Change your community through real relationships
Connect and build REAL relationships:
We need to bring people and community back into the heart of what we do. The opportunity to build relationships are a critical resources that we all have and can share.
The more people, the more relationships, the stronger the solution we bring to our communities.
What is something you may not think of that kills? Loneliness
In one study from London they found that in a group of people over 60 years old one in 3 did not speak to or see another person in an entire week. In that same study they found that one in ten didn't speak to or see anyone else in a month. Loneliness is a collective relational challenge and it can be addressed by a system.
In another study they asked people what they wanted/needed: Here is their response - They wanted someone to go up a ladder and change a light bulb, someone to be there when they come out of the hospital. They want on demand practical support and they want to have fun. They want to go out, do interesting things with like minded people and make friends during every stage of their lives.
Support can look like someone a person can call when their pet gets sick, so when their phone stops working. Just like you when they are coming out of the hospital they want someone to be there. Overtime this community of friends, these natural friendships replace the need for expensive services.
It's relationships that make a difference. Relationships have to be at the center of what we do.
The nature of the problems that we have today have changed and they require different solutions. The cost, human as much as financial, of doing business as usual is to high. Using technology as a partner to relationships rather than a replacement for relationships can allow us to scale and support thousands of people. Technology like databases and mobile phones can allow a small local team to support up to a thousand members of the community. At the core we need Relationships underpinned by Technology.
Why have we not seen progress with the current models in place to support poverty, wellness, and education? Up to 80 percent of resources are spent keeping people out. So professionals have to administer these increasingly complex forms of administration that are basically about stopping people accessing the services or managing the que.
With this model of relational services inverted with that logic is the more people, the more relationships, the stronger the solution.
Take unemployment - Welfare is typically designed to get people to work, to educate them for this, and to keep them healthy. As we see these systems are failing. The response has been to try and make these old systems even more efficient and transactional, to speed up processing times, divide people into smaller categories, try and target services at them more efficiently. The very opposite of relational. How do most people find work today? Through word of mouth. Most new jobs are not advertised. It's a friend that tells you about a job, friends that recommend you for a job, a rich and diverse social network that helps you find work. Most commonly the people who most need this rich and diverse network are those who are most isolated from it.
Let's start designing atmospheres that encourages people to meet up, people in and out of work, to work together in structured ways and try net opportunities.
领英推荐
We need to bring people and community back into the heart of the way we design new systems and new services in what I call relational welfare. It's time to leave behind old transactional outdated models and take a shared collective relational approach to healing our communities that can support families, address loneliness, and support people into work and up the skills curve, that can address the challenges of education, health care, and so many of the problems in society.
Philippians 2:5-7 Learn From Christ to Be Unselfish
In your life together, think the way Christ Jesus thought. He was like God in every way, but he did not think that his being equal with God was something to use for his own benefit. Instead, he gave up everything, even his place with God. He accepted the role of a servant, appearing in human form. During his life as a man.
It's time to DO SOMETHING....
Tracie Chapman
918.998.1400