The Community Hierarchy of Needs: Building Connected Communities
We all want to feel safe, loved and a sense of belonging to the communities we live in.
Communities have a collective responsibility to create an inclusive, supportive environment where everyone has the opportunity to live their best lives.
The Social Contract and Resilient Community Development
Even during the best of economic times, community leaders must prioritize policies, projects and people’s concerns within a limited budget. Today, my generation feels like they got the very short end of a very, very long investment stick. The stability and assurances of ever-rising economic growth has not been available to my generation or those that follow.
Millennials and Gen-X generations are experiencing stressors that previous generations did not, beginning with climate change and an economy that increasingly relies on technology to do the work of historically done by people. Armed with this understanding, our Smart City Diaries podcast/multi-media team (WeAccel’s media partner) began to explore answers to the question on many civic leaders’ minds: “What is a smart city?” And most importantly - why should we care?
What we quickly learned was that there was not one answer and technology as a problem solver was not seen as a priority.
What we learned was that too many young people across our country feel similarly to my experience: there is no level playing field. We want to feel connected, supported, safe. We want to know that there still is the potential of creating a Social Contract that supports the cultural, age, experience, gender diversity that reflects all who live in America. While our generations are working to save a world created by generations before us - where is our Social Contract?
So, our team turned to the principles of Abraham Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs as a starting point. It quickly became apparent that “it takes a village” to solve basic human needs in our urban communities. We must begin with local government: our civic leaders must prioritize equitable investments that raise the ability of the disenfranchised to live their best lives in their desired communities.
The result of our research? WeAccel’s Community Hierarchy of Needs (c). The core concept of the Community Hierarchy of Needs is inspired by the Social Contract: that people live, work, and play together with certain agreements that govern moral, social, economic, and political behavior.
“The Social Contract: People live, work, and play together with certain agreements that govern moral, social, economic, and political behavior.”
Community Hierarchy of Needs: Budget Priorization for Connected Communities
Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs for individuals is a theoretical roadmap for maximizing the well-being of individual humans. WeAccel’s Community Hierarchy of Needs is a proposed framework for community well-being based on the core concepts of Maslow’s (in!)famous pyramid. It makes sense that our most basic, physiological needs come first: air, food, water, shelter, sleep, safety, and a sense of belonging (to our family, our community). As our basic human needs are met, we can pursue the pinnacles of personal growth: joyful experiences, continuous sense of appreciation, sense of purpose.
Now, here's the kicker: You can't skip levels. Just like you can't build a sturdy house on a shaky foundation, you can't expect someone who's starving to focus on anything beyond survival. When I was living out of my car, I wasn’t terribly worried about things like access to broadband, or joining neighborhood council meetings, or even who the hell was in charge at any given point in time. I was thinking about where my next shower would be, how to store food without access to refrigeration, if I’d be able to pay for gas that month so I could go to a specialty job that destroyed my spirit and paid starvation wages for my trouble. If my community wasn’t offering specific, trustworthy, and efficient solutions to my problems, then it by and large didn’t feel like it was any of my business.
I was part of the “out” group. And as the disparity between wages and cost of living grows, more and more people fall into that category. This is an inarguable fact: communities have to meet people where they are or efforts to “change” things will forever be fruitless.
While there are valid criticisms of Maslow's theory, our WeAccel Team members do agree on this fundamental principle: Strong communities need strong foundations. Steps toward civic resilience cannot be skipped. When civic leaders ignore their implicit responsibilities under the Social Contract, impacted residents can be expected to respond appropriately.
“I for one believe that if you give people a thorough understanding of what confronts them and the basic causes that produce it, they’ll create their own program, and when the people create a program, you get action.”
Next Week: Applying the Community Hierarchy of Needs Framework
Until then, be well.