“In the decades to come, the impacts of climate change will test the strength and resilience of communities. How well they fare may partly depend on the well-being not only of individuals but of communities as a whole” (Roy, et al., 2022).
“Collective well-being refers to how well a group of people is doing. We think of individual well-being as how a person feels about their personal, physical, mental, and social health, and their financial well-being. But we recognize that people live in a society, which influences these aspects of and opportunities to achieve well-being. So, the term collective well-being thinks about the overall health and functioning of the group as a whole” (Roy, et al., 2022).
“In psychiatry, we tend to use the term community health or community mental health. That’s meant to recognize that people get to define their own sense of identity—which also means getting to decide their own community—whether based around ethnicity, religion, geography, job, or where they go to school. Each of those communities therefore gets to define their own sense of well-being for themselves. Every community will have a different sense of what it means to thrive and to withstand challenges, whether it’s COVID or climate change” (Roy, et al., 2022).
But does everyone really get to decide their communities? Did I decide to live in Columbus, Ohio? Did I decide to make America my home when my family moved from Pakistan to America before I was born? Considering this, how do you make a community yours and how do you define its wellbeing?
In other situations, there are systematic barriers that stop people from being a part of the community they want to be a part of, or from focusing on improving the well-being of the community itself.
While thinking of these questions regarding community, there are also ways to define how to assess if a community is thriving.
There are “five domains to assess collective well-being:
- Vitality is overall physical and emotional health, including a sense of optimism and hope for the future.
- Connectedness is how connected and supported you feel by your community—your sense of belonging to that group.
- Opportunity is how you feel about your financial situation and your ability to achieve your life goals.
- Contribution looks at how engaged and involved you feel in your community—for example, volunteering is an activity that may provide of a sense of meaning and purpose.
- Inspiration is about engagement in activities that are mentally stimulating, where you just kind of lose yourself. That feeling of full immersion is really important for mental and emotional well-being” (Roy, et al., 2022).
“The last few years have reminded us that human beings are social beings, and that, for the most part, people need some form of community engagement. When communities don’t thrive, individuals don’t thrive” (Roy, et al., 2022).
So how can we bring these five domains into personal finance and well-being considering the fact that if “communities don’t thrive, individuals don’t thrive?” (Roy, et al., 2022).
“Higher levels of diversity, access to health care and preventive care, and socioeconomic measures such as education were the strongest predictors” of community health, and “we know from a lot of data that markers for poor mental health—feelings of loneliness, depression, and anxiety—improve when people have a sense of being in a community or organization that feels fair and inclusive, and which represents them in some way. Thinking about justice and equity will address both individual and community well-being” (Roy, et al., 2022).
So how can we emphasize the importance of socioeconomic measures, inclusivity, justice, and equity in our communities when thinking about improving personal finance and well-being for the individual and the collective?
References:
Roy, B., Prabhu, M. (2022, December 2). Yale Experts Explain Collective Well-Being. Yale Sustainability. https://sustainability.yale.edu/explainers/yale-experts-explain-collective-well-being
