Empowerment
How We are Empowering our Community and Four Things You Can Do to Empower Yours.
Written by Justin Chan, Founder of The Community Company. Published on June 13th, 2019.
Poverty Inc. is a fascinating documentary that puts a spotlight on the work that multi-national charities do in the field through storytelling, unpacking the true impact they are having in developing countries around the world. If you haven’t watched it, I highly recommend you check it out.
The quote that I shared was from an entrepreneur in Haiti, who created a business that empowers their community through jewelry making. This was an inspiration for me as I created The Community Company because of the power and meaning behind it.
We have all heard the expression about giving a person a fish and feeding them for a day, or teaching a person to fish and feeding them for a lifetime.
Real change can only happen in our community when we provide people with both the equipment to fish, And also access to the same proverbial pond that the rest of us are fishing from.
These are just two of the many ways to empower community members as they turn the page on the adversity that they’ve experienced in life.
As a community, there are many things we can do to support people’s passions.
The following list is universal and it applies to both those experiencing adversity, as well as our own friends and peers. Here are four things you can do to empower your community:
Become An Ally. This means truly listening to others as they share their passions, goals, and dreams with you. Listen to connect, and not just to create an answer or solution that you think is right - this is about building trust and journeying with an individual. Here’s an amazing blog post on what it really means to be an ally for more inspiration.
Support their Passions. At the end of the day, purchasing products that people created shows that you support what they do and that you believe in them. You could like their social media post. You can say you support them. Or you can actually show you support them - we recommend doing all three.
Open Doors and Create Connections. Introduce people to connections that you think will help get them closer to where they want to be. We are connected to some amazing and inspiring individuals - there is no better feeling than to see someone you know get closer to where they want to be because of an introduction that you made.
Treat Everyone as an Equal. One of our partners said it best: He shared with me that life is like a railroad - we all know where we want to be but because of circumstance, we’re all at different stops along the journey. Some of us were more fortunate and started at a closer station, while others started further away. Just because someone is at a different station, doesn’t mean they deserve less respect than others at your stop.
I hope you enjoyed reading this article as much as I did writing it.
We’re truly about creating systemic change by providing everyone in our community an opportunity to inspire and create.
Look forward to posts on topics such as homelessness, inclusive language and interviews with changemakers in our community. If you connected with our message on empowerment, the greatest compliment you can give us is to share this project with a friend and help us raise awareness. You can find our Facebook page here and our Instagram page here.
If you are financially able, click the button below to purchase a product and help us empower our partners. You can check out all of our products below.