How To Make a Positive Impact in Your Community

The word “community” gets thrown around a lot and while we may have a vague understanding of what it means, how many of us truly stop to think about the impact we have on our communities or they have on us? There is so much to be said about them and yet many of us feel disconnected or don’t realize how important it is to be intentional about our relationship to the groups we may belong to. Let’s review what community is, where to find it, and how to make a positive impact on it.

What is Community?

The Merriam-Webster dictionary has three different definitions of community, starting at “a unified body of individuals” and ending with “society at large”. If the dictionary somehow has a specific yet vague definition of what community is, sociology doesn’t help much either. The truth is you make part of not just one but many communities at a time –and that’s kind of the point. Your community can derive from things like religion, ethnicity, race, to where you live, a hobby you have, or an artist you love. Most of the time, our communities go unseen despite the intrinsic and profound connection we may have with them; think of the people you might regularly work with, take public transportation with, or the people that grow your food, empty the garbage bins of your neighborhood, or clean the streets, just to name a few examples. Community shifts and grows with us, it is the group of people that we influence or influence us, whether directly or indirectly.

Why Does Community Matter?

You may have heard that humans are “social animals” that are hard-wired for connection. While different people experience different desires to interact with others, the way we affect each other is undeniable. There is extensive research on how caring is not only an evolutionary trait it’s not even limited to humans. We build resilience through community, save each others’ lives after disaster, we change how things are done through community. And the same way we like to be mindful of what we eat and how much we drink, or just how we like to be intentional about our health, so should we be intentional about how we are involved in our communities and the impact we have.

Examples of Intentional Community Members

When we think of what an intentional community member looks like, few embody it better than Mr. Rogers, whose intentional practice of everyday kindness taught generations what it means to care. From taking the time to really listen to children to addressing difficult topics like grief and racism with honesty and gentleness, he showed up for the people who needed most in ways that were relevant. On a very different scale but with the same spirit, the Black Panther Party demonstrated radical community care through programs like free breakfast for children and health clinics among other things. This same principle lives on in everyday people doing everyday acts: parents who organize carpools, neighbors who start community gardens or stock community fridges, barbers who offer free haircuts, or people who simply check in on an elderly neighbor. A lot of it comes down to being a good “neighbor”, but neighbor doesn’t just mean the people you live close to, it can be the people who you more directly impact in your life.

Where to Find Community

Community often begins in the places closest to us. For some, that means investing in our families and nurturing the relationships that directly shape our lives. Stepping beyond our immediate circles, we can find community in public spaces like the local library, where bulletin boards are filled with events, workshops, and volunteer opportunities. You might also discover connection in neighborhood gatherings, local markets, classes, art collectives, faith groups, or sports clubs. The key is presence: showing up, again and again, until you start to recognize people and build bonds.

Of course offline isn’t the only way to connect. In 2020, when COVID first started, having to stay indoors showed us the relevance and possibilities of taking things online. However, online communities have existed since the internet first entered the mainstream media. Our desire to be able to reach each other gave way to many social media networks (long before Facebook, and still after) that changed how we saw each other and used the vocabulary of friendship. Think about it: when else did you ever use the word “unfriend” before social media? Websites like Discord and Mastodon have seen an unmistakable rise in the last five years as people continue to seek community in digital spaces.

Making a Positive Impact

The most important part about creating an intentional positive impact is by being consistent and reliable. Here’s a few things to consider:

• Strengthening emotional intelligence allows us to listen better, respond with empathy, and build trust.
• Asking others what they need and allowing them to lead you in learning to care for them while you learn to negotiate your limits incites community autonomy.
• Small acts like checking in, following through, and sharing your time or skills plant seeds of resilience.
• Investing in the well-being of those around you and actively participate in their lives in a way that suits you both allows us to form bonds.
• Volunteering, mentoring, offering your expertise, or simply being the person others can count on, strengthens bonds and supports mutual aid networks.
• Know your strengths, understand your limits, and set boundaries that keep your care sustainable.
• Study what local and other foreign community leaders are doing and support the cause either locally or digitally to add quality to the numbers.
• Become a community leader by getting the ball rolling on a project that your community might need. Initiative is essential fuel for change. This can look like throwing a block party to get to know the neighbors, hosting a clothing swap, or starting a book club.
• Define what role you can play. There are so many ways you can contribute to different communities, and having a clear understanding of it can feel empowering as well as help you stay consistent.

Community Means Committed Participation

Whether we are actively participating in them or not, there are all types of intentional communities with their own agendas happening around us. Being intentional about our impact empowers us and those around us. However, it takes active practice, time, and energy. Community is something we build, nurture, and tend to over time. It asks for awareness, reciprocity, and a willingness to grow alongside others. When we learn to show up – imperfectly, but intentionally – we become part of the crucial work that keeps the world humane. Our communities shape us as much as we shape them. And in choosing to care, we participate in something far bigger than ourselves.

Relevant Reading

• How We Show Up - Mia Birdsong
• The Art of Gathering - Priya Parker
• The Art of Community - Charles Vogl
• Belonging Design Principles (Free PDF) - Ashley Gallegos Cecilie Surasky
• Mutual Aid - Dean Spade

Resources:

• https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/community
• https://sociology.institute/introduction-to-sociology/characteristics-defining-community/
• https://puresociology.com/what-is-community/
• https://www.knowyourmobile.com/fediverse/what-is-the-fediverse/
• https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2025/02/is-social-connection-a-basic-need-like-food-water/
• https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychology/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.00199/full#B40
• https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Emma-Stokes/publication/226540253_Effect_of_Snare_Injuries_on_the_Fig-Feeding_Behavior_of_Chimpanzees_of_the_Budongo_Forest_Uganda/links/02e7e529e5726e63fe000000/Effect-of-Snare-Injuries-on-the-Fig-Feeding-Behavior-of-Chimpanzees-of-the-Budongo-Forest-Uganda.pdf
• https://humanresilienceproject.org/guides/community-resilience/
• https://www.nuffieldbioethics.org/wp-content/uploads/Community-engagement-after-Hurricane-Katrina.pdf
• https://www.accessinst.org/blog/the-radical-vision-of-mr-rogers-neighborhood-what-does-it-mean-for-mental-health-and-our-community
• https://www.forbes.com/sites/scotthutcheson/2025/01/28/what-leaders-can-learn-from-mr-rogers-about-the-power-of-kindness/
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_Breakfast_for_Children
• https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5024403/
• https://mutualaiddisasterrelief.org/

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