Self-Sufficiency is Best Supported by a Well-Balanced, Energized Regional Community Structure

By: Paul Deslauriers

Your prosperity, health, and well-being are largely dependent upon the structure and sustainability of the community you live in.

Today’s technologically advanced age of globalization is a unique time in our history as our connections and communities really do extend to include our entire country, society, and some would say, our entire planet.

In the current diminishing economy most of us are feeling the “pinch” as global economic pressures change the way many of our larger social institutions perform. Municipal services and benefits that communities believed were trustworthy are no longer ample enough or available at all.

Why fight City Hall, or Wall Street? In communities everywhere people are simplifying the structure of their lives to be less engaged with and more independent from institutions they no longer see as aligned with their personal ethics or well-being. But living as a hermit in a cave, or as a survivalist in the backwoods isn’t really the goal.

Well Structured, Sustainable, Local Grassroots Community Groups and Regional Coalitions Can Fill The Void.

A new grassroots system is emerging that is developing and strengthening regional resources, exchanges, and investments. It consists of neighbors, municipalities, and counties working together to resolve issues impacting local residents. The objective is to further the Common Wealth and community exchange.

Grassroots groups are organizing new kinds of local initiatives: Community Supported Agriculture, Community Gardens, Alternative Energy Coops, Local Currencies, Time/Job Banks, Local Transit/Ride Shares, Business Co-Operatives, Local Media.

As well, regional coalitions of synergistic and sometimes competitive grassroots community initiatives are becoming essential to meet growing needs under decreasing budgets.

For example: From January to June 2009 the 33 independent faith-based and citizen group sponsored food pantry and hot meal sites serving Central and Southern Berkshire Counties of Western Massachusetts saw demand rise approximately 40%. Program support failed to rise with that demand.

These independent service groups had never before coordinated their efforts in any meaningful fashion until the Berkshire C-Act Food Net formed a regional coalition to unify the region’s charitable food services.

By linking the food sites with community gardens, restaurants and grocery stores, promoting a “Grow an Extra Row” program for private gardens, collecting blemished produce from local farms, and developing a shared transportation system the initiative is meeting the local needs for food support.

A similar regional coalition is blossoming to coordinate a new local hydroelectric generation network. Eleven local dams have been targeted to share a new cooperative approach to licensing and funding for the installation and maintenance of power turbines, with the proceeds benefiting the communities.

Common Wealth… Common “Energy”…
To form and ensure the sustainability of these regional coalitions the Berkshire Co-Act utilized a unique, holistic understanding of organizational structure and group dynamics. A particular balance of shared goals, operational values and communication practices all work together to keep diverse groups working together in harmony.

As a trained scientist and organizational consultant I have studied organizational dynamics and found them to be consistent with the laws of energy. The deeper nature of energy is an interconnected field that makes physical matter manifest. Likewise, harmonious collaboration can amplify your community’s energy and make local initiatives manifest.

When you purchase shares in a community supported agriculture program, or simply shop at a local farmers market, you are supporting interconnection. When you patronize your local hardware and grocery stores, and avoid large multinational corporate chains, you are building community. When you plant a garden and grow an extra row to donate to local pantries or start exchanging local currency it stabilizes your neighborhood. When you participate in virtually any grassroots community organization or coalition, you are weaving a tapestry of collaboration. This interconnectedness moves you towards your own deeper nature.

This Common Wealth/Common Energy tapestry empowers us all to come together with others to create a new system that taps into a collective wisdom. It builds capacity and skills within our communities that emphasize culturally and environmentally appropriate practices. It develops partnerships of trust and genuine caring.

The transition of towns and cities in this fashion becomes motivated not only by the wealth potential on a material level but also on a personal well-being and spiritual level.

The understanding, tools and skills are available to anyone who wants to participate in or facilitate a grassroots community group or coalition. Learn the science of a well-balanced community group structure and join us in a new framework of independent local prosperity and self-sustainability.

Paul Deslauriers put his 25 years as a community organizer and consultant into his most recent book “The GRASSROUTE GUIDE: a Roadmap to Community Empowerment”. A how-to manual for grassroots community groups, organizational development, team building & leadership training. www.grassroute.org