What have you learned about the power of community?
Social connection is very important to well-being. Last year, the focus of The Conversation, Wayfinder’s annual panel discussion on important issues in human services, was the health impact of loneliness. Our panelists discussed research in the Surgeon General’s 2023 report on the epidemic of loneliness and isolation. They noted that being part of a community positively affects physical and mental health, safety, resilience and prosperity. In fact, since the time of the earliest humans, we have always relied on one another for strength and support. As a species, we need to be part of a community. In our modern society, increasingly driven by technology, the pandemic and other factors, connection to a community has declined. This is not good for individuals or our society’s well-being as a whole.
What does Wayfinder do to combat this trend of disconnection?
As Jay mentions in his remarks, Wayfinder’s programs provide clients with opportunities to join supportive communities. Parents, adults and children join these groups and realize they aren’t the only ones struggling with an issue. For example, in Child Development Services, families with children who have disabilities can attend social and educational events to build their connections with families that are facing similar challenges. Wayfinder has groups for foster families, adoptive parents and kinship caregivers—relatives who are raising children so they avoid the trauma of separation from their birth family. Children with disabilities make lifelong friendships at Camp Bloomfield. Adults and young adults with vision loss build strong bonds in Transition Services and the Hatlen and Davidson residential rehabilitation programs. When they enter one of these programs, many clients with vision loss have never met another person who is blind. I’m proud to be affiliated with an organization like Wayfinder that is doing all it can to combat social isolation and increase community.
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December 26, 2024