Some of the benefits of living in a country and perhaps by extension a regional trading block that has long since been established are indeed the very real opportunity you have as an individual to pursue economic activity that can better your life considerably. Whether you seek to do this through getting a plain old job or if you’re more of an entrepreneurial spirit and seek to start your own venture – there are tools, avenues and channels available to help you on your way. Community projects come into focus as one such avenue to pursue, which although many may quite rightfully appear to be losing their essence with the passage of time, do still have their place and have a very significant role in fact.
What’s fuelling the discussion?
Well, you only have to look at what has been referred to as the global community to understand why there is any discussion at all around the significance of community projects. On that scale, we have well-known figures such as Bono heading up mega humanitarian projects which go on to generate more than just a pretty penny. Do we ever enquire about the results of those efforts, and I’m talking here real results? Are we kept in the loop with the same consistency and vigour as we’re pursued during that phase when they’re pleading for us to dig into our pockets and donate money?
Bring that down to the level of your very own immediate community and chances are things follow pretty much the same course. Among other dynamics, there is definitely an element of corruption which cannot help but creep into the management of large sums of money pooled together by compassionate members of the public who are themselves in a better situation financially. However, we maintain faith in the force of the greater good dwarfing that of the sinister intentions some people involved in the process may have.
The sparking of a secondary wave of community development
Some of the most progressive communities in their success are those which are comprised out of a collective people who realise that they have to take it upon themselves in order to effect the change they really want to see, which often gives rise to what is effectively a secondary market or course of action. While a community development event organised and led by the local government or some other bodies with public appeal may indeed just appear to be nothing more than a discussion forum where nothing actually gets done, often this opens up the door for entrepreneurs and well-meaning community members to come up with actionable ideas they can actually implement.
Amidst a discussion about elderly care for instance, an entrepreneur could make the connection that something like a stair lift can be safer and subsequently go ahead and push the adoption thereof, in the process maintaining all the motivation required to actually solve the problem, or at the very least contribute towards solving this community development problem faced.
So community projects are indeed still significant, if only for their effectiveness in merely highlighting problems to be solved.
