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Short and Sweet:Tips for living the abundant life |
Rebuilding Community in a Fragmented World
I’ll always remember big Glen and little Glen, Paul, Jimmy, Steven, and Brian. We all grew up in the Arbutus area in Vancouver in the early 60s. We played football together on our front lawns. We built tree forts together in the bush across the street. We even tried to "Dig to China" together around the side of our houses. Everyone in our neighbourhood knew each other (even the adults!). There was a warmth and community feeling that I took for granted until I moved to Montreal in 1965. Suddenly I lived in a city where no one knew their neighbours, where French and English rarely spoke to each other, where wealth and success swallowed up all the time people used to have for their neighbours. I enjoyed the excitement of Montreal and Expo’67, but I missed the intimacy and warmth of the local Arbutus neighbourhood.While obtaining a degree in Social Work, I worked for the North Shore Neighbourhood House with "high profile pre-teens". During that time, I became aware of many groups on the North Shore using the word "Community". There were Community Schools, Community Centres, Community Health Clinics, Community Cable Companies, Community Resource Boards, Community Recreation Programs, etc., etc. It always puzzled me as to why with so many community agencies, there was often so little sense of real community at the neighbourhood level. Why had it become so hard to even know who your neighbours were, let alone "Love Your Neighbour as Yourself"? What is it about that sense of community that we all want, but is often so elusive? Click to find out more….
Refill?
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