How often do you struggle to talk to others around you about the things you are good at? We pause and reflect and quite happily share our deficits, the things that are wrong with us, which we need to work on.
At our very core, we each have our own set of strengths, a signature strength. When we use our strengths, we feel energised and satisfied. In fact, research shows that our greatest successes are the result of using our signature strength.
This is also true of communities. Around the braai, at the school concert, the boy’s rugby game, or church the conversations often steer towards what is wrong in our town, and we fixate on that, complain about it, get disheartened, and some of our community members even lose hope and think there might be better opportunities elsewhere.
But what if we start changing our conversations and focus on what is strong in our communities? What if our community takes the stance that the cavalry is not coming to rescue us and instead, we look for our signature strength and look to solve our own problems by strengthening our community from within?
When we want to explore the strengths of our town and community Cormac Russel identified the following building blocks:
- Individuals: The skills of local residents
- Associations: The power of local social networks
- Institutions: The resource of public, private and non-profit institutions
- Physical Assets: The physical and economic resources of local places
- Connections: The relationships and exchange between people
How do we then start working on creating a better future? You can use the Small Town Regeneration Strategy as a guide or you can contact our team to assist you to not only discover your strengths but to create a blueprint for your town that will empower local government and the community to implement realistic, place-based solutions to the benefit of the entire community.
Why wait for who knows who, who knows for how long, to come and rescue OUR TOWN, OUR COMMUNITY?
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