Empowering Communities, Engaging Values
From Comm-unity To Common-ality: Community As The Grassroots Of Commonality
There are nearly 8 billion of us living on this planet as of the beginning of 2022.
Thanks to technology we are able to connect people in all hemispheres, thanks to global trade that has shortened distances and fostered cultural meetings, and thanks to integrated policies, we are gradually evolving into one, big, global society.
Despite undisputed advantages, society differs greatly from communities**.** As its etymology suggests (communĭtas -atis), communities are grounded on commonalities that can extend from the geographical area to common interests, from common objectives to shared values and interests.
“The fundamentals of community organization should be rooted primarily in the requirements for healthy family living,” is perfectly summarized in the Journal of Educational Sociology.
And it is precisely what is most lacking within our global society.
With the World Economic Forum having spotlighted “social cohesion erosion,” “livelihood crises,” and “mental health deterioration” among the top-five most concerning challenges in the next biennium, and with the 2022 Eldeman Trust Barometer highlighting that “distrust is now society’s default emotion,” there is an urgent need to return to the grassroots of human fabric, supporting concrete bonds and real relationships, the ones that are nurtured with trust and reciprocity, that have always characterized the pillars within each community and that now needs to be empowered.
COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT: THE RECIPE FOR ACHIEVING THE SDGs
From government to businesses, from finance to civil society there is now a clear understanding that combining the three dimensions of sustainable development, as included in the 17 SDGs (Sustainable Development Goals), is something we can no longer postpone.
However, the most demanding aspect still remains how to ensure that intentions are effectively turned into actions. Setting measurable standards, which in turn require a broader involvement, can become the needle that tips the scale.
Several studies and reports identify the potential of community engagement in decision-making.
This process requires:
- Informing the community: exchanging information and knowledge among all the community stakeholders as the first step to strengthen cohesion and common benefits.
- Consulting the community: one of the key values behind community engagement, as identified by the College of Agricultural Studies (PennState), relies on the principle that those who will be touched by a decision have the right to be consulted. This means equally considering and balancing the needs of all stakeholders to generate solutions able to benefit the community as a whole.
- Involving the community: facilitating the involvement of the community is the starting point for a process of co-creation and multidisciplinary evaluation, which is the foundation for long-lasting sustainable solutions.
- Collaborating with the community: incentivizing active citizenship will ensure stronger relationships and also maximize the chances for individuals to accept, trust, and implement the agreed upon solutions.
- Empowering the community: giving communities a voice means ensuring that each individual counts, that his or her interests are represented as an individual but also within the specific social, environmental, and economic fabric of the local context.
We cannot leave solutions only at to global scale. We cannot effectively achieve all 17 SDGs without adapting global approaches into local contexts.
The need to restart, train resilience, and sow regeneration is a collective need that the pandemic, health, economic, and environmental crises have brutally revealed.
Yet, it is not possible to restore the integrity of ecosystems without also pursuing the integrity of human life in its complexity, including everyday life.
For this reason, accelerating community engagement and individual empowerment is crucial.
The recent recognition of the Global Community Engagement Day, launched four years ago by the Australian organization Engage 2 Act, reiterates the urgency to perfectly combine global and local solutions.
ITALY AND THE MEDITERRANEAN DIET: THE POWER OF COMMUNITIES
Empowering communities is part of a political, diplomatic, and sustainable strategy of several countries in the world, Italy included.
It is now well-known, all over the world, the value behind the set of skills, cultural identity, social exchange, and common principles characterizing the seven emblematic Communities of the Mediterranean Diet. It is a unique form of commonality, regardless of localized diversities, that is able to bond individuals in their territories, and safeguard culture and landscape, bio- and agro-diversity, and well-being, through their stories, skills, and mastery.
This year, Italy will have a crucial role: representing and leading the UNESCO network of Mediterranean Diet Emblematic Communities.
For the Future Food Institute, which has intentionally decided to launch in Pollica the Paideia Campus, the open-air laboratory for integral ecological regeneration to be co-created and co-designed together with the local community, will be a great honor but also an undisputed challenge.
For us, it means building a common pathway in which local identity and common values can merge with the courage to build an integral ecological consciousness.
It means helping local inhabitants understand the potential of awareness, starting from single actions, to preserve the natural and cultural beauties characterizing the areas for present and future generations.
It means boosting participation and presence, through active involvement of each individual in the diplomatic, food, landscape, cultural, and agricultural life. Because we cannot aim at a sense of possibility without achieving a sense of responsibility.
This is the call that this year Italy must fulfill: representing the voice of the Emblematic Communities, the beauty that, through small cities and rural areas, through farmers’ markets and regenerative supply chains, perfectly discloses the power of a balanced lifestyle.
The same Italy that, from Pollica, a small village of just a little bit more than 2,000 inhabitants, can show the world the power of engaging local communities.
The Future Food Institute is an international ecosystem that believes climate change is at the end of your fork. By harnessing the power of its global ecosystem of partners, innovators, researchers, educators, and entrepreneurs, FFI aims to sustainably improve life on Earth through transformation of global food systems.
Through an integral ecological regeneration approach, FF trains the next generation of changemakers, empowers communities, and engages government and industry in actionable innovation, catalyzing progress towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Learn more at www.futurefoodinsitute.org, join the conversation on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, or YouTube. Or attend a program through the FutureFood.Academy!
