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Community spirit finds expression in individual or group activities in which members of a community choose to engage for the benefit of that community. These activities may be locally organised, or informal and spontaneous.
Community spirit is associated with voluntary work, favours and gestures of goodwill by residents and local businesses. A dictionary definition of "community spirit" is "willingness and desire to participate in activities that promote a community". [1]
The measure of community spirit is subjective, but could be assessed from the achievements resulting from community activities, in addition to the level of contentment expressed by community members.
According to Durkheim, Collective effervescence indicates the intensity of group bonds through communal gatherings such as religious meetings. These bonds people create within a group ‘generate a kind of electricity that quickly transports them to an extraordinary degree of exaltation’. [2] Meaning, when people come together in such near proximity and share the sense of group, it generates a high degree of happiness. Thus, creating a feeling of collectiveness which reinforces social bonds. This feeling is initiated when there is Group cohesiveness, for example, when individuals share the same life experience the sense of group occurs. [3] The expression of community spirit entails a group or individual engaging in activities that benefit the community, whats bonds the group in community spirit is the goal. The group works towards the same common goal, which is to better the community by committing positive acts of voluntary work.
Improvements to a community can be achieved by its members voluntarily working together on community projects or acting on gestures of goodwill. Examples of such contributions could include removing debris from the streets or public parks; organizing a community fair, a school fete or a charity event at a local venue; or rallying round when a community member is in need of support. Standing groups such as a neighbourhood watch or Women's Institute may also help create community spirit.
Community spirit is showcased through the efforts of community work. Community work is often carried out by members of a community involved in local groups, neighborhood groups or associations which engage in public service. Community work contributes to the community as a whole with acts of benefit to the public interest. [4] According to Random House Dictionary , public interest is "1. the welfare or well-being of the general public; commonwealth. 2. appeal or relevance to the general populace: a news story of public interest." [5]
Community spirit can also be defined as pride within a community. Community spirit can be displayed in forms of customized apparel. For example, the community logo can be placed on T-shirts, baseball caps, or bumper stickers. Communities can also display spirit by supporting local charities and schools. [6] Community newspapers display spirit in articles relating to local volunteering, local charities, and announce a variety of community topics.
In the United Kingdom, Community Spirit Partnership is a community interest company (CIC) working for community-based development. It assists parish councils, town councils and other local groups in formulating neighbourhood development plans and other community-led initiatives. [7]
Miami Community Newspapers is a local publication in Miami-Dade County, Florida. This publication distributes local newspapers in 14 communities in the region of South Florida. [8] The community’s biweekly newspaper publishes a variety of columns, including articles on education, [9] fundraisers [10] and multiculturalism. [11] Community media promotes the local community's interest and showcases community news.
A Jewish Community Center or a Jewish Community Centre (JCC) is a general recreational, social, and fraternal organization serving the Jewish community in a number of cities. JCCs promote Jewish culture and heritage through holiday celebrations, Israel-related programming, and Jewish education. However, they are open to everyone in the community.
In Ireland and the United Kingdom, housing associations are private, non-profit making organisations that provide low-cost "social housing" for people in need of a home. Any budget surplus is used to maintain existing housing and to help finance new homes and it cannot be used for personal benefit of directors or shareholders. Although independent, they are regulated by the state and commonly receive public funding. They are now the United Kingdom's major providers of new housing for rent, while many also run shared ownership schemes to help those who cannot afford to buy a home outright.
Public finance is the study of the role of the government in the economy. It is the branch of economics that assesses the government revenue and government expenditure of the public authorities and the adjustment of one or the other to achieve desirable effects and avoid undesirable ones. The purview of public finance is considered to be threefold, consisting of governmental effects on:
Fundraising or fund-raising is the process of seeking and gathering voluntary financial contributions by engaging individuals, businesses, charitable foundations, or governmental agencies. Although fundraising typically refers to efforts to gather money for non-profit organizations, it is sometimes used to refer to the identification and solicitation of investors or other sources of capital for for-profit enterprises.
Companies House is the United Kingdom's registrar of companies and is an executive agency and trading fund of Her Majesty's Government, falling under the remit of the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy. All forms of companies are incorporated and registered with Companies House and file specific details as required by legislation. All registered limited companies, including subsidiary, small and inactive companies, must file annual financial statements in addition to annual company returns, and all these are public records. Only some registered unlimited companies are exempt from this requirement.
