Focusing on Community for a Beautiful Future

In this Birth2Work Radio program,  we discuss the value in, and necessity of, community. We talk with professors Robert Sampson and Mario Small, both of Harvard University (with Small at University of Chicago at the time of this recording), who have done extensive academic research on the topic of social efficacy: “the willingness of neighbors to intervene on behalf of the common good in a community,” as defined by Sampson.

Both nationally revered scholars have found that the social quality of a neighborhood is important for predicting a great number of variances that affect individual and familial well-being, such as crime, health, and ultimately the ability of children to learn in school. These are highly variable by community. And better outcomes in each of these, and numerous other, categories, are found when relationships among community members are strong.