Improvement in Community Project

A community is best defined as: “a group of people with diverse characteristics who are linked by social ties, share common perspectives, and engage in joint action in geographical locations or settings” (MacQueen et al., 2001). Being part of a community is easier than it may seem. Each community differs in its own way and can take many different shapes and sizes. Several forms of community include neighborhoods (close proximity), churches (common beliefs), and socioeconomic status (housing). They can also form by a joining of forces towards a common goal/interest (environmentalist, social activist etc). Being part of a strong community influences your positivity in a variety of ways. One way it does this is by making one have a sense of belongingness. While having common interests and participating in community activities together, ones connections grow with their fellow community members. Another way it influences positivity is by assisting to make new friendships that can last a lifetime. Communities bring people from different backgrounds and perspectives, creating opportunities to connect with the individuals. This ends up helping expand ones understanding of the multicultural community. While talking to other members of the community not only do you learn about other cultures and lifestyles, one ends up refreshing and learning more about their own culture by sharing with others and bringing them closer to their culture. Being part of a strong community is significantly helpful, it has even been found to lead people to live longer, happier and healthier lives (Gladwell, 2008). There was an examination of two distinct towns, Ikaria and Roseto. Ikaria had fresh water and low pollution, not the case for Roseto. The diet for Ikaria was very healthy they had a Mediterranean style diet whilst in Roseto the diet was bad, cooked with high amount of oils and other much unhealthy things. In Ikaria, the residents exercised regularly and slept well. Rosetans smoked heavily and many were struggling with obesity. Yet despite all of these differences, their life expectancies and death rates are better than most towns and even better than the United States. After analyzing the Rosetans diet, exercise, genes, and location and finding out none of these lead to the secret of Roseto. The realization was that it had to be Roseto itself. The people of Roseto visit one another chat, and even cook for each all leading to bonding experiences. And since no one was used to thinking about health in terms of community, the fact that it is not solely based on genes, decisions we make, eating habits, exercise, and the medical system really is a shocker to many people. This was due to people’s social scripts (schema for events), thinking that you have to do this in order to get that and are shocked when another way is found to work. My improvement in the community project was to help out my community by volunteering, help make others happy, meet at least two new people, and to feel an increase sense of community. In order to do this project I had to make sure my objective allowed for assessment by using the PRISM rule: choosing something “Practical,” “Realistic”, with “Integrity” (meaning it is true to my values), “Specific”, and “Measureable”. My project is not general and fits all the other criteria for PRISM. It took me a few tries to get the chance to finally get an opportunity to volunteer but I still had a chance to help others be happy. I made sure to ask people how they were and spark interesting conversations with them. If someone were feeling down that day, I would cheer him or her up with a nice big hug and trying to make him or her laugh. After a few attempts and failures at jokes, smiles started to crack and soon after laughter. This always made me feel good about myself knowing that I was able to change someone’s mood and help him or her feel better made me feel better. When I finally