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I’ve wanted to do a deep dive into the three aspects of community involvement for a while. Commitment seems like a good place to start, since in many ways it’s the root of any action we take in our communities. Unfortunately it’s probably the hardest one to define. It encompasses so many parts of the human condition, and is so deeply personal, I don’t know the best way to summarize it.
It’s easy to conflate commitment with cause. We’ve gotten used to the idea that causes are the end-all, be-all of community involvement. We’re supposed to pick something we’re passionate about. That’s the cause. Unfortunately this kind of thinking frequently leads to us feeling frustrated and burnt out. Commitment can be more subtle, though. It’s the combined feelings of interest about the cause, a sense of belonging, and attachment to the organization itself.
Causes are also tricky because we’re absolutely swimming in them. So many of the choices we make each day feel weighed with the opportunity to make a statement about one cause or another. We’re constantly asked to take a side or justify our actions based on the issues. We live in a world where it feels like we’re being told we have to care deeply about a new thing every single day. It’s exhausting. We shy away from being actively involved in our communities because we’re so inundated with headlines and reminders of injustice we start to think that local involvement won’t do any good.
I don’t promote local community involvement because I think it will magically solve all our problems. BUT** I do think it can create a fertile environment to encourage people to care about the most pressing issues of our time. Treating every volunteer opportunity as a way to change the world only frustrates us when the problems still continue. Community involvement is at its best when it’s about building empathy, creating strong relationships, and improving the spaces we are in on a daily basis. Only then do we feel like we have the support and connection to think about the major issues without feeling so overwhelmed.
A BRIEF HISTORY LESSON
These days, we take for granted how radical the very act of gathering has been throughout history. In the United States when we talk about the right to peaceably assemble, mostly we’re talking about public protests. Yet the right to assemble in private in whichever way we want is seen as wholly unremarkable. History tells a different story. Association with any group not officially sanctioned by the ruling political or religious powers has often been seen with suspicion at best and often outright hostility.
I recently watched an episode of the British series Who Do You Think You Are? featuring Sir Ian McKellen, he learns about his great-great grandfather Robert Lowes. A clerk in a textile warehouse, Lowes was also active in the 19th century lyceum movement. The lyceum was meant as a gathering place for workers to attend lectures, take classes, and otherwise better themselves. Robert Lowes went so far as to lead efforts in Manchester in the early 1840s to secure half a day off from work each week for the city’s laborers to engage in these activities. Such a proposition was a difficult pill for bosses to swallow not just because of the lost productivity, but because workers with time to gather could get radical ideas about organizing and their own political power. Anyone with even the vaguest familiarity with the history of the labor movement knows how hard management has worked over the years to avoid it.
Somewhat randomly, I also take inspiration from German student fraternities. (I became familiar with them thanks to an ex-boyfriend.) During the time of the Third Reich many of them refused to comply with orders to expel their members who the ruling Nazi party found unfit and ultimately all such fraternities were all closed in favor of a state-sponsored alternative. This is not to say that every fraternity was so brave, but the ones who didn’t comply illustrate the point I’m trying to make. Any association, even ones that (in my experience) are more concerned with how much beer they can drink than serious social issues, are often seen as a threat to power. They encourage members to develop bonds that can be stronger than the state’s efforts to divide people and are places where subversive ideas can be discussed.
COMMUNITY OVER CAUSE
One of the things that differentiates commitment from cause is how it can grow and change over time. Perhaps the best example of this I can provide was the 1920 merger of the National American Woman Suffrage Association and the National Council of Women Voters. With the passage of the 19th Amendment, the fundamental cause of these organizations was rendered obsolete. By that point, however, many of those involved felt deep commitment to not just women’s suffrage but women’s political and civil involvement in general. The result was the League of Women Voters, a still active nonpartisan organization that promotes voting, civic engagement, and issues of importance to women.
Faith groups can be a great place for commitment to alter throughout the course of someone’s life. The commitment to one’s religious beliefs and how one’s faith is part of your existence will naturally change over time. Religious organizations can provide gatherings for members based on gender, life stage, or interests, all within the safe space of a comforting and familiar environment that a person is committed to.
Commitment, then, is a way for an organization to take a cause or issue and make it a long-lasting, fundamental part of a person’s life. It’s as much about what the individual member gets out of it as it is the impact they’re having on the wider world. This is part of the reason I say commitment is higher when organizations work on local issues that people can see for themselves and makes a real impact on their lives.
MAKING THE OLD NEW AGAIN
The tech industry likes to think it invented gamification. As a soulless marketing tactic to get people to use your software, sure, they definitely did. But the idea of using awards to keep people involved and give them a sense of belonging is centuries old. Anyone who has been involved in scouting as a kid knows that. Being able to proudly sew a new badge on a sash or vest helps you feel excited about being a member and the activities you’re doing.
The same goes for rituals. Everyone from nations to sports teams rely on rituals to help people feel more commitment to an organization. These can be formal rituals, such as religious services or fraternal rites of initiation, or more casual. I go to a book club at a local library where the organizer always stops at a local doughnut shop and brings treats. Sitting down and enjoying those while discussing the different flavors is part of the whole experience that keeps me coming back. My husband’s book club always ends meetings by sharing their personal recommendations for books, stacking their chairs, and then taking a group picture.
Things like fancy pins or longstanding rituals are frequently dismissed as stuffy and old-fashioned. They serve an important role in helping people feel connected to an organization and committed to it, though. The trick is not to do things just because “that’s how we’ve always done it.” People need to be able to interact with the why of all of these things instead of just the what. They need to feel that they can shape even the oldest traditions in ways that speak to them.
So what is Commitment?
Ultimately Commitment is about a sense of belonging and shared purpose. It makes people feel like they’re a part of something larger than themselves. It’s not the end-all, be-all of saving the world, though. Commitment is at the heart of Active Community Involvement because it provides a safe space to talk about big topics without getting overwhelmed. Community organizations are a place to practice things like empathy, conflict resolution, and advocacy. It’s what pushes us past our comfort zone to become better citizens. If all we focus on is the ultimate cause we’ll miss out the myriad ways commitment can help us forge stronger bonds and be more active in our communities.
Most of us are lucky enough not to have major political barriers to gathering that test our commitment. The bigger issue is a Netflix queue and our ability to sit on the couch scrolling memes about how great it is to sit on the couch. Making room for real commitment, whether it be an organization focusing on fellowship or one tackling local social issues, is a real gift. And it’s one we should all be taking advantage of.
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