central advisory council with members that are each deeply connected to
one or more of the ten drivers of positive community development.
Is your neighborhood moving in the right direction?
Answer these simple YES/NO questions to find out.
1. Is the neighborhood cleaner?
2. Does the neighborhood feel safer?
3. Is the neighborhood more attractive?
4. Are there fewer vacancies?
5. Are there more people on the sidewalks?
6. Is there a popular new outdoor gathering place?
7. Is there a popular new indoor gathering place?
8. Is there new evidence of arts activity?
9. Has the local press reported on it positively?
10. Do people in the neighborhood generally agree that the neighborhood is getting better?
12. Leadership/ Followership Development
