Practical tasks
Task 1
Analyze the six main benefits of social community support. Here is a reminder of how they were defined:
- support that sustains self-esteem – the presence of a close person counteracts the deterioration of self-esteem
- prestige support – social ties are supportive through their existence
- informational support – other people provide knowledge, advice, serve as guides
- instrumental support – help in solving life tasks, such as housekeeping
- social relations – participation in enjoyable social activities
- motivational support – encouragement to persevere in efforts to solve problems
- Your task is to think of the existing social support system for each category (examples of projects, informal support, best practices) as well as to brainstorm on the ideas as for how you could strengthen the community. To do this, fill out the following table:
| Benefit category | Existing solutions | Ideas for new solutions |
| support that sustains self-esteem | ||
| prestige support | ||
| informational support | ||
| instrumental support | ||
| social relations | ||
| motivational support |
Task 2
Try establishing a community (support) group.
Below you can find the table with all the stages necessary to be implemented that you can fill out to structure your work.
| Stage | Questions to consider | Planned steps (how you would like to do it) | Results |
| Identifying issues of interest | What are the most pressing issues you would like to address?
How do you know they are important and relevant for the community? To what people this issue is significant? |
||
| Identifying the leaders | Who could be the potential leader? Why do you think they would like to join the group? How are you planning to communicate with them? What could they bring to the project? | ||
| Consulting the idea | How are you planning to present the idea to the public? Who is your public? How do you identify them? What form of consultations you are going to do? How are you going to advertise and communicate the consultations? | ||
| Establishing the group | Would your group stay informal or become more structured? What are the pros and cons of both solutions? | ||
| Advertising your idea | How are you going to communicate with the public? Who will be the target group of your communication? Are you planning to organize meetings, online campaigns etc? |