By
Paul Mansell
Community, integration, and access speak to our need for healthy group affiliation. It is part of our very human nature to seek out groups and be a part of them—be it family or friends, work, civic group, place of worship, etc. Being part of a group helps us realize our full potential and makes us feel we are in something greater than just ourselves.
Speaking as a self-advocate, the number one need in my life was to find a social group home. Few things rival the pain of loneliness, and I found my group home in my church. We do all manner of churchy things together and it gives me great pleasure doing it together with a group of people I care about and who mean a great deal to me.
Church was my social group home, but others can find other social group homes. It is all based on the wants, needs, and interest of the individual. Regardless of where you find your home, it is important to find one where you are valued, respected, and treated with dignity. In all that we do, we need to remember we are people worthy of respect. Sometimes in the demands of the day we forget that basic fact. It is important to remember that and to celebrate it.
Some of our greatest group relationships are a work. I would like to say that the true wealth of SDRC is in the social network of its clients and their families, staff, and community partners. They provide feelings of camaraderie and togetherness, and offer opportunities for information exchange, give and receive mutual aid, engage in collective action, and identity.
In my mind, the rugged individualist needs to give way to the groupie. Sure there are things we do best by ourselves, like our personal finances and our taxes. But there is a world of difference in eating a meal as part of a group as opposed to consuming a meal by yourself. The former is a social experience while the latter is an act of sustenance.
All of this that I have written about comes from Social Capital Theory which holds that the wealth of a group or society is in the relationships that bound each other together. It is simple idea, but one that needs to repeated in a time when individualism is so exalted.
Practical application of Social Capital Theory includes: keep your relationships positive, add value to your relationships, help others connect, collaborate together on projects, and respect others—never take advantage of others.
Sayings like it takes two, or together we can do all things come to have special meaning in Social Capital Theory, so when you go home tonight give your love ones hugs, there is power in the bonds that you have together.