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Core value · Community family
Community
Belonging to and investing in a wider group
What does community mean as a core value?
Community as a core value means investing in a group of people you’re part of, such as a street, club or team, and helping it thrive over time.
For you, a life lived only among your own household and your own goals would feel thin. You want a street, a club, a congregation, a team or a profession that you’re part of and that you help keep going. Being included is part of the pleasure. The bigger part is the ongoing investment: remembering names, carrying chairs, keeping the thing alive for the people who’ll come after you. You judge a place partly by whether you have a stake in it.
What does community look like in practice?
- You know the names of your neighbours and something about each of them.
- You volunteer for the unglamorous jobs, like running the rota or setting up before the event.
- You choose where to live or work partly by whether there’s a group there you can join.
- You go to the meeting, the match or the fundraiser even on the nights you’d rather stay in.
- You introduce newcomers to others so they don’t stay on the edge for long.
When is community overplayed?
Community as a value can quietly eat your evenings and your judgement. You say yes to every committee, feel guilty about stepping back, and defend the group’s decisions long after you’ve stopped agreeing with them. Loyalty to “us” can also make outsiders feel less welcome than you intend. In balance, you give what you can sustain and still challenge the group because you care whether it’s any good. A good check is to look at your diary for the month and ask which commitments you’d sign up to again today.
Often confused with
Community vs Belonging
Belonging is about feeling accepted. Community is about what you put in: turning up, investing and helping the group last, whether or not you feel at home in it yet.
Community vs Connection
Connection happens between people in a moment. Community is the wider web that holds many people together over years, including people you rarely speak to.
Community vs Friendship
Friendship is a close bond you choose with a few people. Community includes neighbours and members you’d never call friends but still feel responsible for.
Questions to sit with
- Which group would be noticeably poorer if you stopped showing up, and what exactly would it lose?
- Where are you taking more from a community than you’re giving back right now?
- If you moved away tomorrow, what would you miss that no single friend could replace?
More values in Community
Being part of something bigger than yourself.
About the author
Matt Rutherford is a Career and Leadership Coach. The Values Finder is the same exercise he uses with his coaching clients. He also writes Stuff that MattRs, a weekly newsletter with practical ideas to help you think clearer and work better.
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