By Chloë Lane
A very strange thing happened to me this morning. Ten pints of milk were delivered to my front porch.
No explanation. I went to check my phone to see if my husband had decided to dump five cartons of milk on his way to work for some unknown reason. Nope.
What I did see on my phone was the WhatsApp group chat for my street (a completely new phenomenon for me after moving to the Midlands suburbs from North London). Picture after picture of people’s doorsteps, each one littered with pints of milk.
“I’ve just spoken to the dairy,” writes my neighbour Sarah. “They’ve apologised for the mistake and said feel free to use the milk so it doesn’t go to waste.”
I don’t even drink real milk – a devout oat milk convert here. But even the biggest milk lover would struggle to drink that many pints. So, what would happen to it all?
Before long, there was someone volunteering to do a collection, and another offering to take all the milk to the local food bank. Someone else was offering pints to the other local streets. The community came together and in doing so provided not just a solution but an opportunity to build better relationships.
‘Building a village’ has never been more important, particularly at a time when loneliness is impacting one in six people worldwide, according to new World Health Organisation statistics. These statistics are particularly high amongst young adults.
But if you look in the right places, community already exists. And you don’t even have to move to the Midlands to find it…
Why is community important?
A recent study from Anglia Ruskin University and the University of East Anglia looked into the ways community cohesion affects people’s wellbeing.
The researchers, Sally Fowler Davis and Megan Davies, found that communities with strong trust, a shared identity and opportunities to participate reported higher levels of social wellbeing.
They discovered that people living in areas with access to community spaces, local organisations and inclusive services reported strengthened relationships and resilience. On the other hand, people living in areas with exclusion and segregation experienced reduced social connectedness and wellbeing.
These findings, they say, suggest that multicultural engagement over time may be beneficial to social cohesion, and a particular focus is needed on potential minorities within otherwise cohesive communities.
Looking at this from a higher education lens, the same is true for university students. Students who have a stronger sense of belonging experience significantly better wellbeing, according to a recent study led by Gisela van Kessel at the University of South Australia.
There was even a correlation between a sense of belonging and better academic outcomes.
“Fostering a sense of belonging could be a promising target for interventions aimed at enhancing students’ academic performance and overall well-being,” write the researchers. “By leveraging the power of belonging, universities have the potential to play a pivotal role in supporting student success and well-being.”
These studies show how building a community can impact individuals’ psychological wellbeing and success.
To build a village you have to be a villager
There’s a saying ‘Everybody wants a village, but nobody wants to be a villager.’ What this means is that true connection costs time and comfort. To build a support system you must show up, even if the timing is inconvenient to you.
Research from the University of Oxford looked at UK community initiatives designed to improve wellbeing and reduce loneliness. Importantly, they found that simply having community spaces available is not enough: people need opportunities to engage and participate for social capital to develop.
They discovered that individuals may be wary about attending community initiatives, and need support and encouragement to do so. They suggest recruiting link workers, who spend time helping people connect to local community activities.
Ultimately, the research suggests that a village only exists when people contribute to it: attending, helping, participating and building relationships.
Community in the workplace
We can see evidence of strong community ties in thriving workplaces, too. Research from Gallup consistently finds that employees who feel they belong are more engaged and less likely to consider leaving their roles.
This matters at a time when many employees feel disconnected from their work. More than half (54 percent) of employees are reportedly only staying in their current role out of fear, or for stability, rather than because they feel genuinely invested in their organisation.
The main challenge for businesses is that community cannot be created through perks alone – we’re talking pizza parties, early finishes on Fridays, fancy coffees in the breakroom etc. Office benefits may create moments of connection and interaction (who doesn’t enjoy a lunch out if you aren’t paying?), but they can’t replace the types of relationships people need in order to feel like they belong.
The rise of hybrid work has made this challenge even more complex. With 28 percent of people in the UK spending at least some of their working week at home, there are many benefits that hybrid working brings, but it has also reduced some of the spontaneous interactions: the ‘water cooler conversations’ that foster team cohesion and can be the birthplace of new ideas.
It raises the question of how do you build a community when people are no longer in the same physical space every day?
Research increasingly shows that this sense of belonging is stronger when people feel they are working towards something meaningful together. For example, a recent study from the Academy of Management discovered that meaningful work helps align employees’ personal goals with organisational goals. By doing this, it helped to strengthen organisational identification: giving employees the feeling that “this organisation is part of who I am”.
Showing up, even when it’s inconvenient
If the milk saga taught me anything, it’s that communities are built through small gestures, and repeatedly showing up when someone needs support. It’s offering to collect the milk in a heatwave, buying a birthday card for a colleague, or helping to explain the value of a particular project to your team.
This is true whether you’re talking about a workplace, a university, or a street. You can find your ‘village’ anywhere, but you have to be willing to put the effort in too – even when it’s inconvenient.
Chloë Lane
Chloë Lane is a writer at BlueSky Thinking, covering careers, academic research and business education. She is an NCTJ Gold Standard journalist and holds a B.A. in Economics from The University of Reading.
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