The community plays an integral part in the wellness of every family that lives within it. It’s also responsible for the safety of every family. Communities are capable of helping reduce violence and drug use among individuals. It can also be the facilitator of good-will among members of the community. However, all of these things require action. An individual will not help the community unless they see that there is something to benefit from it. So it’s up to you to start it by giving free services that can jump-start your community’s wellness. Here are some essential services you should consider implementing.
Neighborhood Watch
A singular police department isn’t enough to keep your community safe because they have a vast area to cover most of the time. Crimes need to be reported by respectable people from the community. Your friendly neighborhood watch can do this.
Reducing violence and crime should be a community effort. By integrating a neighborhood watch into your community, you can have a dedicated group of people working to keep the community safe. The neighborhood watch doesn’t necessarily stop crime from happening. Still, they work in conjunction with law enforcement within the area to report crimes and violence that might have transpired during their shift. Additionally, they keep an eye out for violence happening between youths and their families.
Studies have found that communities that have neighborhood watch have lower crime rates than those that don’t. This is because their job expedites the response from law enforcement. Moreover, they provide proactive safety to people within the community. The thought of having a neighborhood watch already stops crime and violence from happening.
One way to implement a neighborhood watch in your community is to formally invite members into the committee. Members of this committee can be from all backgrounds because it doesn’t take much to be a part of the watch. However, members associated or have experience with law enforcement should be encouraged to work with the watch. To facilitate and train the watch (in cases they are inexperienced), you can ask your local law enforcement to do a seminar in your community so that they can be aware of their purpose and jobs as part of the neighborhood watch.
Counseling
Every family within a community experiences bouts of troubles. An in-family fight could happen, and in worse case scenarios, spouses may choose to leave each other. Separation is one of the leading reasons for depression among individuals in the US. It’s also quite prevalent, considering that 40 to 50% of married couples in the US choose to be separated after a couple of years. It can be detrimental to the community’s growth when individuals see their fellow community-member being divorced. One proactive way to stop this from happening is through counseling.
Counseling is a psychological service that is dedicated to increasing the wellness of every individual in the community. The service is often misunderstood as people think that individuals who visit a counselor have a mental illness of sorts. This isn’t the case. Counseling is a proactive way to keep yourself psychologically healthy. It can help with marriage and family issues as well as developing one’s career. It’s also helpful for handling different problems such as moving to a city, unemployment, and bullying. Moreover, it helps treat mental illnesses such as anxiety disorders.
One way you can implement free counseling for your community is to do it once per week. You can ask for a psychologist or a counselor to volunteer to do such a task. You may even invite counselors from other states to do it. In addition to this, workshops and seminars regarding mental health is also an effective way to keep your community happy.
Recycling Services
Your community could be polluted by many unhealthy pollutants that are detrimental to every individual’s physical health living within it. Regular trash disposal teams aren’t enough. You have to start getting recycling services.
There are many ways to recycle in the community. One of which is implementing recycling bins in heavily populated areas like the park. Recycling bins are meant to store trash that isn’t safe for the environment, such as plastic. Later on, these bins are there sent to recycling centers to be reused once again.
Another way to recycle is to implement a recycling committee. This committee can be at the forefront of recycling waste within your community. They can do recycling drives or recycling activities that can help convert excess waste into something more useful. Having some recycling services in your community improves the life of every individual and makes your community environmentally friendly.
There are many more services that you can add to your community aside from the ones from this list. But these are the most essential to have in every community to ensure the wellness and safety of every individual living within it. Consider integrating these services and see the significant differences in can make among members of your community.
