We’ll be looking at one of the six key elements of a Village In The City each month. This first month, the topic is Connection within the village.
This is a vital starting point in building your Village In The City. How do people connect and communicate with each other? Back in the mists of time this was a combination of folk meeting in the street/market place/tavern/ church and some kind of ‘official’ news via the town crier, parish magazine, community noticeboard or whatever. These days, of course, the channels available to us are many and varied. Noticeboards can still be useful!
So let’s start by looking briefly at some good possibilities for building connection within your Village In The City.
One-way and two-way connection
Some of the older methods of communication are one-way. A paper newsletter connects the editor to the readers – but not really the other way around (unless there are letters etc – but that takes a long time). A noticeboard is a very useful thing, but who decides what is displayed? These connection methods give a lot of power to the ‘guardians’ of these outlets. Of course, those people may well have the best interests of the community at heart – but these channels don’t of themselves get people talking to each other.
One key thing is that this connection has to be, in some ways anyhow, two-way. It’s no longer enough to have one person in charge of sending out ‘communication’ to everyone else. We need ways in which citizens can connect with each other directly. Fortunately the tech revolution has made this much easier (in some ways). Facebook groups, Whatsapp groups, online forums, social media all have a part to play.
So let’s start the conversation here.
- What connection methods do you use in your community?
- How well do they work? What are the strengths and weaknesses?
Do please join in. The discussion is happening in our online community site powered by Mighty Networks. Do join if you haven’t already – it’s free and you also get updates and easy access to our events.
(Lots more about how to build Connection in the latest Village Builder Handbook – free download here.)
