Community Wellbeing

When thinking about community wellbeing, its worth thinking what that means. To help that, there are two components of wellbeing that are particularly relevant:

• Objective wellbeing - which means the social and material attributes that contribute or detract from an individual or communitys wellbeing. These include wealth, provision of healthcare or education, infrastructure and other services.
• Subjective wellbeing - which is related to an individuals assessment of their own circumstances basically what they think and feel. It is an area that has produced a great deal of activity amongst psychologists and economists.

Using these definitions, its easy to imagine a situation where individuals within the community are brought together to contribute their energy and ideas to an outside agencys activities. This is what effective community development and community engagement bring to the table and make a significant difference to an individuals and communitys wellbeing.

But what does that mean in practice? We need to start thinking about community engagement as a wellbeing promoting activity or intervention. We also need to think of communities as collections of assets that can help the increase their own wellbeing if given the right support or opportunities.