Local Community

Instead of firing off salvos on social media, find a local problem you’d like to work with other people to help solve. Like most communities, we need trails cleared, litter picked up, funds raised for cheerleading teams and brass bands and animal shelters. In my community, we have programs where residents help elderly neighbors get to medical... See more

For me, what we’ve got to do now is hunker down. The units of survival are going to be local communities, so I’m urging local communities to get together. Finland is offering a great example because the Finnish government has sent a letter to all of their citizens warning of future emergencies, whether they’re earthquakes, floods, droughts, or... See more

There are four systems in a community: one is the family system, one is the business and nonprofit system, one is the faith system, and the other is the school and government system. When those systems are working together well, you have a healthy, cohesive culture.

So yes, Americans are materially wealthy and unfulfilled, and the primary problem is cultural—we’ve sacrificed community and meaning to emphasize an archetype built on acquiring as much stuff as possible, but then we have made that unnecessarily hard to do. When you give your citizens a cultural script, built on the material, that promises hard... See more

Americans used to live within “place-based networks” of clubs, churches, schools, commerce, and recreation that overlapped, wrapping individuals in social support. Local networks protected individuals from isolation and loneliness.

Those networks have largely disappeared, replaced by networks based outside the local community. We shop and interact... See more

Through data we collected in 2024, we found that most people in the U.S. had little sense of belonging in their community. Most don't feel accepted or "fit in" with others in the places they live, and this non-belonging crisis is leading to less involvement in community events and activities.

Many of the nation’s largest trading companies were headquartered in the coffee houses, and London’s stockbrokers operated within them for over a hundred years. Only when those establishments fell into decline did the brokers finally acquire their own quarters and establish an Exchange. For many years, the insurance institution Lloyd’s of London... See more

Living among different people also deepens empathy. If you grew up alongside refugees, it is harder to fear them. If you recognize the face of the unhoused person on your block, it is harder to dismiss them. Familiarity makes humanity harder to ignore.