Communities That Make a Difference
By: Helping Hands TV
How finding the right community can help you thrive.
“You can unite over negative things,” says youth worker and mentor, Nathan Brewer, “but if you unite over a healthy thing like sport, or a really positive thing like helping others … it’s so good, and you see people come to life.”
Nathan and Michaela Chanmugam, Marketing and Communications Manager at Samaritan’s Purse, discuss the kind of communities that make a difference.
Community for Young People
Nathan speaks from his many years of experience working with young people to help them thrive. He is passionate to see them create healthy habits and strong pathways for their future, and he knows these things extend significantly from the benefits they see when connected to community.
“The three key things young people want most are purpose, belonging and identity. When you get into a community, you get a chance to do all three, because often a community will be united around a purpose … you belong to a group and can begin to form an identity in that,” Nathan explains.
Community Through Radio
Young people are not the only ones to discover these positive outcomes of being part of a community. And being part of a thriving, purposeful community is a core need we all share.
“(Vision) has over 750 transmitters across the country, so we’re in lots of communities – lots of small places, lots of big capital cities. Throughout all of those places, it’s really about individuals and connecting them,” Fel says.
She shares the example of John, who listened to Vision while isolated and lonely in prison. To him, switching on the radio was like a friend walking into his cell, creating the feeling of community in the most unlikely of places, and helping him cope through a difficult time.
Community Through Volunteering
Similarly, Michaela sees community making a difference through the work of Samaritan’s Purse, both for the volunteers who give their time and energy in the places where they work, and also to those in disaster zones who benefit from the outreaches of Samaritan’s Purse efforts.
“Samaritan’s Purse is an international humanitarian aid organisation … If a disaster strikes, we have people across the world who will mobilise and help communities that are in need.”
Michaela gives an example of the flooding disaster that impacted Taree on the mid-north coast of NSW, where volunteers, who may not have seen each other in years, came together during the day to help those who needed it, and at night, shared a meal and enjoyed each other’s company as if no time had passed at all since they last saw each other.
“It does bond a community (when they) do something important that makes a difference. And to do it with others, you see people thrive, and you see community thrive,” Nathan summarises. “It sounds strange, but to give people the opportunities to pour themselves out for others is a beautiful thing.”
Article supplied with thanks to Helping Hands TV.
About the Author: Helping Hands is an Australian produced TV program that airs on 9GEM, Channel 9 and 9NOW, and showcases people and organisations who make the world a better place.
Feature image: Canva
