Anytime you see a turtle up on top of a fence post, you know he had some help.
Alex Haley1
Like Haley's turtle, those of us in the healthcare profession have benefited and continue to benefit from the generosity of those around us. Whether from those with whom we share our given profession to those we serve, our sense of connectedness gives life to our vocation. While there are obvious intrinsic benefits associated with this idea of mutual accord, it is in the pragmatic applications of community that we also find virtue.
As a community, we are at our best when our sense of unity and trust is strong. New ideas are generated and old ones refined. Though often hallmarked by a sense of ease, "community is not opposed to conflict. On the contrary, community is precisely that place where an arena for creative conflict is protected by the compassionate fabric of human caring itself."2(p25) It stands to reason then that community dwells in the spaces that sometimes frighten us, those spaces where creative tensions and competing interests threaten our notions of unity. In the end, however, there is a sense of renewal and genesis that stands to be revealed.
Given our collective mission of health promotion and maintenance, community must extend well beyond the simple idea of proximity. Community is richer than that and asks much more from us. In our practice and service, our efforts to build, maintain, and serve community exist hollow if we do not direct these efforts toward the common good and with a sense of collegiality among one another. Our patients receive better care when the professionals charged with that care operate in a spirit of respect, humility, and compassion. Also, the communities in which both we and our patients live are made stronger when each member of that community supports one another in ethos of collective responsibility and accountability.
This issue of Family & Community Health (31:2) explores the expanse of community as it relates to child mistreatment prevention and intervention efforts. As one author notes, efforts to curb and prevent child mistreatment have largely been on the individual and family level, but that community-based interventions and programs have shown great promise. This issue features the South Carolina Strong Communities for Children program, the first large-scale initiative to address child abuse through research and community-based prevention and intervention concepts. With the Strong Communities for Children program as a backdrop, authors tackle the role of faith in community intervention, volunteer efficacy, volunteer characteristics, and the role of special events in program promotion efforts. What we see is that not only are community efforts to protect children effective, but that communities are enlivened and renewed through their collective efforts to protect their most precious and vulnerable resources, their children. I hope that you will find the articles in this issue informative and useful.
Jeanette Lancaster
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