Community leadership is vital to our country
BY JULIA EAST President and CEO Southwest Florida Community Foundation
This article about community leadership is the third in a five-part series on the gift of leadership.
The term community has a variety of meanings, but it has historically meant the bonds between those who live and work together. Community has many levels.
Sometimes we think of community as a group of people or neighborhood while other times we may think of community as a city, county, or region. Yet there may be times that we see our community as an entire state or a whole nation. Regardless of which definition we use, the importance of community is that its members will often work together to mobilize resources, solve problems, and strengthen the community.
Though community participation and leadership appear to be part of the fabric of life in the United States, this past century has seen a deterioration of our communities as coherent entities bound together by common morals and values. Some would say that not only has our sense of community been battered, but that it has been replaced by focus on self and self-interests that began in the late 1960s.
Yet, community leadership remains vital to our country. We need quality leadership at all levels of our society in order for our country to grow and be sustainable. Community leadership plays an important role in creating social capital and building institutions at the local, state, and national levels.
Community leadership is vital to our country | fortmyers.floridaweekly.com | Fort Myers Florida Weekly.