Communal work is a gathering for mutually accomplishing a task or for communal fundraising. Communal work provided manual labour to others, especially for major projects such as barn raising, "bees" of various kinds, log rolling, and subbotniks. Different words have been used to describe such gatherings.
A social enterprise is an organization that applies commercial strategies to maximize improvements in financial, social and environmental, the Triple bottom line, well-being—this may include maximizing social impact alongside profits for co-owners.
The Prince's Trust is a charity in the United Kingdom founded in 1976 by Charles, Prince of Wales, to help vulnerable young people get their lives on track. It supports 11 to 30-year-olds who are unemployed and those struggling at school and at risk of exclusion. Many of the young people helped by The Trust are in or leaving care, facing issues such as homelessness or mental health problems, or have been in trouble with the law.
A community interest company (CIC) is a type of company introduced by the United Kingdom government in 2005 under the Companies Act 2004, designed for social enterprises that want to use their profits and assets for the public good. CICs are intended to be easy to set up, with all the flexibility and certainty of the company form, but with some special features to ensure they are working for the benefit of the community. They are overseen by the Regulator of Community Interest Companies.
Community building is a field of practices directed toward the creation or enhancement of community among individuals within a regional area or with a common need or interest. It is often encompassed under the fields of community organizing, community organization, community work, and community development.
Neighbourhood Watch in the United Kingdom is the largest voluntary crime prevention movement covering England and Wales with upwards of 2.3 million household members. The charity brings neighbors together to create strong, friendly and active communities in which crime can be tackled. Neighbourhood Watch Network is the umbrella organization supported by the Home Office to support Neighbourhood Watch groups and individuals across England and Wales.
The UCF Institute for Economic Forecasting (IEF) is an economic research institute of the College of Business Administration at the University of Central Florida located in Orlando, Florida, United States. The director of the institute is Sean Snaith.
HCT Group is a social enterprise providing transport services and community services in Bristol, Guernsey, Jersey, London, and Yorkshire. It was founded in 1982 as Hackney Community Transport in the London Borough of Hackney to provide transport services for local voluntary organisations, charities, and community groups. HCT Group is registered as a company limited by guarantee. The company is also a registered charity.
Psychiatric reform in Italy is the reform of psychiatry which started in Italy after the passing of Basaglia Law in 1978 and terminated with the very end of the Italian state mental hospital system in 1998. Among European countries, Italy was the first to publicly declare its repugnance for a mental health care system which led to social exclusion and segregation. The psychiatric reform was also a consequence of a public debate sparked by Giorgio Coda's case and stories collected and analyzed in Alberto Papuzzi's book Portami su quello che canta.
Volunteering is a voluntary act of an individual or group freely giving time and labour for community service. Many volunteers are specifically trained in the areas they work, such as medicine, education, or emergency rescue. Others serve on an as-needed basis, such as in response to a natural disaster. Nowadays, one common type of volunteer is volunteer tourism.
The Bristol Pound (£B) is a form of local, complementary, and/or community currency launched in Bristol, UK on 19 September 2012. Its objective is to encourage people to spend their money with local, independent businesses in Bristol, and for those businesses to in turn localise their own supply chains. At the point of the close of the digital scheme in August 2020, it was the largest alternative in the UK to official sterling currency, and is backed by sterling.
Healthy Planet Foundation was an environmental charity in the United Kingdom formed in 2007 by Shaylesh Patel, on the ethos that small changes together will build sustainable, healthy communities leaving a positive legacy for future generations. Healthy Planet championed grassroots and green causes that promoted healthy living.
Hillhead Baptist Church is a Baptist church in the west end of Glasgow, Scotland. It was admitted to the Baptist Union of Scotland in 1883, when the church opened. It has operated for over 125 years, one of 164 active Baptist churches in Scotland in the early twenty-first century.
Mike King is an American journalist and author. King spent most of his newspaper career working at The Courier-Journal in Louisville, Kentucky, and at The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. He is the author of Spirit of Charity: Restoring the Bond between America and Its Public Hospitals, which was published in 2016.
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