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Dear District 8,
I've spent a lot of time lately thinking about community: how we build it, how we maintain it, how we fix it when it feels broken. After the past two years, many of us feel like our sense of community is more fragile than ever.
Research tells us that a lower sense of community has consequences. One study found that a lower sense of belonging was associated with poorer physical and mental health outcomes. Other research suggests that feelings of belonging are crucial to students' academic success. One analytical study showed that an increasing sense of community connectedness and community engagement (in this case by creating more public green spaces) led to lower rates of crime.
So what do we do to foster and support a sense of community, both in District 8 and across the city? There's lots of work to be done, and I certainly don't have all of the answers. But I do think an important step is to re-engage with each other: to talk to our neighbors, build relationships, collaborate on things we care about, find opportunities to work together on tackling challenges.
I am committed to building community by creating opportunities for you all to connect with me, and with each other. I have weekly office hours at noon on Thursday (details below!), and monthly opportunities for us to have community conversations about topics you all have told me you care about (mark your calendar for April 18th and May 9th--again, details below!). The District 8 Advisory Board is thinking of ways to support the small businesses in our area. Our many neighborhood associations are actively working to build community. There are countless organizations and non-profits working on challenges across our city.
In short: strengthening our sense of community takes work, and we are fortunate to have many folks working hard to create systems to make community strong. But we all have a role to play. So I'll ask you the same question I ask myself every morning: What are you doing to build community today? This newsletter is chocked full of opportunities to engage with each other and strengthen our shared sense of belonging. I hope you'll join me in doing this work.
Warmest wishes,
Cassie
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